Time Management Writ Large

Just a quick post to pass along a truly inspiring TED talk.  Designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his studio every seven years to take a one-year creative sabbatical.  Amazing things happen. I love the way that Sagmeister engages in a kind of time management writ large, thinking about time use over the course of his entire life.  He figures he can take these sabbaticals by reducing his retirement by 5 years and interspersing that time into his working years.

While we all don’t have the resources or flexibility to do what Sagmeister does, it is interesting to think about what possibilities could emerge if we were to think of time management on such a grand scale. [ted id=649] I originally saw this talk referenced in this Harvard Business blog post.

Feedback From The Corner Office

Each Sunday, the Business section of the NY Times runs "The Corner Office," an interview by Adam Bryant with a prominent CEO about his or her leadership and management style.  What is striking about this week's interview with Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, is Ms. Bartz's commitment to giving and receiving regular, timely feedback.   Ms. Bartz views herself as talkative to a fault, and admits that sometimes she has trouble listening.  To counter  these bad habits, Ms. Bartz asks for feedback:

I also ask simple questions, like 'How am I doing? What should I do differently?' At first, people are shocked when you ask them that. They won’t answer right away because they actually don’t think you’re genuine about it, so you have to kind of keep probing and make it safe. They eventually will come around and say, 'Well, just this.'

How many of us are this conscious about asking for regular, in-the-moment feedback?  It is an interaction that carries a certain amount of risk for both parties, and can be uncomfortable because it disrupts conversational norms.  But the potential benefits -- including being able to make minor adjustments before  full-blown problems emerge -- are huge.  

Ms. Bartz is also committed to giving regular feedback.  She describes what she calls her "puppy theory":

When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you don’t say six months later, 'Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?' That doesn’t make any sense. 'This is what’s on my mind. This is quick feedback.' And then I’m on to the next thing.

If this regular feedback cycle were the norm, Ms. Bartz suggests, organizations could do away with the formal performance review process altogether.  I would suggest that regular, timely feedback is a good way to go but that a performance review focused on the bigger picture, looking backward and forward, can be a useful compliment.  

As for me, while I feel pretty confident in giving feedback that is specific, timely, actionable and relevant (the "STAR" method), I often gloss over asking for direct feedback.  Especially now, as I juggle a number of group projects, I find myself wondering from time to time, "How am I being perceived by my teammates? Am I being a good team member?"  Not translating these worries into an explicit request for feedback is a missed opportunity for growth.

Ms. Bartz's approach is a good reminder that when we find ourselves with questions about our own performance, the best way to address them may be to simply ask them aloud to others.

Taming the Stress of Our Plugged-In Lives

As much as the web and portable technology have made our lives easier, they have also brought new stresses.   We can sometimes find ourselves overwhelmed by the emails, friend requests, blog feeds, Twitter feeds, and action alerts that seem to be demanding an increasing amount of our time.  The answer is not to opt out of these technologies, but to find ways to maximize their benefits while minimizing the stresses they bring.

Here are a couple of strategies for taming the stress of our plugged-in lives. Re-calibrate your sense of urgency and importance.

It's been fifteen years since Steven Covey, A. Roger Merrill and Rebecca A. Merrill first warned us about the dangers of "urgency addiction" in their bestseller, First Things First.  They argue that the compulsive drive to treat every call, email, or interruption in life as an urgent matter distracts us from focusing on what is actually important. Just think about it: they wrote about this before we all carried our email inboxes in our pockets.

In truth, many of the important things in life and work don't get the benefit our attention because they aren't that urgent. Consider how hard it can be to convince leaders within your organization to devote time and resources to staff development or long-term goal-setting, and you start to get the point. 

Take the time to check in with yourself about what is truly urgent and what is truly important. How does this differ from where you are currently placing your attention and your energy?  How is your relationship to technology -- particularly email -- contributing to this dissonance?  

