Category: Everything else

A few of us met for brunch on Sunday to discuss an exciting new project. This was at a restaurant here in Evanston. We were soon ready to order. The conversation went like this –

Staff: “What would you like to have today?”
One of us: “I’d like the stuffed French pancakes”
Staff: “Ooooooooohhh. That is delicious. What about you?”
Next person: “I’d like the …..”
Staff: “Aaaaahhhhh. That is.. I mean, that is truly amazing. ..”

Every time we mentioned a dish, he’d give this genuine ‘ooh’ or ‘aah’ that made us all laugh. I had a few thoughts as we went through this exercise.

1. Ordering is normally an interruption when you have a new project to discuss. Somehow, he made it fun.
2. He really cared about the food they served. It just showed. There are few things that equal that feeling – it is so vital to a great dining experience.
3. All of his actions and behavior contributed to our happiness. Aren’t restaurants really in the happiness business?
4. And, finally, it made me feel grateful for all we had. It was snowing that day. And, here we were, seated in a warm and comfortable restaurant about to order a delicious meal and discuss an exciting new project that we had the privilege to work on. Life was good.

So many great lessons. All it took was a little bit of enthusiasm. A really nice meal.. but an even better life lesson.

1. Clarity – Why do we need to do this? How must it be done? What must be done next? Clarity of why, how, and what takes some time and thinking. But, once we know, there are few things that can stop us.

2. Momentum – It isn’t always easy to get the necessary amount of clarity before we get started. So, the other approach is to start by checking small items of a task list so we build the “getting-things-done” momentum. Like all hacks, this comes with an note of caution – the procrastination forces can use it against us. We can find ourselves spending absurd amounts of times doing unimportant stuff under the pretext of building momentum. Use it with care.

3. Willpower – If all else fails, willpower is the ultimate weapon. The more of it you have, the better your life becomes. The good news is that it works like a muscle – learn more at our learnographic here. Improve your willpower, improve your life.

Here’s to productivity!

Every great story has adversity of some sort. Every memorable hero has shortcomings – often in plenty. And, find me a business or political leader who doesn’t have visible insecurities.

We can always choose to look at everything we do not have to do work that matters. Or we can choose to focus entirely on what we have going for us. A little bit more confidence that our plan will work and a lot more resources are always welcome, of course. But, often, what we have is more than adequate.

No one has a perfect start. No one has a perfect set of circumstances to do their life’s work. Every great thing we do requires us to make a difference in spite of the many obstacles.

So, when you’re starting on that jigsaw puzzle that is your next project and find a missing piece, don’t fret. Celebrate. Nothing great was ever done without the “in spite of”..

We were in the midst of a difficult crisis project. A massive amount of work needed to get done in limited time. We faced a wide variety of reactions as we worked with our client to get the work done.

As is generally the case, a few folks rose to the occasion. And, one of them became my absolute inspiration for doing difficult work.

When faced with a list of things that needed to be done, this wise friend would generally ask – “Does it need to get done?” And, when the answer was yes, she’d just say – “Well, let’s just suck it up and get it done.” And she would just get on with it. No frills, no fuss.

Her response was often in complete contrast to situation. But, that’s exactly what we needed. There was no time to sit down and make sure we felt good about what needed to be done. Things just needed to get done.. and they needed to get done now.

Difficult work isn’t done because it feels great. In fact, you’re often doing it when the cause seems hopeless.

Difficult work is done because people who realize it needs to get done just get on with it and do it.

If all looks bleak and negative today, it is probably a sign that you need some sleep.

On a Monday three weeks ago, I found myself feeling very negative. Every thing I was doing seemed headed down the drain. There came a moment when I was telling a friend I was disappointed with my performance on a test and that all was looking dark. He reminded me to follow the process. That was ironic because that’s what I generally do.

I realized then that there was something wrong. And, what was different about that day? 4 hours of sleep. A bit more thought led to this – optimism takes willpower -> sleep drains willpower => low sleep leads to low optimism.

This felt so obvious and, yet, I’d never made the connection. I needed a bit more evidence though and I got it over the past two days. I was running on low sleep over the past two days and, voila, I was as pessimistic as I had been for a long time. That’s not to say that pessimism is bad. A healthy dose of pessimism is useful. But, I find that we’re all wired with healthy amounts by default. It takes effort to look beyond the pessimism and focus on getting things done.

And, as I’ve recently discovered, sleep is critical to maintaining sufficient amounts of optimism.

One final musing – I also find optimism to be the key to making long-term decisions. Pessimism definitely doesn’t seem to inspire long-term thinking. I wonder if that is one of the contributors of the absence of long-term thinking among sleep deprived politicians and executives..

As a rule, the world is a messy place. There’s a lot of chaos and randomness. While our actions certainly influence what happens to us, we’re also influenced by the actions of the many humans around us who are working to influence their lives. It isn’t an easy job facing an unstructured mess as we wake up in the morning (of course, it gets much harder if we’re sleep deprived – that’s a topic for another post).

The simplest tool I’ve found to move from unstructured to structured is the morning routine. I have a list of things I copy and paste into my task list every morning – blog, read feeds, clear email, charge phone, send a text to my wife with the day’s schedule, freshen up and get breakfast. All of this takes between an hour and ninety minutes but really sets me up for the day. And, there are two reasons it works.

The first is momentum. These are tasks I know how to do. So, getting started with these and checking them off builds momentum.

The second is comfort. I definitely find comfort in the predictability of this morning routine. While structure is helpful in providing the requisite clarity to remove procrastination and get things done, I think comfort is a very important effect of structure. On mornings when the rest of the day feels like going to war while running uphill and against the wind, a touch of comfort is always appreciated.

On mornings like today when I feel like I need a healthy dose of both momentum and comfort, it is nice to know that the morning routine will give me a head-start. The rest will be up to me and will depend on the choices I make through the day, of course.

But, that’s just normal service and is what makes life life. And, I sure am glad I’m in good health to experience it.

I came across this quote – “Weak people revenge, strong people forgive, intelligent people ignore.”

While in jest, I find this very true. Forgiveness, while an act of strength, does mean you spend time thinking about what happened. And that is often not worth the effort. Sh*t happens. Depending on how we’re feeling, it might even seem personal and directed at us. Sometimes it is. Most of the time, it really isn’t. Mountains and mole hills are often matters of perspective.

As I grow up, I’m learning to ignore so much more than before. I’m also learning that it is best to keep intensely focused on what we need to do and just be kind.

The world will roll on without us.

There’s one thing we cannot get away from – intensity of focus. The more intense our focus, the more we get done.

We can tweak to-do lists, internalize a hundred productivity hacks, and buy the latest-and-greatest time saving cool gadget. But, there’s no hacking intensity of focus.

We either need to find out the schedule and diet that best suits our ability to focus or learn to do so regardless of environment. Sleeping well, eating well, and focusing hard are important pre-requisites to intensity of focus.

As we plan our week, let’s plan for days when we spend our focus energy well. That is the single most important contributor to the results we will have at the end of the week.

The longer your task list, the more tempting it is to do two things at once. What happens after that is predictable – dilution of focus, result of two tasks completed with 60% quality, and frustration.

The way it actually works is that the longer your task list, the more important it is to be fully present in what you are doing now. Attempting to do two things simultaneously is not the solution. Focusing on what you are doing now is.

So, take the time to really think about what you want to get done. Once you commit to it, there’s no escaping being present. The more you have to get done and the more packed your schedule is, the more important it becomes to be present.

“The essence of Zen is doing one thing at a time.”