2) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey

I've got into the habit of buying and reading a self-help book every year or so - especially since I became a manager, an important role for which I have had no formal training. I must say I've found this to be one of the more useful ones I've tried; it goes far beyond the simple questions of running an effective office and concentrates on how to lead a more rewarding life.

The 7 habits are:
1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think win/win
5. Seek first to understand, rather than to be understood
6. Synergise
7. Sharpen the saw

My own biggest difficulty has always been #3, the art of prioritising, but I found the reflections on the other points reinforced a lot of my own approach to personal development and offered some helpful further thoughts. The book is not too loaded with timeconsuming exercises - basically one short one at the start of each chapter. It is, however, a little repetitive.

Anyhow, I've found the author's website and am downloading the planning software for a free trial - will report back on whether it works for me or not.

January: Gateway by Fredrrik Pohl. As good as I remembered it as being.

February: The five questions meme: I've seen this floating around, but part of the problem is catching it at the right moment and also finding someone whose questions you think you would like to answer!

March: [three book reviews:] A train to Paris, followed by a trans-Atlantic flight, is a good way to make further inroads into the books bought the other week in London.

April: Just discovered that vnp is one of my colleagues at work. Привет, Игорь!

May: No long weekend in Belgium, but I'll make the most of what I've got.

June: Two of my colleagues have been expelled from Indonesia.

July: This evening: train to Paris, for conference tomorrow.

August: The Year of Our War, by Steph Swainston: Well, this is depressing. A Cambridge graduate, like me, who has dabbled in archaeology, like me, and now works in vaguely international relations stuff, like me, but is about six years younger and has produced a stormingly good first novel.

September: I'd been thinking of doing a post about the tenth anniversary of the IRA ceasefire, pushed a little bit by jacobsmills' reminiscences about the Bad Old Days, by shsilver's latest post about terrorism, and by the fact that I participated in a live panel discussion with John Hume and Albert Reynolds about it on RTÉ radio yesterday (don't worry, Dublin-based readers - you didn't miss much).

October: Back from Portugal. Got to swim in the sea on Wednesday and Saturday; had lots of time today to look around Lisbon; stayed in a beautiful monastic retreat house (now owned by a Portuguese foundation).

November: Atonement: A very good book, this, which had been sitting on my "to-read" pile for far too long.

December: The scourge of insomnia.

Lots of books, lots of travel, a little politics. Am off to Rome for 24 hours later today.

The Onion article I linked to has been archived. Here's the text:

Fighting Insomnia

Insomnia—the chronic inability to fall and remain asleep—affects roughly 20 percent of American adults. Here are some tips to get a better night's sleep:

Fighting Insomnia

• Although it's tempting to use liquor as a cure for chronic sleeplessness, be warned: Liquor is quite expensive.
• Getting more exercise can help combat insomnia. If you suffer from sleeplessness, try shuffling from the bed to the kitchen, opening and shutting the refrigerator door, and shuffling back to bed.
• According to researchers at the National Sleep Foundation, there is an actual National Sleep Foundation. Yes, for real.
• If you are going to take pills to help you sleep, be sure you take enough to knock yourself out. Watching Good Morning America while sleep-deprived and tranquilized is a hellish experience.
• Use your bed for sleeping only. Conduct all reading, eating, phone calls, and sexual relations on the kitchen table.
• Try counting sheep, rather than the number of times you've failed as a wife and mother.
• If you got less than three hours of sleep the previous night, it's important to inform everyone you meet of that fact all day long.
• If you're having night after night of hours-long jungle sex when all you really want is a decent night's rest, go cry on someone else's shoulder.
• Minimize noise, light, excessive temperature—all factors that could potentially disrupt rest—by sleeping indoors.
• Sleeping pills can and do become addictive. Before you know it, you'll be giving back-alley blow jobs for hits of Ambien.
• Remember: Insomnia is only a problem if you are employed or have a reason to live.