Regular mindfulness about these questions can help nudge you toward using technology in ways that are more meaningful and less draining.

Take a 48-hour information holiday.

You don't need to know everything, all the time.  

Whether it's a celebrity gossip habit or an every-political-blog-under-the-sun habit, many of us are prone to going a little overboard with our media consumption.   It can feel like if we aren't on top of it all, we will fall behind, and... then what?  For most of us, the stakes actually aren't that high.  Like anything, information consumption is good in moderation, but too much of it can affect sleep, relationships, work, and our ability to relax.

Twice a year (or more!) try taking a 48-hour information holiday.  Reduce your "inputs" to a bare minimum, and see how it feels to be relieved of the pressure to always know what is going on everywhere.  This looks different for everyone, but could include putting your laptop in a drawer for the weekend, using your phone only for phone calls, and setting an auto-reply on your email as if you were on vacation.  

The idea is to eliminate the inputs that you feel tied to -- the sources of information and interaction you feel you cannot live without.  Do this, and you'll learn that you can.

When You are Lucky Enough to Have, and Hate, Your Job

Most of us can relate to the experience of holding down a job that is no longer working for us.   Whether it's the boss from hell or a vague sense that there is more to life, at some point we all feel the urge to move on.  In flusher times, maybe you would search out greener pastures, but in the Great Recession, that option may not exist.  So, how do you cope?

Harvard Business' Management Tip of the Day offers three strategies to help you survive:

1.  Connect with people (build relationships among those you work with)

2.  Use humor  (don't be so grim about it all!)

3.  Don't be complacent  (Use your free time to look for other jobs and update your LinkedIn profile)

These are great tips for making it through the 9 to 5, but as anyone in a less-than-ideal job situation knows, the stress and worry follow you home.  Here are three things you can do when you're NOT at work to make sure the job that's bringing you down doesn't zap the energy out of your entire life:

1.  Reconnect with purpose -- and go deep.  Many of us were doing  what we loved at one point, and then somehow get lost along the way.  The job changed, we changed, or both.  What is it you really want to be doing?  Two ways you might think about this:  First, what are the times you have felt the happiest in your life, and what made that so? And second, envisioning your own funeral, what do you want your friends, family, and colleagues to say about you?  In other words, why are you on this planet?  Start with that picture in mind, and allow it to steer you on the right course when you are ready to make your next move.  

2.  Begin a 5-minute daily mindfulness practice.  The stress and anxiety of being out-of-sync or miserable at the place you spend 40+ hours a week can be overwhelming.  If there ever was a time to create some quiet head-space for yourself, it is now.  If you are new to mindfulness practice, start with three to five minutes a day of quiet sitting (basic instructions here).  Building a mindfulness practice will do several things when you are out-of-sync with your job:  it will strengthen your ability to be in the present moment, nipping those anxiety spirals in the bud; it will give your over-active mind a rest from stressful thinking; and it will return your attention to your human-ness, by focusing your attention on the simple wonder of the breath.

3.  Start a fulfilling side project -- and earn extra income.  What is it you love to do? I mean really, really love to do?  For me it is painting, cooking, and crafting of all sorts.  (It's also thinking and writing about ideas, which is why I started this blog!) If you hate your job, now is the time to put some off-hours energy into things that bring you joy. Two reasons for this.  First, you could use some extra joy right now.  And second, if you can monetize your passion that extra cash will diversify your income, which down the road could give you that extra wiggle room you need to break free from your job.  Trent at The Simple Dollar has written a lot about how to tackle side-businesses.  

If this economy has taught us anything, it's that nothing lasts forever.  The most stable job, the biggest bank, even the beloved morning paper -- the things we thought would always be around -- are no longer safe bets.   If you are stuck in a job you hate (perhaps feeling guilty for hating it in this economy --anyone?) now is the time to reconnect with what fulfills you and what grounds you.  That is the space you want to be prepared to fully step into as things, inevitably, change.