Categories
Productivity

4 Simple Steps to Taming Your Work

Taming the Big Beast

One of (if not the) biggest obstacle to life balance comes from our Professional life area. More often than not, our work goes on a rampage, destroying all the precious time we set aside for family and fun. The most common approach to handling work is throwing more hours at it, in the hope of satisfying its insatiable appetite.

But spending more time doing work doesn’t translate to getting more and better results. In fact, the more time we spend working, the less efficient we become and the greater the damage we cause to our lives, our well-being and, paradoxically, our work.

The idea that you need more time to get more things done makes sense in theory, but performs terribly in practice. It’s best to abandon this worn-out idea and look for a better theory that truly reflects the reality we live in.

Below are 4 very simple steps that can help you tame your work and get more done at the same time!

Yes, life is good. 😀

1- Set a limit to the number of hours you work a day

How many hours do you currently spend working?

Now, I want you to take a deep breath and set your daily limit 1 or 2 hours less than the time you currently spend working.

Sounds insane? Well, it gets even weirder as you progress through the steps below.

In her fabulous book, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, Laura Vanderkam points out that the time we spend “working” isn’t fully packed with actual work. A great deal of our work day is wasted doing things inefficiently. I’m willing to bet that your approach to work can be improved, and shaving an hour or two from your work day will force you to consider ways you can improve your approach, rather than default to the ineffective approach of working more hours. (I’m doing Laura’s book a grave disservice by mentioning it briefly in this post, but I’ll be offering a full review of the book once I finish reading it!)

Do you have to attend every meeting you’re asked to attend? Do you have to check your email account every 3 minutes? Can you limit the distractions that pull you away from your work and out of your “zone”?

Once you set a daily limit to the number of hours you will work, use a stopwatch to record how long you spend working each day. When you reach your daily limit, you must stop working and tend to any of your other life areas.

It may feel painful at first, but you’ll adjust to it. After all, spending more hours working is a losing strategy. There’s no need to cling to it any further.

2- Set realistic daily goals

The reason why work doesn’t seem to finish is because it never does!

There will always be things for you to do. You cross off a couple of items from your to-do list, and 5 new items make their way to the list. That’s a fact you’ll have to accept and fully embrace. There’s no need to fight against it, in the same way you wouldn’t stand on the shore and demand that the tides change their direction. Fighting against facts of nature is another losing strategy.

So what’s the solution?

You set realistic daily goals for you to achieve. Once your daily goals are met, you can call it a (work) day.

You can choose to do more work if you still haven’t reached your daily work limit. But even if you leave those extra tasks incomplete, you have succeeded in completing the tasks you set out to complete for the day.

Without setting daily goals, you may feel that there’s more to be done, and you won’t feel satisfied with your work, no matter how much you do and how long you work. That’s because you’re trying to fit an unlimited amount of work into a finite number of hours a day. A losing strategy, indeed.

3- Break work time to short sessions of focused work

Having an 8-hour chunk of time a day will go to waste if you don’t break it down to shorter sessions of focused work. You can’t remain focused for 8 straight hours without risking brain damage or physical exhaustion. To make the most of your work time, set a specific task to work on, then focus on it completely for 25 to 30 minutes, without any distractions. Have a short break that takes your mind off the task for a bit (2 to 5 minutes), then continue working on your task if it’s not completed, or work on a different task if it is.

If you want to do a few tasks that won’t take you more than 10 minutes, make sure you set a time limit for them, so that you don’t spend more time than you need to, and you can learn to do things more efficiently, without succumbing to distractions or mental numbness (where you stare blankly at your computer screen or papers, not knowing what to do next).

4- Redefine “work” time

OK, this deserves another deep breath and an open mind.

Now that you’ve set your daily work limit, your daily goals, and are tackling your tasks in short bursts of focused work, you need to be aware of what constitutes “work” time where you keep your stopwatch running, and when to stop it.

You took that deep breath, right?

I think another deep breath is in order.

You keep the stopwatch running during your work sessions, while you plan what to work on, in the breaks between work sessions, when you’re distracted, during your commute to work and whenever you think and worry about work!

Take another deep breath if you have to!

It sounds crazy, I know. But it makes sense.

Why?

Because when we consider how we spend our days, we don’t realize how much time is wasted without us making the most out of it. What do you do during your commute to work? And if you were to consider it as part of your work time, how will you make the most of it to advance your career?

