This week's World Wide Developer's Conference is an Apple enthusiast's dream. As a recent convert, I've been swept into the fold and am curious about what Apple will announce this week. Rumors of a Nano-sized Mac computer, a 3-G iPhone or even an update to Mac OS are swirling about. Lots of eyes will be on Apple this week. As a company, they obviously have figured out how to get folks excited about "the next thing".
Which makes me wonder- how do you build anticipation among those you work with? Here are some simple and effective ways to cultivate professional curiosity in your area of work:
Promise results...and deliver. Stick to a plan and deliver the goods. A deadline. A report. A presentation, whatever.
Be a person of your word. If you lay out a gameplan, stay with it even when times get tough.
Be a person who is passionate about follow up. Write notes. Make calls. Pay attention to details.
Cross your t's. Little things matter a great deal. During your weekly review, double check the details.
Organize weekly. Don't just show up on Monday, bring your A-game as a result of planning for the week.
Conceive powerful ideas. Go public with your notions of change.
Listen to those who've been there before. There are folks in your workplace and in your industry who know things- tap into their insights.
This morning I chose to arrive 15 minutes later to work. Not late just later. In that same block of time, I sat quietly and read an article that I've been putting off for a while. A great use of a quarter hour.
Where in your schedule are 15 quiet moments?
I like to think that there is a bit of monk in all of us. The BBC series, Finding Sanctuary was so popular because of this. When I take students away from the noise and hustle of the world, they too find that quiet moments actually boost their overall well-being when they return to the "real world".
Some suggestions from Finding Sanctuary:
Find a quiet place free from distraction
Sit with your limbs uncrossed and with a straight back, hands in your lap
Simply breathe at regular speed but breathe deeply and relax
Close your eyes and think of a beautiful scene from the natural world
Take a simple phrase and repeat it continuously in time with your breathing
Five Meditation Phrases from the Christian Tradition:
What advice would you like to give someone at work? You know the person- always late, out of sorts, disorganized and missing every opportunity for a raise...we all work with at least a few of these "special people". Some tips that I'd like to give:
How many people do you know that spend more time planning than doing? Status reports, benchmarks and meetings can get in the way of old-fashioned doing.
I'm not really advocating that we abandon effective strategic planning, but sometimes a next-action step is all that is needed. Case in point- I gave a talk last night to a group of students and their families on the value of Catholic education. Having given hundreds of talks, I normally prepare a rough outline and then let it happen, relying on instincts and experience. On this particular night though, I prepared an overly detailed spec of the evening's topic.
Too detailed.
I was overly concerned with not forgetting an item on my overly detailed outline and therefore delivered an A-minus talk instead of a homerun. I would imagine that the audience knew nothing of my consternation but I went home and evaluated my preparation and follow through.
What's a GTD take on strategic planning? It's not a matter of take-it-or-leave-it. Rather, it's about integrating next actions with the benchmarks and stages of a good plan.
Let's face it- it's in to be green and there are so many ways to participate. Walking, public transportation, recycling, cleaning products, organic food, recycled products, sustainable goods...the list goes on and on. I recently found these stylish outdoor pots, made from corn husks.
The Vatican has even weighed in on greening the planet.
A green home is one thing but a green workplace may be more difficult to find. Or create. You see, at home, I only have five people to motivate towards recycling. At work, forty-five. More difficult yes, but the impact of forty-five could be tremendous. Plus, that's nine times the amount of paper that could be reused as something else. Nine times the amount of electricity...nine times the impact.
Today's post is from a handout from a talk that I gave this past weekend called, "Developing a Keynote Address: How to Organize Your Inspiration".
"Peace is the tranquility of
order." St. Augustine
Capturing Your Ideas
Have a notebook handy wherever
you are. This can be as simple as a magnetic pad on your fridge (to
recall what you need as your kitchen gets empty) to a 50cent notepad for your
coat pocket. You never know when a great idea will strike and give up on
the idea of “remembering it later”. Get
ideas out of your head- if you don't they'll come back and you'll wonder why
you haven't done anything with them. As David Allen says, "Your
head's for having ideas, not for holding them." If you
think it, ink it.
