Tom J. Bell - Tom Bell

How to Match Productive Activities to your Energy Level

One of the most important lessons to learn in life, and one that often takes the longest - particularly for productivity geeks - is that we are finite.

Productivity & Tools

How to Build the Ultimate Home Working Environment

Since the beginning of 2020, the global workforce has undergone a seismic transition away from the office, towards a flexible, hybrid-working model. And the question that we'd all been asking is answered: for many of us, hybrid working is here to stay. I for one had never worked a day

Tech & Research

The Subversive and Destructive Tactics of Social Media Influencers

How social media inescapably impels us to warp, sideline and replace the stuff that really matters

Life

Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

Book SummaryWhoever you are and whatever you do, share what you do with the world. We don't want human spam, but people love to see the inner workings of the creative mind. Think process not product. Share little snippets from your work. Over time, your accumulated body of content will

Life

The What, Why and How of This Blog

I like to research, work on and write about things that really matter. A lot of things matter, yes. It's not hard to find things that matter. The challenge is in identifying what deserves our attention the most. I spend a lot of time asking myself questions like: What matters

Politics & Culture

Councils can rapidly accelerate clean transport by championing AVs

Within the space of just a few short years, most cars will no longer be dirty, polluting machines with a bad reputation. They will be one of the cleanest, safest and most convenient sustainable transport options available.

Worldview

Interview: How Faith Impacts My Work in Public Life

An interview by Cllr Mike Davies on local government, technology and the role of faith in public life.

Productivity & Tools

Introducing the Coherence Stack

In so many ways, one of the most fundamental problems the world faces could be described in one word: confusion. We're confused about our place in the world and the meaning of our lives. We struggle to translate our sense of what meaning is into a set of tangible and

Personal Finance

Legal Requirements for Landlords

There are a number of legal requirements which landlords must abide by throughout the entire duration of any tenancy. Not only can failure to do so lead to prosecution, but may also put tenants at risk. This is a checklist of all the legal requirements for private residential landlords in

Productivity & Tools

6 Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs

Politics & Culture

How to report issues to the Council

If you noticed ways in which your local area isn't quite as clean, orderly or beautiful as you'd expected, would you know where to go?

Productivity & Tools

Reflections on my Month-Long Digital Detox

These are uncharted waters. Relentlessly, the technological titans of the 2020s are pressing on with their agenda to connect, to simplify…

Productivity & Tools

I’m Doing a Month-long Digital Detox

In the early 19th century, as the industrial revolution was well under way, engineers from across the West were heavily invested in…

Personal Finance

How Living Sustainably can Precipitate Financial Independence

Freedom is one of those abstract and elusive ideas which, in the English language, evokes some of the most profound feelings of awe and…

Politics & Culture

Councils Should Raise their Resilience Against Cyber Threats

Across the full spectrum of government activity, technology is absorbing the processes and infrastructure which keeps the country moving.

Politics & Culture

How Local Government Can Benefit From a ‘Digital-by-Default’ Agenda

As we inch closer and closer to our departure from the EU, government and Members of Parliament are intensifying their focus on this…

Politics & Culture

The EU undermines our rich democratic heritage

One of the most painful things for me to witness in Britain today is the extent to which politics has become as fractured as it has.