We tolerate distractions because we think we can take time to compensate for them. If we get distracted for 20 minutes, we’ll just add another 20 minutes to our work day.

We can prepare a cup of coffee in 5 minutes, but we choose to spend 20 minutes walking to the kitchen in slow motion.

We spend time with family, but we’ve kept our attention on our work. How does that make you feel, knowing that you can’t do your work because you’re with your family? How does it make your family feel, knowing that you’re not truly present with them?

We allow ourselves to worry about work, when there’s absolutely no reason to (it doesn’t help our work progress, does it?). But by considering “worry” time as part of “work” time, we will be forced to stop worrying, or else we’ll run out of hours to work in!

You need to be realistic about the time you’re spending at work and the time you spend getting to work. What can you do to reduce the amount of time you spend commuting? Can you negotiate days where you work from home? Can you spend the time commuting more constructively, by listening to an audiobook, for example?

If you can genuinely spend your commute on a recreational activity (e.g. reading/listening to a novel) or to strengthen social bonds (e.g. if you commute with a family member, friend, or colleague) or to keep fit (e.g. you cycle to work), then you don’t need to keep the stopwatch running. Otherwise, it forms part of your work time and comes out of your daily limit.

The steps above are simple, but they’re not necessarily easy, because they demand that we break out of an ineffective mold that’s preventing us from leading a balanced life and making the most out of the time we have. It forces us to think of creative ways to make the most use of our time. It’s uncomfortable to walk outside the safe confines of that mold we’ve grown so accustomed to, but it’s worth it.

Set your daily work limit, begin to define daily goals, work through them in focused sessions, and account for all the time you spend on work, so that you can realize where your time goes, and what you can do about it.

Photo credit: Manish Bansal

Categories
Ethics

Waiting for Gratitude

sundial_specialists8It’s extremely easy to develop an unhealthy obsession with gratitude (yes, there are healthy obsessions, too!), where we expect to be thanked for every good deed we do, and can’t seem to move on with our lives when others don’t express their appreciation of our works.

We desperately seek an answer to the moral riddle:

“If a good deed is done, and no one expresses gratitude for it, is it still a good deed?”

And lean towards the view that it’s only a good deed when gratitude is expressed. Otherwise, it’s just a deed.

Therefore, to bring meaning to our lives and to sprinkle moral goodness on our actions, we wait for gratitude.

And wait some more.

And, you guessed it… Wait even more.

At times we drop hints: “I vacuumed the house when you were out.”

Other times we ask questions: “Did you notice the house is vacuumed?”

And desperate times call for desperate measures: “I know I did a bad job at vacuuming the house. I’m terrible at it. But I thought you might be happy to come home to a clean house.”

When we don’t receive the gratitude we expect, we lose motivation for doing more good deeds. It just doesn’t seem worth it. After all, it’s not a good deed without gratitude, right?

We fail to come to terms with 3 important facts that pave the way for joyous living:

  1. People aren’t good at expressing gratitude: Even when people are moved to tears by your kindness and generosity, they may not know how to express their gratitude. At times, the more appreciative someone is, the less likely they are to express their appreciation, simply because they don’t know how to. How do you thank someone who saved your son from a burning building? I don’t know, either.
  2. Different people express gratitude differently: Even if people are comfortable with expressing gratitude, it might not be in the way you expect them to. Just because you received an email thanking you for your efforts and not a bouquet of flowers doesn’t mean that your help isn’t appreciated. It might just mean that others don’t express gratitude the way you would.
  3. Good deeds are good, even if they’re not appreciated: Using gratitude as your sole motivational trigger is unhealthy. Why? For starters, see Fact #1 above. Another reason why depending on gratitude for motivation is unhealthy is that good deeds are an extension of your own values, not how others perceive – or appreciate – your actions. Cynical people often question the intentions of those who find joy in helping others. Does that mean you should question and doubt your own intentions just because others don’t expect to meet people that have goodwill towards fellow human beings? Of course not. And it shouldn’t deter you from the good work you can do in the world.

It’s better not to expect gratitude than to base your life on receiving it. By appreciating your own actions and being aware of the values you are living by, you can fuel your inner drive to make the world a  better place.

Don’t wait for permission or approval to do good.

Be good because YOU deserve to be.

