Time Management Isn't Just for Crises
By Jessica Stillman | July 14, 2010
Time management is a lot like studying if a new post up Time Management Ninja is to be believed. Just like preparing for a test, there are two ways to approach time management. The first is the rough equivalent of cramming for the test. In this model you wait for obligations to pile up and then when panic starts to kick in you pull out all your best time management practices to cope with the onslaught. Like cramming, this tends not to work.
What works better? According to TMN, the answer is the same as it in the academic world — a steady pull. Rather than turning off and on your time management A-game to suit the circumstances, the blog suggests you have an always-on approach to managing your work and offers several reasons this approach works better.
The Steady Pull. An even steady pull is much easier to bear and allows you to be more productive. Starting and stopping your productivity efforts only creates more work for yourself.
Habits vs. Extra Effort. If you make time management part of your habits, the effort disappears and time management simply becomes part of your lifestyle. If you try to “turn it on” only once in a while, it becomes an extra effort that you must bear.
It is a Skill. Time management is a skill that you must hone just like any other. It takes practice and experience like other skills and activities. The more you do it, the better you will be at it.
Myth of the Crisis. People tend to think they only need time management in a jam. But, the truth is that you need it just as much when you are not in a crisis. It is proactive action that prevents the problems in the first place.
All of this advice makes plenty of sense, but I also see a flip side. Turning off for a weekend or the odd day here or there might not make logical sense if humans were machines, but we’re not (not most of us anyway). A nice stretch of slacking may not be good for your email inbox, but couldn’t it do wonders for your energy level and creativity when you’re burnt out and need a fresh perspective?
MY THOUGHTS
i'm a crammer. i seem to work best when under pressure. crises seem to come with the package when deadlines are far far off, it's difficult to get things done. however, this won't work when there are other people whose tasks are intertwined with mine. i need to plan and manage my time.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
3 Ways to Break Out of a Career Rut
3 Ways to Break Out of a Career Rut
By Jessica Stillman | September 23, 2010
Learning, like getting in shape, isn’t a comfortable process. If you’re not sweating and worrying about whether you’re adequate to the task, you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough. And what’s true in the classroom and at the gym is also true at the office, according to an excellent guest post by Tara Mohr on blog Productive Flourishing.
Entrepreneur Mohr shares her own story about plateauing at a place where she was comfortable with her skills but not gaining many new ones, but her problem could be experienced just as easily by someone working at a large company. She relates that six months into starting her business,
Things started to settle. I had a regular group of clients. I had run a few workshops. I was guest posting regularly… That was April 2010. Now we’re in September. Here’s what I’ve noticed: I’ve gotten stuck in a business comfort zone.
So what is Mohr doing to break out of her rut? She has a three-step process to get fired up for new career challenges:
Get clear on the current state reality. Write down the list of business activities that are within your comfort zone and those things that are outside of it. In your second list, focus on the top five activities you believe would enrich your business but that you are avoiding, delaying, ignoring, because they are out of your comfort zone. How do you know if you are avoiding something because it’s outside of your comfort zone? These are some good indicators: Do you get anxious when you think about doing it? Does it involve risking rejection, “failure,” or taking messy, imperfect action? Do you get mentally foggy when thinking about it?
Clear your own BS. Using your list, review the items outside of your comfort zone one by one and deconstruct or disprove the BS that is stopping you from going after each one. Create new incentives. We all have a huge natural incentive to play it safe. We have to create an alternative incentive to leave the comfort zone. When my husband and I were working conventional jobs, we had a special agreement on salary negotiations. We agreed that the first one of us to ask for a raise that got turned down by the company would win a prize from the other. On the one hand, we both wanted to win. On the other hand, neither of us wanted to propose a raise so outlandish it would offend our bosses. That stretched us to ask for the most money we thought would be perceived as not-offensive. We gave ourselves an incentive to take a risk.
If you’re curious what sort of BS Mohr is talking about in her second point, she lists three types that often come up and ways to combat each:
Fears. Fear of rejection, failure and the unknown. Get down to that root of the fear. See it for what it is. Have compassion for yourself. Question whether the fear is realistic, and look at whether you are willing to move forward in spite of the fear.
