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Spending time doing what you love is not a luxury, it's a necessity. It's how the best in their fields got to where they are today -- just ask Deepak Chopra. I did. I interviewed him on Making a Living and he fervently said he will NOT do an activity if it doesn't bring him JOY. Think it's too risky or unrealistic for you to do the same? Think again.

If you truly want success, if you want to reach the heights of your potential, can you really afford to waste precious time on activities that suck the life out of you? You can make conscious choices and better focus your efforts. To help, here are some productivity tips from another guest on my show, Mitzi Weinman, founder of TimeFinder.net.

Don't just plan, anticipate.

Planning your day with a classic to do list is good but if you want to be most productive, you need to anticipate what could pop-up. For instance, for every meeting on your calendar, plan time before for preparation and after for follow-up. Unplanned tasks may land on your plate and if you leave space for them, you won't feel stretched for time.

Work from top to lowest priority.

If you get the most important tasks out of the way early in your day, you'll not only feel more accomplished, but also more comfortable leaving the office at day's end.

Schedule meetings later in the day.

Meetings can be productive but that time is best spent later in the day according to Mitzi. She recommends using your energy wisely by setting aside morning time for strategic or creative activities that require a lot of thought.

Is there a smart way you manage email, a busy schedule and family demands? Share your comments below and call Making a Living (866-675-6675) every Wednesday at 4 pm EST/1 pm PST. The career hotline is always open to discuss whatever career dilemma, goal or idea you want to discuss. 

Tune in this Sunday 6am EST for a replay of Making a Living on SIRIUS 112 and XM 157. Try SIRIUS XM free!-- I give advice on standing out from the crowd in a competitive job market -- especially important for recent college graduates!

It seems there's always a reason to be busy. When the economy is good, we're busy because there's too much work coming in. When the economy is bad, we're busy because we have to do more with less. Even the actual word business implies that to be productive we have to always be busy (i.e. "busy-ness"). Is there any room for work life balance in this busy work world we've created? 

For that answer and a reality check on the state of work life balance in the current economy, I interviewed work life expert Cali Williams Yost this week on Making a Living. According to a recent study conducted by Work+Life Fit, Inc., work life flexibility survives and is here to stay as employers surveyed continue to give access to flexible work options the same amount or more than they have in the past. 

So flexibility exists, the question is how do you get it? To answer that question, Cali and I discussed some key steps.

--Take Ownership of Your Schedule. Most people would have better work life balance if they made more conscious decisions about where they are spending their time. Cali suggests putting down all of your work and personal commitments into one calendar so you can truly see what you've committed to. Once you know where your time is going, you can be more conscious about spending time on top priority work and personal activities. 

--Be Proactive. If you want a flexible work arrangement, its best if you go to your boss with options. Most managers are too busy themselves to focus on how to best manage your work/life. You know your job best so come up with a better, faster or cheaper way to get work done in a way that fits your flexible schedule and your boss will be more apt to say yes.

--Think Fit not Balance. Cali is famous for revolutionizing the way we look at work and life. She says that balance presents an all or nothing approach that is unrealistic for most people. She recommends instead to focus on finding the right fit between work and life that suits your needs not some 50/50 standard. 

There's more to making a great living than just being busy. In fact, if it's not about being busy at all. It's about making conscious choices about how you spend your work and personal time so you are always doing what's most important to you! 

For more work life tips join me for the next Making a Living with Maggie on Wednesday at 4pm EST. I'll be talking about ways you can be most productive and work smarter not harder.

Power and authority have a bad connotation. Because of that many people shy away from taking charge at work. But what about servant leadership - being in charge as a way to be of tremendous service to people. It's not a concept I created but one I'm educating my clients and radio listeners about. 

Just last week, I had leadership experts Gail Steinel and Mike Policano on"Making a Living with Maggie" talking about their book, Excuse Me, Aren't YOU in Charge? These two are not just theorists. Gail in fact was a pioneer for women leadership in the consulting industry, recognized twice by Consulting Magazine as a Top 25 Consultant. I experienced Gail's leadership firsthand - when she was head of Arthur Andersen's Business Consulting Practice where I was an employee. 

Here's what I learned from Gail about being a great leader:

--Be accessible. - Gail is the type of leader who remembered your name and would stop and talk to you in the hallway. She was never too busy to make time for her employees.

--Support your people's ideas and passions. - In their book, Gail mentions one particular leadership experience that stuck with me - where she supported an employee who wanted to build a new recruiting strategy. Gail encouraged the employee to get involved and the young woman ended up winning an employee-of-the-year award. 

--Be honest. - I saw Gail lead during Andersen's best times and it's demise with the Enron debacle. She was always upfront with honest answers and I always felt I could trust her. For leaders today this is perhaps the biggest lesson - be someone your people can really trust and your best employees will always stick with you.

Find out more about leadership 101 on Gail and Mike's blog! And share your greatest leadership moments here - what's the best quality you've seen in a leader? Do you consider yourself to be a servant leader?

And tune into Making a Living with Maggie this Wed, 4pm EST. I'll share ways to be at your best and ready for an accidental interview! Not sure what I mean, tune in with this free 7-day SIRIUS trial!

Just turn on the TV or the computer and you will see countless stories, articles and comments on the passings this week of Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson. 

I've heard several people ask, "Why do we get so impacted by people we didn't really know?" To me, it's because we take it personally. Seeing their passing makes us once again realize that someday we too will pass. This is tough to swallow especially for people who aren't living life the way they want. 

I often see this as a career coach. People seek out my services at key moments in their lives - like a milestone birthday. They are frustrated because their life and career is not as far along or as fulfilling as they thought it would be. The good news is that these people reach out to me because they are ready to take action with their careers - choosing to no longer be passive recipients of what happens but defining and going after what they truly want.

If there's a shared legacy that Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson leave - it's that they were tireless in creating the careers they wanted. No one sought them out to offer them lives of fame and riches. In fact, if you read the biographies of these individuals you will see that it was their hard work and dedication that made them the icons we miss today. 

If you're feeling impact from the passing of these talented people, perhaps it's because it's time for you to fully express your own talents. Think about it and I'll leave you with a sentiment. It's from one of my favorite dream the impossible dream stories, Man of La Mancha so that you too can take action to further define your own legacy, "It's not why did he [or she] die, but why did he [or she] live." 

What is your impossible dream? Are you living it? Share your comments here - studies have show that by writing down what you want and putting it out there, you increase your chances of success by 10 times. Now let's hear it!