Even if you're a night owl, you can still have more productive mornings if you put in a little effort to make getting up easier. Of course, it still won't be easy, but if you like the idea of a more relaxing start to the day, here are some suggestions to get you started.

Even the most motivated people run out of steam sometimes. Maybe you’re exhausted or feel as though your creativity has been depleted, but for whatever reason, you can’t get your act together. Here are a few strategies for recharging your motivation.

Life is a game that we're all playing (whether we think of it as a game or not). It's time to level up by knowing the rules so we can "win".

Hey, remember January? It was a long time ago, but you probably set some goals for what you’d like to achieve this year. (Memory failing you? Maybe you contributed to our fitness goals discussion here.)

Even the busiest worker suffers from poor motivation every once in a while. Maybe it's been too long since your last holiday or maybe that work project you poured your heart and soul into failed miserably. Whatever the reason, you need to buck up before it starts affecting your professional reputation. This infographic explains 10 tried-and-tested methods that will help you to stay motivated.

“I take away his phone and he behaves for three days and then goes right back to the back-talking and crappy attitude. I don’t understand why he doesn’t just... learn!”

Over at the New York Times, a frustrated employee shared their story of a lazy, “do-nothing” colleague with the Ethicist. “She frequently takes lunch breaks, comes in later than her start time and is not actually working on her ‘work from home’ day,” they wrote. “... In addition, she is constantly complaining and indifferent to her projects. She gets the job done with minimal effort, often blaming results on clients or outside factors ... None of our supervisors seem to notice or care and they tend to let sleeping dogs lie. ”

Who among us has not experienced that pessimistic nagging inner voice that tells us something is simply too hard. Or, better yet, the task you’re trying to complete is too boring to hold your focus for as long as it needs. Some advice intended to help kids overcome obstacles and stay on task may be the solution we’ve all been looking for.

Who among us has not woken up one day to find themselves deeply ensconced in a good old-fashioned workplace rut? It certainly happens with the job you’ve been kind of meh about from Day One, but that dream job you landed four years ago isn’t immune from The Rut either. No matter how motivated we may start out, there is something about weeks upon months upon years of routine, repetition and familiarity that leads us into a “lull.”

Your kid doesn’t want to do it. Clean his room. Finish her book report. Practice violin. Whatever the impossibly hard thing of the moment may be.

As a parent, you might be tempted to resort to nagging, but that will just make everyone more frustrated. A better way to motivate kids, according to research from the University of Queensland, is to have them imagine how their future selves will feel.

We all love to do our part to fix big problems, especially when our part is something easy and feel-good. But nudges can backfire, leading us to believe that our small actions were basically good enough when they’re not.

You want to be fast. You want to be strong. But day after day, you go to the gym and feel weak and slow and it seems like nothing changes. (Did I say you? I also mean me.) Here are some strategies to stick to your plan and be sure that it’s working even when you aren’t seeing immediate shifts in your performance or appearance.

As we stood outside the door to the judges’ room, the sheet music clutched in my eight-year-old daughter’s hands visibly trembled. I’d encouraged her to take on a piano piece that really challenged her, and she’d struggled for months with it. She was extra nervous in the days leading up to the performance, to the point I wanted to let her back out. Had I pushed her too hard?

Daniel Pink is the bestselling author of several game-changing books about behaviour, motivation and organisations, including his latest, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing. So he must have this parenting thing in the bag, right? “I am more than willing to offer up research, tips and hacks to my family — and they are more than happy to dismiss whatever comes out of my mouth,” he jokes.

But we are here to listen. Here, Pink shares a glimpse of his life and what he’s learned about raising children.

It’s hard to be amazing every single day. Especially if you started out this year with lofty goals, you might be discouraged if you can’t seem to keep up. Instead of giving up, try the forgiving philosophy of “no zero days.”

Last year around this time, a lot of us set some fitness goals for the year. I asked readers to weigh in here on whether you’re planning to learn something new, gain or lose weight, or try a race or competition.

Not to get too morbid, but we're all going to die. Some of us sooner than expected, as this piece by Emily Maloney in The Billfold reminds us. Writing about the unexpected loss of a family member, Maloney explains why she has become a "now" person. A person who does things, rather than talks and dreams about them.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the things. All the people you have to get back to (usually with the sad starter-line “Sorry for the delayed response ...”). All the words you’re supposed to write. All the minutes you promised you’d run on the treadmill, all the meals you said you’d prep, all the closet clutter you’ve been meaning to get rid of for months.

"Done is better than perfect" is a maxim for all of us prone to endlessly tweaking our projects and never finishing them. Ben Barry, a designer at Facebook, calls it a favourite quote. The key to moving ahead is following through.