Monotasking Is The New Multitasking We all know multitasking is inefficient. A classic 2007 study of Microsoft workers found that when they responded to email or instant messaging alerts, it took them, on average, nearly 10 minutes to deal with their inboxes or messages, and another 10-15 minutes to really get back into their original tasks. That means that a mere three distractions per hour can preclude you from getting anything else done. Then there’s the relationship “inefficiency” that comes from multitasking. We know this, yet we keep doing it. No human activity is immune. Fortunately, there are ways to learn to focus. Live right There are many reasons to exercise, hydrate, and get enough sleep--and the ability to fight distractions is one of them. Tie yourself to the mast To resist the original siren song, Odysseus bound himself to his ship so he couldn’t pursue these tempting creatures. Play offense Don’t tolerate boredom Bregman once spent a week consciously avoiding multitasking. Plan Accept your limits
Home 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. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. 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.
Mindfulness in Education - Mindfulness Meditation Exercises | Inner Explorer Introducing Programs to Fit Your School’s Needs Mindfulness-based social emotional learning (MBSEL) programs from Inner Explorer enhance traditional education by promoting ‘Learning from the Inside Out’. How Mindfulness Practices Work Typical teaching methods deliver content in a “top-down” format, focusing primarily on the intellect as the path to knowing. Mindfulness training, with the foundational practices of contemplation and reflection, allows children the space and opportunity to access and embody their inner wisdom, self-control, compassion, and focused understanding. We’ve developed MBSEL modules for Pre-k through 12th grade by using evidence-based research in key learning areas: mindfulnesscognitive neurobiologyphysiologysocial and emotional learning (SEL)heart-brain synchronizationguided imagerychild psychology Mindfulness Programs from Inner Explorer We’ve designed each program to open students to the possibilities and the pathways to their highest potential.
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.
Five remembrances for deep peace (Day 90) In learning to experience deep peace in the face of impermanence, we need to consider not just our inner experience, as I did yesterday, but our very lives, and the lives of those around us. Life is short; we all face loss. These things aren’t really different from what I was discussing yesterday, since it’s our inner feelings about changes in the world that we largely have to deal with, but the same situations can be looked at from different perspectives. When we’re actually experiencing loss, instability, and change, we can work on accepting the the feelings that arise with equanimity. But we can also prepare ourselves philosophically for painful changes that may happen in the future by reflecting on their inevitability. In the Pāli canon there is a set of five remembrances that help us to recollect that change, loss, and death are not unusual events, but are woven into the very fabric of existence. These remembrances are: If we do, it does a number of things. PS.
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. 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. What I found is that to make the transition successfully, executives must navigate a tricky set of changes in their leadership focus and skills, which I call the seven seismic shifts. Specialist to Generalist What is “enough”?
Peach & Coconut Communicate Peach and Coconut Communicate: A training exercise Heather Robinson. President SIETAR USA Seattle, WA, USA About a decade ago I encountered the model of “Peach and Coconut” as a metaphor for differences in the way people in Germany and the US communicate. Some say the model is based on Kurt Lewin’s work in which he graphically represented public and private domains in the personal psychology in Germany and the US. The exposition of the model upon which I have based this exercise was published by Suzanne Zaninelli1. I developed this training exercise as a consultant working for DaimlerChrysler when those two companies came together. Purpose and learning objectives: To introduce the “Peach and Coconut” model contrasting US and German communication style. Target audience This activity can be conducted in monocultural German groups, monocultural US groups or in bi- cultural German- US groups. Time Forty-five minutes Materials Procedure: Ask the participant group to describe a peach: -Friendly -Gruff
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. 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. Showing patience is a remarkable gift--because, ultimately, it shows how much you care.
www.creativityatwork.com/strategic-conversations-arts-based-dialogue/#.UUS2DrbB1-U Art is an invitation to have a conversation. Art is a potent catalyst for a deeper inquiry into business issues, providing the means for ‘artful reflection’ in organizational development. Art helps define who we are and what we stand for. Through art we can make it safe ask the deeper questions that lead to the emotional truth about a situation. Collaborative art-making processes help nurture relationships between dissimilar groups, fostering an appreciation for diverse and pluralistic points of view. Art making helps us slow down, quiet the mind and put us in touch with our inner wisdom. Artful Reflection and Leadership Presence Otto Scharmer’s Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges Theory U provides a language and structure for arts-based learning, dialogue and reflection, as a co-creative process for leadership, collaboration and innovation. Visual dialogue combines visual thinking processes — which involve painting, clay, drawing or diagramming— with Appreciative Inquiry.