Photo credit: specialists8

Categories
General

7 Things I Wish I Had Known Earlier In My Life

Books

My blogger buddy Abubakar Jamil recently wrote a post on the 22 things he wished he had known earlier, then invited his friends to share their own lists.

There are quite a few things I wish I had known earlier, and Abubakar’s invitation was a great opportunity to explore my own thoughts, and the ideas that I have arrived at, which I believe would be beneficial to others to know early in life.

This is my own list:

1- Never regret your past

“Saying ‘if only’ opens the door for Satan.”
~ Islamic proverb

Most of the frustration we experience comes from wishing that our past was somehow different, and this list may encourage this type of thinking: “If only I had learned these things earlier, then my life would have turned out differently!”

But the past can’t be changed. No amount of wishing can bring about such a change, no matter how pure our intentions are. The wisest approach to take is to accept your past for what it is, with all the mistakes you have done and all the bruises you carry with you to this day. Accepting your past is an important step towards change, since it liberates you from trying to control what’s beyond your power to control, and to focus on what’s within your power to control: the decisions you make right now, and in the future.

This list isn’t my way of lamenting over what happened in the past, but to acknowledge and appreciate the ideas that have helped me change course, which I hope others will find useful in shaping the rest of their lives.

2- Think for yourself

I used to avoid thinking for myself out of fear that I’ll reach wrong conclusions, especially when it came to religion and ethics.

Having others think on my behalf was a safe bet, except for the fact that it never is.

“But I’m too ignorant” isn’t an excuse, either. You need to develop your own thinking apparatus to understand life for yourself. You can’t borrow other people’s brains or their conclusions.

Not only is it intellectually unwise, but psychologically destructive.

If you bypass your own reasoning process, you won’t be able to work with your own emotions and develop the right mindset to approach life with.

Ask people questions, especially if they’re more knowledgeable than you. Discuss your own thoughts with them. But don’t put your mind on hold because someone else is willing to think on your behalf.

3- Selfishness isn’t a bad thing

There is a world-wide epidemic that considers selfishness to be evil. If you do something for your own well-being, without benefiting anyone else, then you’re a selfish good-for-nothing. This attitude to life made me feel guilty whenever I pursued anything that brought me pleasure, without it being beneficial to others.

Your well-being is your own responsibility. It’s silly to put other people’s interests and concerns before your own so that you can be considered “moral” (because it would also mean that you’re going to demand that others put your concerns before their own, otherwise they’d be selfish good-for-nothings).

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be considerate. Far from it. Being selfish, and respecting other people’s right to the pursuit of their own happiness is the foundation of the Golden Rule.

4- Happiness on earth is a good thing

I was brought up with the idea that life on earth is of little worth, and the only value it has is in paving the way for the afterlife. Therefore, it was irrelevant how I felt, and more important that I did the things that guaranteed me a lofty place in paradise. In fact, activities that brought happiness and pleasure were either seen as distractions or devilish deceptions that were taking me away from “God’s path.”

I have come to understand that happiness on earth is the basis for a moral code suitable for human beings. The idea that individual happiness conflicts with morality is a Kantian perversion that’s at the heart of most human problems, and I wasted many years of my life running away from happiness rather than pursuing it.

5- Religion should serve mankind, not the other way around

I was a religious extremist back in university, and thought that life consisted of making sacrifices for the sake of my religion, rather than appreciating the teachings it carried to advance my own life, and contribute to the lives of those around me. Religion is the means, not the end. It exists to serve mankind (most, if not all, religious teachings agree that God does not benefit from religion).

When it becomes a tool to divide and destroy lives and relationships, you know that something is wrong, and it’s best to make that observation early on in life.

6- Choose Both/And over Either/Or

It seems that the “either/or” mindset is the dominating attitude to life. We are expected to make compromises and choose between one of two options in all aspects of life. You either want to make money, or be happy. You either become successful at work, or spend time with your family. You either want to be intelligent or physically fit. We’re always expected to choose one option and abandon the other.

I’ve learned that in most cases where we have to choose between competing options, we can have them both. Most dichotomies are false. They are presented with too many artificial limitations, that we fail to recognize ways in which we can have all we want. You either do something that advances your well-being at other people’s expense, or advances other people’s well-being at your own expense. But we don’t think of ways where no one has to make sacrifices and everybody wins, because we assume that there has to be a loser at the end of the day.

Life isn’t about compromises, so don’t make any when you don’t have to.