Inner critic chatter. You might hear your inner critic saying you aren’t ready to do x, that you aren’t good enough. You might hear old stories that you picked up from your mean second grade teacher, about how you can’t write or aren’t good with people. It’s all BS. Notice how the inner critic is functioning to keep you in the comfort zone, and start separating your own best thinking from its voice. Create a character and a name for your inner critic and talk back to him or her.
Your crazy stories: “I need to get x number of blog subscribers before I reach out to so and so about a collaboration.” “I need to have a fancy website before I sell products.” We make up all kinds of false rules like these about how the world is. Check out your assumptions. Write them down, look at them in the plain light of day, and question them. Talk them over with a friend or adviser.
MY THOUGHTS
what this article is saying to me is i should feel lucky that my job hardly gives me the time to feel my comfort zones. i am not in a plateau. sometimes i feel i'm spiralling down. i tell my boss, "we make 1 step forward and then slide back 5 steps". and yet, in reality, these steps backwards are ways for us to get out of a career rut. i thought this article was about getting another job. silly me. for someone who runs the 7 habits, i should have known, that looking for another job is a cop out. God will not take us to a place where we cannot handle things. He will never take us even a step further. He wants us to take certain steps in faith, even when they seem too much for us. Then, He will put a stop if we can't wing it- and we won't have to make a single step.
By Jessica Stillman | September 23, 2010
Learning, like getting in shape, isn’t a comfortable process. If you’re not sweating and worrying about whether you’re adequate to the task, you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough. And what’s true in the classroom and at the gym is also true at the office, according to an excellent guest post by Tara Mohr on blog Productive Flourishing.
Entrepreneur Mohr shares her own story about plateauing at a place where she was comfortable with her skills but not gaining many new ones, but her problem could be experienced just as easily by someone working at a large company. She relates that six months into starting her business,
Things started to settle. I had a regular group of clients. I had run a few workshops. I was guest posting regularly… That was April 2010. Now we’re in September. Here’s what I’ve noticed: I’ve gotten stuck in a business comfort zone.
So what is Mohr doing to break out of her rut? She has a three-step process to get fired up for new career challenges:
Get clear on the current state reality. Write down the list of business activities that are within your comfort zone and those things that are outside of it. In your second list, focus on the top five activities you believe would enrich your business but that you are avoiding, delaying, ignoring, because they are out of your comfort zone. How do you know if you are avoiding something because it’s outside of your comfort zone? These are some good indicators: Do you get anxious when you think about doing it? Does it involve risking rejection, “failure,” or taking messy, imperfect action? Do you get mentally foggy when thinking about it?
Clear your own BS. Using your list, review the items outside of your comfort zone one by one and deconstruct or disprove the BS that is stopping you from going after each one. Create new incentives. We all have a huge natural incentive to play it safe. We have to create an alternative incentive to leave the comfort zone. When my husband and I were working conventional jobs, we had a special agreement on salary negotiations. We agreed that the first one of us to ask for a raise that got turned down by the company would win a prize from the other. On the one hand, we both wanted to win. On the other hand, neither of us wanted to propose a raise so outlandish it would offend our bosses. That stretched us to ask for the most money we thought would be perceived as not-offensive. We gave ourselves an incentive to take a risk.
If you’re curious what sort of BS Mohr is talking about in her second point, she lists three types that often come up and ways to combat each:
Fears. Fear of rejection, failure and the unknown. Get down to that root of the fear. See it for what it is. Have compassion for yourself. Question whether the fear is realistic, and look at whether you are willing to move forward in spite of the fear.
Inner critic chatter. You might hear your inner critic saying you aren’t ready to do x, that you aren’t good enough. You might hear old stories that you picked up from your mean second grade teacher, about how you can’t write or aren’t good with people. It’s all BS. Notice how the inner critic is functioning to keep you in the comfort zone, and start separating your own best thinking from its voice. Create a character and a name for your inner critic and talk back to him or her.
Your crazy stories: “I need to get x number of blog subscribers before I reach out to so and so about a collaboration.” “I need to have a fancy website before I sell products.” We make up all kinds of false rules like these about how the world is. Check out your assumptions. Write them down, look at them in the plain light of day, and question them. Talk them over with a friend or adviser.
