Tausi Insider

Writer Annie Diller called a schedule “a net for catching days.” In The Writing Life , she noted that what we do with each hour adds up to what we do with our lives: “A schedule defends from chaos and whim.” But the man who has given millions of people a rigorous system for organizing the chaos of their lives through his Getting Things Done approach, David Allen, recently noted that at some point you must be guided by instinct. “Every decision we make about what action to take at any point in time is an intuitive risk. I have 20 minutes before my next meeting – should I call Bob, work on chapter eight or go get Susan’s opinion on the new software?” he writes in his newsletter. Mr. Allen’s system revolves around lists. Many of us try to prioritize our tasks, perhaps coding them A, B or C or using the features of our to-do app to rank their importance. It seems rational, scientific in a way. But he reminds us those are inevitably simplistic rating systems and miss some important conte...

An employee does a quality control check on an assembly line of generic drugs at Pharmascience manufacturing facility in Montreal, Quebec. Christinne Muschi/Tausi Insider When federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announced in April that the Trudeau government was dropping key aspects of its proposed plan to cut the cost of patented drugs, it looked like a truce had finally prevailed in the five-year long war between the pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory body that sets maximum prices for brand-name drugs in Canada. It did not take long, however, for hostilities to resume after the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) tabled draft regulations in October setting out new criteria the agency intends to use to determine whether to open an investigation into “excessive pricing.” The move has put the industry back on the warpath. It is calling on Mr. Duclos to scrap the new guidelines, which are set to take effect on Jan. 1, even though the PMPRB itself is in disarray....

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is one of eight Canadian companies pegged for long-term investing on the stock market, according to an RBC list. Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of Tausi Insider’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more. New year, better financial outlook? Sure, interest rates remain high, as does inflation, and we’re teetering on the edge of a recession – but here’s the good news, according to Rob Carrick. The new year is expected to bring an end to hikes in interest rates, which the Bank of Canada raised seven consecutive times in 2022. We may even see them fall in the second half of 2023. Housing prices have also been dropping as of late, and are expected to continue to plummet this year – below $1-million in Toronto and Vancouver, if you can believe it. This will make buying a home more attainable for many C...

People pay for their items at a grocery store in Toronto, on Nov. 22, 2022. CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters Jim Dandy reads the grocery store flyers every week. It’s a habit the 79-year-old retiree picked up in childhood and continued while raising three children during law school. “I learned the importance of saving five cents, and that has stuck with me,” Dandy said in an interview from his home in Niagara Falls, Ont. Grocery prices were up 11 per cent in December compared with a year ago, Statistics Canada said this week. Overall, grocery prices were up 9.8 per cent in 2022 compared with a year earlier – the fastest pace since 1981. As shoppers grapple with spiralling food costs, some are turning for the first time to tips and tricks long used by older Canadians. Dandy, a septuagenarian who lived through the skyrocketing inflation of the early 1980s, has advice to offer consumers who may be worried about food prices for the first time. His top tip is to read grocery store flyers regularly t...

Two staples of decision-making are the pro-con list and flipping a coin. Pro-con lists focus on the rational advantages and disadvantages of the options; flipping a coin is effective because when it lands and prescribes a course of action, your immediate reaction will reveal if that feels right, and hence, what you really want to do. Decision-making is about the head but also the gut. Instinct and emotions play a role. You need to be aware of that, and control it. Most of us don’t. “Human beings are flawed decision-makers,” management trainer Jim Loehr and Sheila Ohlsson, a senior scientist at the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University, write in their book Wise Decisions . Among the classic organizational examples are the New Coke flop, Decca Records passing on the Beatles and Motorola deciding against smartphones. Bankruptcies, divorces and the bad health choices around us point to difficulties in personal decision-making. Decision-making fatigue can...