When we are overloaded and knocked out by a bloating to-do list, the vending machine starts to work even longer and squeeze even more cases into our existing working hours. We practice multitasking, rush from one meeting to another, secretly check our emails under the table in the meeting room, start working early in the morning and finish only by night. Our goal is to reduce stress and workload. But the actions have the opposite effect: we feel even more stress and loaded up to our ears.
Or we say things that we think will impress others, but in reality only cause rejection. We try to cheer up our friend, but for some reason we make him more upset. We give an inspiring speech to our team, but somehow we just turn it off.
enthusiasm. Whenever that happens, we’re shocked. “What happened?” – We’re wondering. As a result, we’ve been trying for days to fix what we’ve broken with our automatic reaction. We spend countless hours and a lot of energy pondering over the words we’ve spoken; discussing our own…
Behaviour; making a plan of further action – and sometimes reaching the toilet by roundabout ways, so as not to run into someone who was reluctantly hurt in the reception area.
Click on pause.
Living and working dynamically, fixated on productivity, we lose our garden – literally and figuratively. And we need to get it back. I recently had lunch with Rajip, the technical director of a major investment bank. When we went back to his office after an hour together, he got…
138 e-mails. We talked, and the sound of new e-mails came out over and over again. “How can I keep up?” – he asked me. He couldn’t.
Rajip’s department has almost 10,000 employees. “I don’t have time to think,” he complained.
I don’t have time to think. Perhaps six of the scariest words spoken by the manager. They don’t scare us anymore because we know a lot of people. We don’t need 10,000 employees to feel like we don’t have time to think. That’s how almost every one of us feels.
And it’s not that we’re unproductive. We’re incredibly productive. We make deliveries. We make decisions. We form and distribute budgets. We manage our teams. We make requests. In a sense, productivity is the problem. In conditions of manic productivity, we are missing the most important thing: the ability to…
to learn lessons. In our busy weekdays we rarely analyze our experience deeply, listen carefully to others’ opinions, and evaluate how the results of our decisions will affect the future. All this takes time. We need to slow down our running. But which of us can afford it? So we don’t think much and limit our personal growth.
My solution to Rajip’s problem? Remember where he thinks best and make it a habit to be in this place every day. I myself started to practice different variations of “walking in the garden” every day. One of them is exercise in the open air. If I go away by bike, go for a run or go out for a walk, it is almost inevitable that I think of something and when I return, I look at things differently. This is my favorite and most reliable garden, where creative ideas grow. The other way is to write. When I write, ideas develop and these sessions unobtrusively expand my world view. There is no need to show someone what you write – the principle of a personal diary works perfectly here. And you don’t have to devote more than a few minutes to it.
Meditate .
Meditation has many advantages: it updates us, helps us understand what is happening to us, makes us wiser and calmer, helps us not to go crazy in a world that pushes us with information and connections, and not only. If you
There is no economic justification to devote time to meditation, how about this: meditation makes you more productive. How do you do it? By strengthening your ability to withstand distracting impulses. Research shows that the ability to resist distractions improves relationships, strengthens trust and increases productivity.
How do you meditate? If you’re just getting started, the simpler the better. Sit – on a chair or on the floor on a pillow – and straighten your back so that you can breathe easily, set a timer for the time you want to devote to meditation. When you start the timer, close your eyes, relax and don’t move – just breathe – until the signal sounds. Focus on breathing and exhaling. Every time you have a thought or an impulse, give it some attention and focus on breathing again. That’s it. It’s simple, but it’s hard to do. Try it – today – for five minutes. And do it again tomorrow.
To do, not to plan.
A few days ago I received an email from my friend Byron: “Peter, I haven’t been doing much sports in the last five years, and now I want to go to the gym again. I realized that among the three things – mind, body, and spirit – the body remains my weakest link. We need to fix this. But it’s VERY hard for me to motivate myself. Any ideas?” No, Byron’s problem is not motivation. It’s about starting to act. Any attempt at self-motivation will only increase stress and guilt, widening the gap between motivation and action – between a strong desire to play sports and the first step towards fulfilling that desire.
Perhaps everyone is familiar with a situation where the mind sabotages intentions. We decide to go to the gym after work, but when the time comes, we think: “It’s late. I’m tired. I think I’ll skip today.” We decide to meditate, but we look at the clock and conclude that “there’s no time”. The secret is simple: if you want to do something, stop thinking. Stop the internal dialogue before it even begins. Don’t let yourself get caught on the hook. Stop arguing with yourself. Make a specific decision regarding an important case, and don’t question it.
Focus on .
The goal determines the return you want. The zone of concentration determines the actions to which you should devote your time. The goal is the result. The concentration zone is the path. The goal points to the future that you intend to achieve. The concentration zone links you to the present. In sales, for example, the desired income or a certain number of new customers is formulated as a goal. In production, the amount of cost reduction. In the meantime, the area of concentration in sales can include active communication with potential customers and in production – areas that are worth exploring to reduce costs.
Of course, these two approaches are not mutually exclusive. You can have both a goal and a concentration zone. What’s more, someone will even insist that both are necessary, since the goal indicates where you are going and the zone of concentration indicates how you plan to get there.
Don’t put the blame on others
We begin to blame others as children, usually to avoid parental anger and punishment, but also to preserve our self-esteem and secure our self. Later, such behavior becomes a habit and goes into adulthood. I – and I’m sure you too – constantly meet people who point fingers at others.
In companies, this sometimes happens at the unit level: if the sales department fails, it blames the product, and the creators of the product blame the ineffective sales team or nod at the shortcomings of production. Blaming an entire unit or product is safer than blaming an individual: there is no need to shift to the individual, and this position seems less defensive. However, such behavior is unproductive because the involvement of the blame can be seen with the naked eye.
If you are not guilty of what happened, then you do not need to change anything. However, if something happens because of your fault, and you do not admit it, you will probably make the same mistake in the future, which will bring new accusations. It’s a vicious circle where walking around has never led anyone to anything good.
To say thank you.
John, CEO of a small trading company, sent an email to Tim, who was a few steps down, to compliment him on his performance at a recent business meeting. Tim didn’t reply to the letter. About a week later, he found himself in John’s office as a candidate for the position – it was an opportunity to grow to the level of a manager. John asked if Tim had received his letter, and he said he had. Why didn’t he answer? Tim said he didn’t think it was necessary. But he was wrong. John deserved to get at least a “thank you” in return. Tim wasn’t promoted. Was his candidacy rejected solely because he didn’t thank John for the positive feedback? No. Did his disdain for gratitude become one of the reasons John decided to look for a better candidate? No doubt about it.
You may object that we are all too busy at work and in life to waste time exchanging courtesies. If John is so sentimental, he can’t even be CEO. He’s behind an electronic age in which unanswered letters are the norm. If Tim’s doing his job well, that’s enough. People are paid to do their job well – they don’t have to give out “thank you”. Thanking your CEO for a nice letter is nothing short of sycophanticism. I’m willing to argue with all these allegations. It doesn’t take long to answer “thank you”, but it’s an expression of affection. John is a brilliant CEO loved by his employees, his management team and his shareholders. He provides his employees with an environment for rapid career growth and outstanding performance. Leaving someone’s message unanswered – SMS, email or phone call – is not the norm, it’s a dialogue gap that many people often complain about. Tim may be good in certain areas of his work, but he’s not “good at his job” if he doesn’t give credit to the people around him. Finally, “thank you” is not sycophancy, but a courtesy.
