Jeff Davidson's Blog, page 41
August 12, 2013
How to Leave the Office
Decide that one day of the week, say Tuesday, will be a normal eight or nine hour workday and nothing more. As such, you will automatically begin to be more focused about what you want to get done on Tuesdays. Almost imperceptibly you begin to parcel out your time during the day more judiciously. So, at midday stop and assess what you've done and what else you'd like to get done.
Near the end of the day assess what more you realistically can get done and what's best to leave for subsequent days.
Recruit Others: Once you've solidly made the decision to leave on time, say on Tuesdays, every cell in your body works in unison to help you accomplish your proclamation. A natural, internal alignment starts in motion. Your internal cylinders fire in harmony with what it takes for you to have a buoyant, productive work day on Tuesday and leave on time. To ensure that you get out on time, let others know about your plans.
Strike a bargain with yourself. Suppose it's 2:45 p.m. and there are three more items you'd like to accomplish before the day is over. Ask yourself: "What would it take for me to feel good about ending work on time today?" This phrase gives you the freedom to feel good about leaving the office on time because you struck a bargain with yourself wherein you said exactly what you needed to accomplish in order to leave on time and feel good about it.
Re-strike the Bargain. Suppose you have three items on your plate that you want to finish so that you can feel good about leaving on time. Then the boss drops a bomb on your desk late in the day. Strike a new bargain with yourself, given the prevailing circumstances. Your new bargain may include simply making sufficient headway on the project that's been dropped in your lap, or accomplishing two of your previous tasks and X percent of this new project.
Near the end of the day assess what more you realistically can get done and what's best to leave for subsequent days.
Recruit Others: Once you've solidly made the decision to leave on time, say on Tuesdays, every cell in your body works in unison to help you accomplish your proclamation. A natural, internal alignment starts in motion. Your internal cylinders fire in harmony with what it takes for you to have a buoyant, productive work day on Tuesday and leave on time. To ensure that you get out on time, let others know about your plans.
Strike a bargain with yourself. Suppose it's 2:45 p.m. and there are three more items you'd like to accomplish before the day is over. Ask yourself: "What would it take for me to feel good about ending work on time today?" This phrase gives you the freedom to feel good about leaving the office on time because you struck a bargain with yourself wherein you said exactly what you needed to accomplish in order to leave on time and feel good about it.
Re-strike the Bargain. Suppose you have three items on your plate that you want to finish so that you can feel good about leaving on time. Then the boss drops a bomb on your desk late in the day. Strike a new bargain with yourself, given the prevailing circumstances. Your new bargain may include simply making sufficient headway on the project that's been dropped in your lap, or accomplishing two of your previous tasks and X percent of this new project.
One Polite Request at a Time
As a boy, Benjamin Franklin asked the governor of Pennsylvania for a book. In his autobiography, Franklin cites that moment as the beginning of his publishing career.
He also learned the importance of asking people for favors. People will then ask you for a favor in return, and thus one forms a free exchange, the foundation of all business: "one polite request at a time."
And, one polite request at a time is excellent way to approach your day and maintain a sense of breathing space.
He also learned the importance of asking people for favors. People will then ask you for a favor in return, and thus one forms a free exchange, the foundation of all business: "one polite request at a time."
And, one polite request at a time is excellent way to approach your day and maintain a sense of breathing space.
July 26, 2013
To Manage the Beforehand
During the closing days of my senior year of high school, I rounded up some of the items on the bulletin board that I thought would make great memento. I had a roster of all the letter winners who were invited to the awards dinner last week. I also had the daily absentee list of the senior class, several of the school's monthly news letters, and various other announcements and memos.
Over the years, moving from Connecticut to Washington, DC to North Carolina, these items remained in a slim folder of other school items such as report cards, progress reports, and college acceptance letters.
For many reasons, my high school class did not have a five or ten of fifteen year reunion. They had one eighteen year reunion which I heard about afterwards and then another at thirty which, thankfully, I did learn about in time to attend. In preparation for attending the thirtieth reunion, I carefully copied all my artifacts from my high school days, left the copies at home, and brought the originals with me.
When I dispensed them to the class secretary and other officers, it blew them away. They made announcements during the evening of the artifacts I had so carefully preserved over the last thirty years.
One of my friends, Greg, thought I was nuts. Actually, what I had been doing was practicing the art of managing the beforehand, long before I even had defined it. It just occurred to me that someday what represented every day kinds of documents in way back when would be highly noteworthy 30 years later.
Over the years, moving from Connecticut to Washington, DC to North Carolina, these items remained in a slim folder of other school items such as report cards, progress reports, and college acceptance letters.
For many reasons, my high school class did not have a five or ten of fifteen year reunion. They had one eighteen year reunion which I heard about afterwards and then another at thirty which, thankfully, I did learn about in time to attend. In preparation for attending the thirtieth reunion, I carefully copied all my artifacts from my high school days, left the copies at home, and brought the originals with me.
When I dispensed them to the class secretary and other officers, it blew them away. They made announcements during the evening of the artifacts I had so carefully preserved over the last thirty years.
One of my friends, Greg, thought I was nuts. Actually, what I had been doing was practicing the art of managing the beforehand, long before I even had defined it. It just occurred to me that someday what represented every day kinds of documents in way back when would be highly noteworthy 30 years later.
