Coordinates 08.20.01
Welcome to Coordinates 08.20.01
As promised, we’re picking up where we left off in our last newsletter, offering additional content to help you take the crazy out of busy. Who doesn’t want to do that?
Read on below.
And if you missed the last newsletter, you can see a copy here, as well as the article we shared on “10 Productivity & Energy Management Tips to Avoid Overwhelm (& Still Make an Impact).”
Here's to wrestling time to the ground with ease.
Be well,
Kathy
Insights to Inspire to Action
The Round Up on Smart Tips to Wrestle the Crazy out of Busy
Identify what really is driving your results so you can focus and do less.
Set your time and effort against what really matters.
Make progress on projects even when you have a lot of meetings.
Set A/B schedules to focus your thinking and reduce inefficiency.
Tips on setting boundaries.
How to keep work from invading your personal life.
Start to believe in the counter-intuitive productivity power of pauses.
Learn the power in taking walks.
Learn about some new productivity apps if you like tech tools and toys.
On Watch, Take Notice
What’s Trending
The Addiction to Busyness
Our addiction to busyness has been trending for some time. I wrote about it back in 2018. And it’s still relevant today.
It was the topic of a recent podcast I listened to with Brigid Schulte. Schulte is the director of the Better Life Lab at New America and the author of “Overwhelmed,” she shares that when we are crazy busy, we don’t think straight. We actually lose IQ points. It makes it that much more difficult to pull up and think strategically. A few pieces of advice:
Focus on the one thing to get done each day.
Block time on your calendar for doing that critical project.
Create slack in your calendar. For example, she blocks a couple of hours each Friday for the tasks she wasn’t able to get to all week.
But some even ask, are we really as busy as we think? Back in 2016, Laura Vanderkam’s article, “The Busy Person’s Lies” came out in The New York Times. So, are we?
Regardless, one thing is true. We have a choice in the matter. I’m not saying it’s easy. But we can make choices and put systems in place to get out of the binds of busyness.
It’s time to take charge of your time.
Book in Brief
“The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices” by Casper ter Kuile
Hear an example from Kuile.
Worth a Listen
Learn how tiny habits can help you make change and create efficiency in your life with B.J. Fogg, founder of the behavior design lab at Stanford University and of the Tiny Habits Academy.
The Monthly Progress Practice – August
At the beginning of the year, we shared our Monthly Progress Practice. Progress happens through small actions, so we offer a monthly practice of small actions or micro-habits to inspire positive change this year.
Our guidance for August: “Change your mind. It’s ‘back-to-work’ time, so time for new perspectives. Where can you be open to changing your mind?”
We think this is a great thought to consider during these times:
Where can you challenge your own thinking?
Ask your team’s for new perspectives? Challenge them to think differently and create the forum for sharing divergent ideas.
What’s a challenge you are facing? How can you bring a new perspective to solving the problem. I’d like to advocate for a book I’ve shared before, “Creating Great Choices: A Leader’s Guide to Integrative Thinking.” I love this method for developing divergent, new models that solve problems in new, non-binary ways.
“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.” —Peter Drucker
“If you don’t pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.” — David Allen
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