The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time - Tony Schwartz
by Tony Schwartz | 8:53 AM March 14, 2012 Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work? It’s not just the number of hours we’re working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time. What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? The biggest cost — assuming you don’t crash — is to your productivity. But most insidiously, it’s because if you’re always doing something, you’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour. I know this from my own experience. If you’re a manager, here are three policies worth promoting: 1. 2. 3. It’s also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. 1. 2. 3.
How to Focus A Wandering Mind, by Wendy Hasenkamp
New research reveals what happens in a wandering mind—and sheds light on the cognitive and emotional benefits of increased focus. We’ve all been there. You’re slouched in a meeting or a classroom, supposedly paying attention, but your mind has long since wandered off, churning out lists of all the things you need to do—or that you could be doing if only you weren’t stuck here… Suddenly you realize everyone is looking your way expectantly, waiting for an answer. But don’t worry—you’re not alone. This suggests it might be good to find ways to reduce these mental distractions and improve our ability to focus. What happens in the wandering mind? For something that happens so often, what do we really know about this process of mind-wandering? For thousands of years, contemplative practices such as meditation have provided a means to look inward and investigate our mental processes. Sounds simple enough, but it’s much easier said than done. The benefits of building focus
The Super Simple Phone Hack That Will Transform Your Productivity
A while back, my cofounder Leo gave me an interesting suggestion: He said I should try disabling all notifications on my iPhone. I find this suggestion especially interesting because it is one that goes against the normal phone setup. It’s so usual to stick to how things are, and with iPhone apps the easiest thing to do is to “allow” all those notifications. It seems almost odd to even consider doing things any other way. I chose to go along with Leo’s suggestion, although I was admittedly quite skeptical that it would change much. I imagined that I had pretty good willpower, and that I am fairly productive already. What it’s like to live without notifications “Don’t confuse the urgent with the important.” - Preston Ni For the first week that I turned off notifications, I checked Twitter, Facebook, email, and other places regularly. With zero notifications, I feel like I can get my head stuck into a problem much more easily than I did before. More than anything, I feel a lot calmer.
How Managers Become Leaders
Artwork: Adam Ekberg, Country Road, 2005, ink-jet print Harald (not his real name) is a high-potential leader with 15 years of experience at a leading European chemical company. He started as an assistant product manager in the plastics unit and was quickly transferred to Hong Kong to help set up the unit’s new Asian business center. As sales there soared, he soon won a promotion to sales manager. Three years later he returned to Europe as the marketing and sales director for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, overseeing a group of 80 professionals. All of Harald’s hard work culminated in his appointment as the head of the company’s plastic resins unit, a business with more than 3,000 employees worldwide. Like Harald, many rising stars trip when they shift from leading a function to leading an enterprise and for the first time taking responsibility for a P&L and oversight of executives across corporate functions. Specialist to Generalist What is “enough”?
10 Habits of Remarkably Giving People
Think about people you truly respect. Think about people you truly admire. Think about people you love to be around. They may not be rich. They may not be highly accomplished. They may not be household names. Yet you love to be around them--and you would love to be more like them. They give: generously, selflessly, and without expectation of return. Here's what they give: 1. Relatively few of us work hard to find reasons to praise the person who simply meets standards. Remarkably giving people can often see the good in another person before that person sees it in herself, providing a spark that just might help her reach her true potential. 2. While it's relatively easy to ask for help, it's harder to ask for help when the assistance is personal. I once went to a meeting to talk about layoffs; by the time I got back to the plant word had already spread that cuts were coming. He thought and said, "Just tell everyone you tried. Unfortunately I didn't do it often enough. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Stephen's Blog
how to write a book, how to make a book, literary agenciesYou can write a memoir, which includes recollections and stories about various aspects of your mother’s lifestyle.Or, you can pick to make your mother a fictional character in a book that is inspired by her existence story. The two choices will need you to know a great deal of background information about your mom. A memoir will probably be more of an emotional experience for you than a fictional account.Suggestion Two: Gather the FactsOkay, now that you know which course you are heading to take with this book, it really is time to gather tons of facts about mom. Confident, you grew up with her and have tons of reminiscences, but you might be not the only 1 that she interacts with.But nevertheless, you need to start with your very own special reminiscences about her. Then you can go about interviewing various family, pals and acquaintances about what they know, or remember about her.
Vancouver Blogs
Audio Playlist
Audio For A Healthy Mind The audio files on this site are all chosen to enable the listener to improve the quality of their lives. All geared to get us started, and to continue our journey, on "The Self Determined Path". You're Here... There are quite a few free meditation hypnosis mp3 audio tracks here. I always liked to read through them. There are Alpha and Theta frequencies associated with meditative states. Binaural beats are auditory brain stem responses which originate in the superior olivary nucleus of each hemisphere.
HP Launches The HP Pavilion 14, its First Chromebook, For $329.99
4 February '13, 09:26am Follow HP may have inadvertently leaked news that it was working to release a Chrome OS-powered notebook at the end of last month, but today the company has confirmed the launch of its new Pavilion 14 Chromebook, pricing the device at $329.99. The HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook offers a 14-inch display, is powered by a 1.1GHz Intel Celeron Processor 847 and offers up to 4GB of RAM (2GB as standard), a 16GB SSD drive, HDMI output, three USB ports, SD card support and a built-in webcam for video chats, HP’s Chromebook also provides consumers with the choice of a bigger notebook compared to the 11.6-inch Chromebooks offered by Samsung and Acer. While its computer is bigger, HP believes you can expect to get around 4 hours of use from its Chromebook, which may be enough for those that work on-the-go, but won’t match the 6.3 hours that you can get from other Chrome OS notebooks. ➤ HP Pavilion 14