July 18, 2013
Breathing Space Happens
When you draw upon your own accumulated knowledge and the wisdom that you develop, you're able to intermittently free yourself from ever accelerating flows of information. That is true Breathing Space.
The "Brave New World" is Here
"People never are alone now... We make them hate solitude, and we arrange their lives so that it's almost impossible for them ever to have it." --Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932
July 15, 2013
Master Your Environment condition your desk
At my speeches audience members say to me, "I'm able to handle the tasks in front of me for the day, but if I get one more call or one critical email, everything is just thrown off." That's why it is important to condition your work environment.
Observe your office, your car, your home, and all of the other physical spaces in your life, and ask, "What can I do to make these spaces work for me in the way I work and in the way I live my life?"
Take your desk, for example: realize that it must be specifically set up for you. Position your PC monitor in the way that's most comfortable for you. If you need tissues, candy, or certain supplies, then put them on your desk, close at hand.
Look at your desk in new ways. Align it so that it supports the way you work, regardless of how it looks to anyone else. Never mind what the person down the hall thinks! Identify the items you need, and then condition your desk to work for you. Remove piles from the window sills or cabinets tops and put them into file folders. Gain some clear space!
Observe your office, your car, your home, and all of the other physical spaces in your life, and ask, "What can I do to make these spaces work for me in the way I work and in the way I live my life?"
Take your desk, for example: realize that it must be specifically set up for you. Position your PC monitor in the way that's most comfortable for you. If you need tissues, candy, or certain supplies, then put them on your desk, close at hand.
Look at your desk in new ways. Align it so that it supports the way you work, regardless of how it looks to anyone else. Never mind what the person down the hall thinks! Identify the items you need, and then condition your desk to work for you. Remove piles from the window sills or cabinets tops and put them into file folders. Gain some clear space!
July 7, 2013
Americans On Prescription Drugs
A generation ago, is this the future that we collectively held for our country?: 70 Percent Of Americans On Prescription Drugs. "Researchers find that nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least
one prescription drug, and more than half receive at least two
prescriptions."
Mayo Clinic researchers report
that antibiotics, antidepressants and painkiller opioids are the most
common prescriptions given to Americans. Twenty percent of U.S. patients
were also found to be on five or more prescription medications.
one prescription drug, and more than half receive at least two
prescriptions."
Mayo Clinic researchers report
that antibiotics, antidepressants and painkiller opioids are the most
common prescriptions given to Americans. Twenty percent of U.S. patients
were also found to be on five or more prescription medications.
July 2, 2013
Lead us into Temptation
Notes from
Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism
by James B. Twitchell, Ph.D.
Chronicling America’s increasing absorption in materialism, "the most shallow of the twentieth-century’s various isms," Twitchell examines the cycle of conspicuous consumption.
Comparing the influence of contemporary marketing and advertising to that of the Renaissance-era Catholic church, he contends that both "sell peace of mind either in this world or the next."
He finds celebrity spokespersons to be "priests" of marketing, the subject of "hagiography" in television commercials that are "an almost perfect mimic of religious parables” which pay for sitcoms that instruct Americans in "how branded objects are dovetailed together to form a coherent pattern of self-hood, a lifestyle."
Shopping has become integral to the construction of the modern self. Infomercials and home shopping networks are the ultimate conspiracy, with their one-sided, two-dimensional falsely "interactive" setup.
by James B. Twitchell, Ph.D.
Chronicling America’s increasing absorption in materialism, "the most shallow of the twentieth-century’s various isms," Twitchell examines the cycle of conspicuous consumption.
Comparing the influence of contemporary marketing and advertising to that of the Renaissance-era Catholic church, he contends that both "sell peace of mind either in this world or the next."
He finds celebrity spokespersons to be "priests" of marketing, the subject of "hagiography" in television commercials that are "an almost perfect mimic of religious parables” which pay for sitcoms that instruct Americans in "how branded objects are dovetailed together to form a coherent pattern of self-hood, a lifestyle."
Shopping has become integral to the construction of the modern self. Infomercials and home shopping networks are the ultimate conspiracy, with their one-sided, two-dimensional falsely "interactive" setup.
June 30, 2013
Streamlining Work and Life
Mike Zimmerman, writing in Men's Health magazine in 2005, offers some advice on streamlining your work and your life which:
* Use one email address for friends and family, another for shopping and spam.
* Use DVR recorders to make your own TV schedule.
* Check the news at CNN.com or some other general source. Skip watching TV news.
* Stop overworking.
* Stop over-packing, stop over-promising, stop overdoing everything.
* Discard junk mail immediately.
* Stop micromanaging.
* Use one email address for friends and family, another for shopping and spam.
* Use DVR recorders to make your own TV schedule.
* Check the news at CNN.com or some other general source. Skip watching TV news.
* Stop overworking.
* Stop over-packing, stop over-promising, stop overdoing everything.
* Discard junk mail immediately.
* Stop micromanaging.
Breathe Deeply
Take time to breathe deeply. Lie on the floor or sit up straight in a chair. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Starting with your feet, release tension throughout your body. Breathe in deeply as you focus on a specific area, and relax as you exhale. Doing this for ten minutes a day will help you calm your nerves and clear your mind.