MY THOUGHTS
what this article is saying to me is i should feel lucky that my job hardly gives me the time to feel my comfort zones. i am not in a plateau. sometimes i feel i'm spiralling down. i tell my boss, "we make 1 step forward and then slide back 5 steps". and yet, in reality, these steps backwards are ways for us to get out of a career rut. i thought this article was about getting another job. silly me. for someone who runs the 7 habits, i should have known, that looking for another job is a cop out. God will not take us to a place where we cannot handle things. He will never take us even a step further. He wants us to take certain steps in faith, even when they seem too much for us. Then, He will put a stop if we can't wing it- and we won't have to make a single step.
Never Be Late Again: 9 Ways to Make It Happen
Never Be Late Again: 9 Ways to Make It Happen
By Jessica Stillman | September 1, 2010
For the perpetually tardy it sounds like mission impossible — reform your ways and never be late for an appointment again. But now that you’ve left behind your lazy college days and joined the working world, the inability to be on time can have a serious impact on your career. So can it you transform yourself into a punctual person?
Awesomely named blog Dumb Little Man thinks it’s possible. In a post written by the habitually late child of a habitually late father, the blog lays out the case that there are ways to become more punctual, even if your inability to be on time feels like a deeply ingrained aspect of your character. Here are nine tips to try:
1. The first step is acceptance. Admit you have a problem and enlist help.
2. Surround yourself with clocks (not just the one on your cell phone).
3. Bring something to read or occupy you, so if you arrive early, you don’t feel like you’re “wasting time.”
4. Give yourself a handicap. If you’re a bad estimator, double the time you think it will take to get there.
5. If you’ve never been where you’re going, look up directions beforehand (not at the time you’re supposed to be walking out the door).
6. Before you accept invitations for engagements, ask yourself if you really can, or want to, attend. If you’re hesitant, perhaps it’s better to politely decline than rudely arrive late.
7. Don’t try to do too much. Keep a detailed schedule and don’t be distracted by tasks not on it.
8. Fine yourself a dollar (to your piggy bank) for every minute you’re late.
9. Hypnosis. Hey, it can’t hurt, right?
MY THOUGHTS
hypnosis? oh, well, surrounding your self with clocks works. well, i think i've tried the rest. my problem is that the only really quiet time - without people dropping in and out of your office, no calls, no disractions- is in the evening. so, i end up working well into the night. stay up late, wake up late. an endless cycle i find hard to break. might as well try number 8. like the idea.
By Jessica Stillman | September 1, 2010
For the perpetually tardy it sounds like mission impossible — reform your ways and never be late for an appointment again. But now that you’ve left behind your lazy college days and joined the working world, the inability to be on time can have a serious impact on your career. So can it you transform yourself into a punctual person?
Awesomely named blog Dumb Little Man thinks it’s possible. In a post written by the habitually late child of a habitually late father, the blog lays out the case that there are ways to become more punctual, even if your inability to be on time feels like a deeply ingrained aspect of your character. Here are nine tips to try:
1. The first step is acceptance. Admit you have a problem and enlist help.
2. Surround yourself with clocks (not just the one on your cell phone).
3. Bring something to read or occupy you, so if you arrive early, you don’t feel like you’re “wasting time.”
4. Give yourself a handicap. If you’re a bad estimator, double the time you think it will take to get there.
5. If you’ve never been where you’re going, look up directions beforehand (not at the time you’re supposed to be walking out the door).
6. Before you accept invitations for engagements, ask yourself if you really can, or want to, attend. If you’re hesitant, perhaps it’s better to politely decline than rudely arrive late.
7. Don’t try to do too much. Keep a detailed schedule and don’t be distracted by tasks not on it.
8. Fine yourself a dollar (to your piggy bank) for every minute you’re late.
9. Hypnosis. Hey, it can’t hurt, right?
MY THOUGHTS
hypnosis? oh, well, surrounding your self with clocks works. well, i think i've tried the rest. my problem is that the only really quiet time - without people dropping in and out of your office, no calls, no disractions- is in the evening. so, i end up working well into the night. stay up late, wake up late. an endless cycle i find hard to break. might as well try number 8. like the idea.
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