I read Cosmo's post about Tom Peters last blog and read that posting in its entirety. It was interesting, all the more because what TP talks about is Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires. Its a spa with all the treatments and luxury that the word spa invokes and Canyon Ranch certainly charges for it. But it does have a difference. The founder of Canyon Ranch Mel Zuckerman was a real estate developer and was overweight, burned out and had watched his father die of lung cancer. He went to what was then a "fat farm" left and then went to another one and stayed for six weeks. He called his wife to join him. He got healthy and his and his wife went back to Tucson and began Canyon Ranch.It was a risky venture. What he has said is that the luxury and the treatments bring you to Canyon Ranch but what they want to accomplish is a life style change though health, relaxation techniques etc. Their medical and health and healing section is amazing and full of talented people from doctors, physical therapists, psychologists, nutritionists etc etc. I know of several lives that they have changed through medical disagnosis that were missed other places. What Tom Peters said is he had been to Canyon ranch the year before and focused on diet and exercise, losing 40 lbs and altering his blood chemistry. This year, burned out he went back for a more self reflective reasons. Canyon Ranch does have all that neat stuff, African drumming, Yoga, Chi Gong, Meditation walks, etc. Breathing is a class that's offered everyday. A number of breathing techniques are shown in an hour class. Different instructors give it daily so you get different technigues. I use one to go to sleep and another to energize me during my 3pm slump. One of my favorites classes is Morning Stretch. After several mornings in a row of spending 45 stretching your whole body feels different. Its also an incredibly beatiful and quiet place to regroup and plan how you are going to "take it home". which is a big part of what they do. Further on in Tom Peters blog he says" As to my work, I'm re-energized, as I haven't been in a decade. I am wildly excited about getting back on the road, and beginning to put some much deeper meaning into what I do..."
I thought it was a really positive and thoughtful posting.

As to the To Do list of 4 things, when I do a weekly review I do pick a number of tasks, these are usually more time consuming complex drafting or thinking tasks related to a complicated project. I block out an appointment with myself between one and three hours to accomplish that task. At the end of the week those tasks are done or substantially moved forward in away that they would not have been if I hadn't blocked out the time. I think Tom Peter's thing about no more than 4 tasks is that he like David Allen is getting away from the 25 item priortized daily task list. He aims for up to four important things during a set time and the rest of the day does what he does. For GTD followers that's using our context based next actions. The wonderful thing about GTD is that it is flexible and allows for individual variations in what works. A number of people who post here, do the weekly review, have context based task next actions for their projects and still use a short to do list based on a review of their next actions.