7- You are not your self-image

This is an extremely liberating realization, but it has to “click” with you before you can reap its benefits. Your “self-image” is who you think you are. But who you think you are isn’t really “you”. It’s an impression you have of yourself, based on past experiences, what others have told you about yourself and your obsession with putting labels on yourself as being “good”, “bad”, “shy”, “confident”, etc.

You take every opportunity to add a new label on yourself or reinforce an old one. Every action you do (or avoid) has to “say something about who you are,” which you use to shape your self-image.

But every action you do (or avoid) has something to say about the decisions you have made in the past, and it is up to you to change your decisions in future circumstances. The first thing you can do is drop your self-image, and focus on making the right decision in every situation you face. Don’t worry about judging yourself or what others will think of you. Judge the decision, and you’ll be able to escape the grip of a false self-image that limits your options because you want to act consistently with that self-image.

Throughout your life you’ve been continuously asking yourself: “Who am I?” (i.e. what is my self-image), then proceeded to act accord to the answer. If you’ve been wondering why change is so difficult, the reason at the heart of your struggle is: you are remaining faithful to your self-image. Drop your self-image, and you will be able to realize the options open to you, which you’ve never considered before because they clashed with your self-image.

*     *     *

These are some of the ideas I wish I had learned earlier in my life, which I look forward to mindfully living by for the rest of my life.

If you’re a blogger and would like to write up your own list of life lessons, check out Abubakar’s invitation and share your ideas with the world!

Photo credit: guldfisken

Categories
Productivity

Productivity Woes Over Google’s Pac-Man Game

Google's Pac-Man Game: Hero or Villain?
Google's Pac-Man Game: Hero or Villain?

Mashable, one of the top blogs for social media and Web 2.0 news, recently announced that Google’s Pac-Man game cost the world 4.8 MILLION hours of lost productivity! If you didn’t manage to catch the Pac-Man game, it was introduced on Google’s homepage on the day of Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary.

The startling number was computed by RescueTime, who shared some other interesting numbers about Google’s jab at global productivity.

While RescueTime is sobbing over all those wasted hours and dollars, I am quietly admiring Google’s creativity and – you guessed it – playing Pac-Man.

It’s not because I don’t care about productivity or that I’m too addicted to video games to admit the damage Google has caused.

It’s because I don’t believe that:

  • Productivity is measured by time
  • Recreational activities compromise productivity (on the contrary, they help boost productivity, when used properly)

We do not become more or less productive based solely on the number of hours we spend tapping away at a keyboard. The more time we spend working, the more our need for recreational activities grows.

It’s healthy to break focused chunks of work time with short, playful breaks, where our minds aren’t engaged in serious tasks.

Pac-Man is a great way to enjoy such breaks. It’s simple, fun and risk-free, where you get to enjoy the excitement that comes with being chased by ghosts and trying to make split-second decisions, without suffering any real-world damages.

To make recreational activities work for you and not against you, please bear the following guidelines in mind:

  1. Choose how long you well spend doing focused work (you might find 25 to 30 minutes to be a healthy option)
  2. Choose when to spend time on a recreational activity, and how much time you will spend on it (5 minutes is good when taking a short break between sessions of focused work)
  3. Never use recreational activities as a method of evasion: trying to avoid thinking about an issue, or working on a task. Even if you do get to enjoy the activity, it is compromising your overall well-being
  4. Make sure your expectations for a day’s work are realistic, so you don’t feel guilty about not getting enough work done (which you will most likely blame on the time you spent playing)

Now that I managed to write a blog post, I will celebrate this accomplishment with a quick game of Pac-Man! 😀

Categories
Productivity

The Truth About Distractions

It is very common to blame distractions for getting in the way of our goals. We play the victim role, because distractions are obviously the villains in the story of our lives.

“I was innocently working on my dear novel, when all of a sudden a big, ugly, hairy distraction came and pulled me away from it!”

“I was writing my report when I heard a chirping noise from my computer. It was getting louder and louder that I could no longer focus on my work. I went through all open windows to see where the noise was coming from and discovered that it was my Twitter client informing me of new tweets! I had to go through them so I can get back to my precious work.”

“I uninstalled all chat programs from my computer, but was shocked to discover that they have miraculously reinstalled themselves on my computer! Not to be rude or anti-social, I had to start a few conversations to see how my friends were doing, and replied to a few messages I received. I feel pressured by my social obligations that I can’t seem to get anything done.”

