Karl Staib - The Work Happy Guy on Jul 30th 2008
We all get a little lazy every now and again and that’s okay. There are some days I push too hard to accomplish so little. That’s when it’s better to just take a lazy day.
One of the secrets to your productivity is to understand when these days occur and how to use them to your advantage. If you keep pushing too hard then you won’t get anything done. Just stop and take a long break, surf the net or take a nap and come back when your mind is ready to go.
Although, if you feel this way too often, you’ll never get anything done. The trick is to understand the routine of your emotions. If you are always a slow starter then work with these feelings. I usually start work at 9am, which means I actually get rolling around 9:30, but to trick myself I sometimes jump on the computer at 8:30 to do a quick little task. I tell myself it will only take five minutes. Before I know it, I’m sucked in and I’m off and running, accomplishing great work.
Tricking myself into starting a half hour early helps me get an early jump on a busy day.
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The blogs around the globe are improving on a daily basis. It’s amazing how ZenHabits has grown. I remember reading it when it had a few thousand subscribers. Leo wanted desperately to quit his job and give his time over to his true passion, giving his readers great content. He wrote an article that breaks down the simple habits of a truly happy person.^
Gretchen Rubin also writes about happiness over at The Happiness Project, so many great articles that I become happier just thinking about them.
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We all make mistakes that can affect the rest of our lives. It’s how we deal with these mistakes that separates the optimists from the pessimists. Over at Hunter Nuttall’s blog… I loved his explanation of how to deal with life altering choices. He wrote about Dr. Cox from the TV show Scrubs and his major mistake that cost lives. Doctors, Policemen, and Politicians face these major decisions throughout their career. How do they cope with a mistake? How do they move on and rediscover their happiness? How do you forget and move on?
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I read an article over at the Small Business Branding that made me look at my own life. We’ve all heard the phrase we need to go the extra mile to get ahead at work. The cool angle that Bill Hogg found was that it doesn’t matter if you fix the problem or not, what matters is that you try your hardest. When we try our hardest we command respect because we are putting forth tremendous energy. We may not always get it right, but people will see that we are trying to go that extra mile. When they keep witnessing this effort they will be more willing to give us that promotion or the project that we really want (well most of the time).
^ Correction - The original version of this post gave credit to Gretchen for Leo’s article on Zen habits The Only Guide to Happiness You’ll Ever Need.
Related Links that Continue Along the Same Themes:
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Karl Staib - The Work Happy Guy on Jul 28th 2008
How does anyone (Supervisor, CEO, Manager, Co-worker) get an unmotivated person to care about their work?
The best way to do this is to take them through a story that will catch and keep their attention and make them think of it again and again. It’s why we care about the companies that we do. They tell a story that we can hitch our emotions to and we allow ourselves to keep coming back to it.
McDonald’s does this within their commercials. They put people in situations where the food alleviates their pain. We think of McDonald’s as if it’s Advil, helping us out by getting us through a rushed morning.
The problem that most leaders have when trying to get employees to understand the importance of what they are trying to achieve is their lack of angles. They keep telling their employees that the customers’ opinions are important because they keep the company in business and therefore put food on our table.
You need to do better
To get an employee to care he must be able to see himself in his customers. For instance, anyone who was ever a waiter tips well because he understands what type of hardships are involved. My wife always puts the grocery cart back in that cart carrier because she knows it’s easier for the employee to gather them when they are centrally located instead of scattered throughout the parking lot. She does this because she used to gather carts in 100 degree heat when she was in high school. She likes to reduce the pain of the employee because she puts herself in that employee’s shoes.
A leader of an organization must convince her employees to care about the feelings behind the story. That means letting co-workers tell their own stories, allowing customers to tell their stories, and you telling the story from so many angles until you get 75% of the employees become vested in the concept.
The other 25% will never give themselves over. No leader can win them all.
It takes a strong leader to realize this. Just let them go and bring in new people that can be won over.
In a very distant way here are some Related Articles:
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Karl Staib - The Work Happy Guy on Jul 26th 2008
This excerpt is from the Work Happy Now June newsletter. If you like what you see then sign-up for our newsletter and receive these great tips every month.
Working happy is not all about doing something we love. I think that it’s a misconception that we have to do something that excites us every moment. If we did that, we would be worn out by lunch every single day.
Working happy is about:
- Relaxing with the work we are presently doing.
- Sharing our pain and joy with our co-workers.
- Fooling around and laughing up a storm every once in a while.
- Completing a tough project.
- Failing and dusting ourselves off and trying again.
- Commuting home and breathing a sigh of relief.
- Getting paid for our hard work.
- Looking back at the story we created.
Yes, we should enjoy what we do, but not all of us have the luxury at the moment. It’s really about looking at the big picture and enjoying the job for all that it is. Take a moment to enjoy those little things that are normally taken for granted.
Hope you had a great working month. If not, no big deal because you always have the next month to make it better.
A few articles from Work Happy Now that you probably will enjoy:
Mini Sabbaticals Should be Mandatory
Accenture refused to layoff their employees when they hit a rough period because they didn’t want to go through a whole new batch of hiring and training. So they decided to pay the staff that they would have laid off 20% of their pay with benefits while they waited for the economy to bounce back. The catch was, they couldn’t work for a competitor. When the economy came back around they rehired the employees they couldn’t afford to keep.
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Tell Your Boss You Need Some Leisure Time
Get right up in her face and tell her you demand leisure time. Okay, that’s a bit much, but you can probably take some leisure time without being a jerk about it. It’s as simple as taking fifteen minutes here and two minutes there. There is a reason why people are addicted to smoking and it’s not just the nicotine. They get to go outside and take a break from all the stress. I find it funny to see a group of smokers huddled on a cold day, but they’re out there because it gives them a chance to have their nicotine and leisure time.
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25 Lessons on Working Happy From My German Father
My father owns an electrical contracting business. He built a strong company that has lasted for over 40 years. He has never advertised in his life. He went out and proved he was good and his customers referred him to other friends and contractors all over eastern Pennsylvania. Seth Godin would have been proud.
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