Keeping Your Ideas
Maintaining lists of anything
that you want to reference later is a sign of an active mind. Here is
where you've taken your seemingly random "capture anytime" ideas and
put them into a system of lists. Lists might include:
Great Saint quotes
Talks I'd like to give
Questions I'd like to ask the Pope
Pilgrimage locations I'd like to visit
Books I'd like to read
Next time at Home Depot
Places to visit in San Diego
Coffee flavors to avoid
Blog post ideas
Blood pressure readings
Activating
Your Ideas
When you can take your ideas and
put them into motion you are making progress. This might be an idea that
you captured on the back of a knapkin or something more formally on a
list. This of course does not happen all
at once. It takes practice to move from idea to action. How do you
do it? By visiting your lists on a regular basis and sitting with them,
you can make tremendous progress in life. When it comes to giving a talk,
getting from list to presentation is an art-form. Gather your ideas,
write down some thoughts, then let your outline percolate for a few days.
Revisit it and then put on your next addition. A great talk will look
like a home that has had a competent architect working behind the scenes: it
looks and feels right, accomplishing everything that the home owner had in
mind. Others will feel at home with your message- now that’s hospitality.
You have the education. Your resume is impressive as the day is long. The passion is still there. You still arrive early and stay late. Your planner is rough around the edges due to its use. You've still got your edge and you could work in any number of competing organizations.
But what if it's still not good enough?
What if the community that you're currently in doesn't get it and thinks that you're kind of ordinary? Worse yet, what if they are taking you for granted, thinking that you're a lifer?
Your 'best', while still impressive to some, has lost its luster. The honeymoon is over and you see the warts around every corner. You have three choices:
Stay and be miserable.
Stay, dig in and look beyond the 'now'.
Leave.
The choice you make is of course a reflection of yourself. Better do some power reflecting and get away in solitude. It's the best that you can do.
On most Tuesday mornings you'll find me at my local Dunkin Donuts and then in the office by 6:30am. I skip my morning routine completely in favor of an adjusted route that gets me to work before anyone else.
As I've noted before (Mini Routines Enhance Productivity & A Backup Plan for Your Morning Routine), morning routines are very important to getting the day started on the right foot. I try to start my day at 5am every week day, getting to work by 7am and beating the rush of traffic and last minute driving delays.
But once a week, I blow up my routine.
On Tuesdays, I skip all of the usual components of my morning routine, from prayer time to the Senseo coffee ritual. Instead, I jump right into the shower and then head off for work. I treat myself to a cup of coffee on the way and get to work while it's still dark.
For me, this once-a-week break in my routine works wonders. First, it keeps my momentum from Monday moving in the right direction. Second, I get to enjoy a great cup of coffee. Third, I can enjoy some quality silence before everyone else gets to work. Fourth, I can tackle some difficult projects that need attention, before the cram and busyness of the day settles in. Why not switch up your morning routine one day per week?
The Spiritual Twist Trappist monks have often had the tradition of an extended walk, just to 'clean out the cobwebs'. Even elderly monks will take part in a 6-7 mile hike. Like a sports car that should be driven fast and hard every once in a while, even the monk knows that his body can benefit from some extended periods of exercise.
Today's guest post is from Sam Carpenter of Work the System. Sam's new book looks to be a great read and TDS will be reviewing it in the coming months.
Too
many of us finger-point and complain about what is not to our liking.
It’s too bad we do that because it’s not just a waste of
time, it’s a diversion from what needs to happen if we are
to reach our goals. Personal excuses, generalizations about the
dire state of the world, and under-the-radar or overt attempts to
change the people around us are ineffectual to the point of
paralysis. These preoccupations are distractions from the personal
moves we could make on-the-ground that would actually produce what we
really want in our lives: freedom, wealth, and control of our
destinies. And pursuing personal peace, prosperity, and control are
noble goals because the sure way to realize them is to create
something of value.
The
key word here is “control.” It’s what we need.
What
about the generally accepted notion that someone who seeks firm
control is an unpleasant personality - someone who needs to loosen
up? With some rare exceptions, I contend that this ubiquitous
assumption is wrong. Despite the almost visceral societal belief to
the contrary, there is a direct connect between happiness and the
amount of control we attain. But, let’s be clear: Happiness
is not found in the control we have over others; it’s found in
the control we have over the moment-to-moment trajectory of our own
lives, and more exactly — here we get to the root of things —
the control of the personal systems that are ours to adjust and
maintain.
