Take a Day Off From Tech
I hereby declare my first No-Tech Sunday a success! After hemming and hawing, resisting and justifying … I did it. Saturday night I sent my last email and made a Facebook post (about going offline, of course!), and turned off the laptop. So that I wouldn’t forget, I stuck a Post-It on the lid announcing “NO TECH SUNDAY ” And that was it until Monday morning. Yes, I felt the urge to check, but I held firm.* On my quest to re-condition my responses (see previous post), I achieved the following positive reinforcement of my behavior: Nipped several escalating conflicts in the bud...
Read MoreWhat’s Behind the Compulsion to Check Email
Do you feel annoyed and burdened by email and yet feel a perverse desire to check it throughout the day, even when you don’t really need to? As if maybe something really interesting or important is waiting in the Inbox? (This hope is usually disappointed, of course.) In an interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air Tuesday, New York Times technology reporter Matt Richtel explained why we persist in this behavior. It’s called intermittent reinforcement. Although most of the time our email is not exciting, every once in a while we find something rewarding – an email from a friend, a...
Read MoreIn Pursuit of Happiness
The United States’ Declaration of Independence holds that all people possess the unalienable right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” I learned this in school, and then somewhere along the line I got the idea that to pursue happiness was somehow selfish or shallow. But the more I study and work with happiness, the more I know that Thomas Jefferson was really onto something. Fast forward to my beach read this summer: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. I’m going to spare you my review – what I admired about the book and what annoyed me – and instead...
Read MoreDrudgery Transformed
How can you stay motivated when you are overwhelmed by a To Do list as long as your arm? Or when everything feels like drudgery and you just can’t make yourself get started? One way I help my clients get into action is to connect them to the purpose underlying what they are doing. Tying one’s activities to a greater mission can transform them from chores into meaningful work. Think for a moment about an artist, a painter perhaps. From the most mundane point of view, her work could be described as menial labor: set up the easel, get out the paints, mix a color, dip the brush, make...
Read MoreDIY – Ten Questions Coaches Ask to Improve Work Effectiveness and Satisfaction
Are you satisfied with your work life and performance? Here are some great questions to ask yourself if you want to improve your effectiveness, satisfaction, and overall happiness. What are my top three work priorities? Biggest challenges? What are my three greatest strengths? What is my greatest weakness? When and under what circumstances am I most effective? How do I waste time and energy? What would make my job more fun? What would make me feel proud? What am I tolerating? What work relationships are most important to me and who are my strongest allies? Where do I most want to...
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