You may notice from these fictional stories that they have a high dosage of fiction.

The truth is, distractions don’t usually get in our way. We put them there to distract us!

I’m not talking about interruptions beyond your control, or circumstances where it is more appropriate to deal with an issue before getting back to your work.

I’m talking about distractions such as checking email, surfing the web, shuffling papers, going through Facebook pages, checking for new tweets every 3 minutes, etc. We’re not forced to do any of these things, but we choose to do them.

But why would we do such a horrible thing to ourselves and our goals? Don’t we want to see ourselves succeed?

We resort to distractions to avoid discomfort that our work (or any situation) makes us feel.

This “discomfort” comes in all shapes, sizes and colors, and spans all the seven life areas. To understand why we go crawling to distractions, it’s important to understand the many different motivations that make distractions more appealing than getting work done.

Let’s look at some examples of “discomfort” now…

Examples of “Discomfort”

Spiritual: A clash between your spiritual values and your work tasks can lead to a physical and mental standstill. Rather than sit there staring at a blank screen, or acknowledge this clash, you resort to distractions.

“Let’s see what people are saying on Twitter…”

Intellectual: Learning a new subject can test your learning abilities and lead you to question your intelligence. Rather than persist in pursuit of understanding, you look for the closest exit.

“I’ll get back to this after I watch that YouTube video everyone’s talking about…”

Psychological: We approach every task we undertake with an impression of ourselves and our abilities (mentally etched as a self-image). When we have a positive self-image, we do everything within our powers to avoid circumstances and experiences that may prove that our self-image is a self-deception. It’s best to think we can do it, rather than discover that we can’t.

“I wonder what Digg has on its front page…”

Social: There’s a reason why public speaking is one of the biggest phobias people have: other people are scary. They judge. They mock. They can do things better than we can. What will they think of me? How can I approach my colleague with this request? What if he turns me down? How will I react?

“Oh, let me check my emails before I make that phone call…”

Professional: If the quality of your work matters to you, and you feel that the last product you produced is in need of improvements, how enthusiastic would you feel about promoting it? My guess is you won’t be all that enthusiastic. You could work on your product to bring it to a level of quality you’re happy with or promote it as version 1.0 of your work with an upgrade to come in the near future. Or, you can look for distractions to take your mind off the difficult decision you have to make.

“I think my sister added photos from her latest trip to Facebook…”

Recreational: If you’ve been working for 6 hours straight, without any mental breaks or recreational rituals to replenish your mind, body and soul, don’t be surprised if you gasp for distractions to bring you a sense of pleasure and relief you’re depriving yourself from. We may wrongly think that working for many hours on end is necessary for success and the symbol of productivity, when in fact it diminishes our productivity and sense of joy.

The danger here is that we mix work and play in an extremely unproductive way by constantly oscillating between work and distractions in the name of getting work done while being too afraid to acknowledge that we need a break from work.

“What movie am I gonna watch this weekend? Let me check out a few trailers before I decide.”

Physical: To stay focused and attentive your body needs to be supplied with the right nutrients and a healthy dosage of activity. If your body isn’t getting the attention it deserves, or isn’t making progress towards a healthier lifestyle, then your brain will look for less taxing activities to deal with.

“This desk is a mess! Let me tidy it up before I write that report.”

How to Deal with Distractions

While closing your favorite Twitter client or disconnecting from the Internet can help you face your work, you are only dealing with the symptoms of the problem and not its root cause.

The root cause is that you find it suitable to evade reality – and avoid dealing with your own feelings – in the hope that the problem you’re facing will somehow go away.

If this is your life strategy to deal with discomfort and difficult decisions, then you’ll resort to mental distractions when your handy browser and trusted softwares aren’t there to distract you.

Don’t blame the tools for your decision. Instead, pick a new life strategy.

When you face a difficult task, don’t look away. Stare at it with eyes wide open. Determine what’s to be done and do it.

If a thought is troubling you, acknowledge the thought or feeling, accept its presence in your psyche, then ask yourself:

How can I resolve this feeling? What can I do to move my project forward? Which life area is in need of my attention, and what can I do to alleviate the problem that exists there?

By confronting your problems rather than escaping from them, you will no longer resort to distractions as a coping mechanism. Only by changing your attitude towards life and its challenges – and never resorting to evasion – will you be able to deal with distractions on a root level, so that they can never come between you and your work.