The
solution to getting what we want is not about fixing the world
condition or ingesting the perfect drug. And it’s not about
acquiring more things, being famous, or finding a new spouse. The
solution is rooted in adopting a different perspective — a
different way of seeing, thinking, and processing the life we already
have. So here’s a simple, attainable, step-by-step way for you
to “get what you want.”
Face the world
cold-turkey and courageously question the sacred status quo as
it relates to your own self. Sort out what’s going on within
your individual areas of direct influence, and then work on those
things. Don’t spend time and energy on the processes you can’t
affect.
Change your
perspectiveof the world’s mechanics. Society
insists that we live in a “holistic” world where we are
channeled to be keenly aware that everything we do affects
everything else. We are paralyzed into a state of inaction by what
we see as a hopeless jumble of sights, sounds, and events around us.
Resist the holistic, blanket solutions to everyday challenges and
problems in your life: psychotropic drugs, the lure of a new car,
house, job, or life partner. It’s OK to separate things; to
improve them one at a time.
Understand that
99.9 percent of everything around you operates just fine.Consider your body, for instance, and the myriad of chemical,
electrical and mechanical components that operate flawlessly. It’s
a numbers game, and the things of the world that are not performing
well are a very small percentage of the entirety. Making things
better for yourself is not going to require as much work as you
think.
Separate your
job, health, and relationships into linear sub-systems that are
simple and understandable.Then, fully understanding what you’re
seeing in front of you, fix these sub-systems one-by-one, making
each as efficient as possible. When your task is complete, when you
have fixed all your sub-systems with this non-holistic approach, you
will see that you have constructed terrifically efficient holistic
primary systems: your job, body, relationships. Your life.
When your life changes as a result of this new perspective and
methodology, it will be enormously satisfying. The improvements will
have come about because of what you did. You will have
taken control of your own life.
-Sam
Carpenter
Sam
Carpenter, author and speaker, is president and CEO of Centratel
(www.centratel.com),
one of the nation’s handful of elite telephone answering
services. Visit www.workthesystem.com
to purchase your copy of Work the System. A free download of
“Six Steps to Working Less and Making More” is also
available on the site.
There were times when I wished I had chosen Montana as home base. Apparently folks there have the shortest commuting time in the entire United States. On the other end of the spectrum, those in Maryland and New York spend over 100 hours a year in the car, heading to work. If it weren't for a decision that my wife and I made this past summer, I'd still be spending huge chunks of time in my car, heading to and from work.
For us, it was a lifestyle decision.
We could have afforded a larger home about 45 minutes west of our home but opted instead for a small home that is only 6 miles from work. While the process of downsizing has been an adjustment, there has not been a single day in which I wished I had a bigger commute. I now spend 12 relaxing minutes driving to work, enjoying quiet back roads and listening to talk radio. No traffic whatsoever. This comes after nearly 10 years of heavy commuting.
My lifestyle has benefited in so many ways which leads me to my top-7 reasons for chopping the commute into something more manageable.
Weather. Snow, ice, accidents and everything in between haunt the long commuter.
Gas prices. Prices in the Northeast hover near $3 and the West Coast is even worse. When will the cost of filling up become a factor for decreasing commute time?
Traffic stress. Let's face it: driving can be stressful. If it's not your own vehicle it might be someone else's. Factor in poor drivers, potholes and traffic jams and the daily commute can become a nightmare. I have friends who build their life around the traffic windows- practical but sobering.
Sickness. When I lived far from work and was slightly under the weather, I pulled the "I'm not coming in" trigger fast. Why is this? I believe that the thought of spending 30-45 minutes in the car only makes health worse. This translates into more sick days used per year.
"Extra" work events. I work in a school which features plenty of night and weekend events. Now that I live close to work, I can attend plenty of these "extra" events without feeling as if I'm wicked far from home.
Auto fatigue. A long commute puts a lot of wear and tear on a car.
More time with your family. There's a reason why this one is last- because family ought to come first. If you added up the amount of time spent in the car for one year, then estimated what you could do with your loved ones during that same time, the family naturally comes out the winner.
Meaningful work can change the world. When infused with purpose and meaning, our work becomes a powerful vehicle for learning and insight. The Daily Saint aims to connect our workaday lives with the values that guide us.
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