Archive for the Knowing Yourself Category
Timeboxing To Avoid Procrastination
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Jon Rhodes
Timeboxing is a clever little technique that I have been intuitively using for years before I even knew it had name. It is great for helping those who are working for themselves to avoid procrastination and get things done.
In a nutshell, it is giving yourself a deadline in which to complete a task, then doing it to the best you can with the time you have available. Here is an example of how I use this technique with my daughter to encourage her to tidy her room.
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How to be Drama-Free… Start with Yourself
Editor’s note: this is a guest post from Kaley Klemp the Co-Author of The Drama-Free Office
It’s gossip, turf wars, water cooler talk, and the chronic complainer no one can stand. When you talk with people about the organizations they work for, it’s common to hear about the “Drama” plaguing their companies: the energy-draining behaviors that keep people from focusing on the creative projects and basic business practices that make the company successful.
If we could just get through the drama, the business decisions and real work isn’t that hard…
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Work Happiness In All the Wrong Places
I’m afraid of failure. I’m not so afraid of failure that my creativity locks up. I have a popular blog, social media accounts, and I’ve interviewed superheroes in the business world. I’m putting stuff out into the world to help people, but I’m still holding back.
I recently hopped on Twitter tried to think of something cool and insightful, gave up and went to watch an old episode of The Office. Then as I watched the episode my arch nemesis was whispering at me for being so lame and worthless. I hate when that little voice inside me whispers to me instead of screams. It’s so much harder to ignore him. Why is that?
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How to Do Business with Different Personality Types
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Lisa H. (aka RunningBear) of Getting to Zen
If you charge for your work, then you know the dilemma between charging hourly versus charging by the project. There are arguments for and against both. For example, if you charge by the project, you could end up doing a lot more work than the project is worth and if you charge by the hour, you many lose clients to the variability of the cost. Knowing the personality type of the persons you are working with can not only help you in deciding how to charge for your efforts but make your working relationships a whole lot smoother.
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Why You Need a Pre-Emptive Strike Against Interruptions
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Barry Demp of Demp Coaching
In the military, rather than waiting passively for the enemy to attack, you attack first – this is called a pre-emptive strike.
The pre-emptive strike isn’t just useful in the military, though: it’s also a powerful technique that I use with my coaching clients in the business world.
You may have certain high-maintenance employees and co-workers who tend to interrupt a lot and ruin your momentum. Maybe you get a phone call, or they pop into your office – however the interruption comes, it breaks your flow. This is when a pre-emptive strike is warranted.
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Effective Communication in the Land of Endless Emails
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Kenneth McCall is director of IT for storage.com.
I love email. It gives me a running record of who said what when. I can write a very business-like email even late at night or early in the morning – look how late he’s working, impressive! I can give bad news gently without having to actually face the person. I get to use passive-aggressive smiley faces. Guess you’ll have that report for me tomorrow instead of today since it’s already 5:30? 
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How to Focus Your Thoughts and Accomplish Great Work
You may notice that it’s easier to enjoy a certain situation when in a good mood. You aren’t affected by problems as easily. This occurs because your focus is on something that keeps you happy.
Standing in line behind two young women, probably in their early twenties, at the grocery store and they were complaining about their boyfriends. Their groceries were on the conveyer belt waiting to be wrung up. They had bananas, a mango, strawberries, two types of cheeses and crackers. It looked like they were going to eat an amazing snack. They weren’t excited about this wonderful meal they were soon to make, but only worried about their awful boyfriends.
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The Ultimate Guide to Eliminating Road Rage
Your road rage can build trying to get to and from work. It’s a double edged pain. Even those of you who work from home you still have to fight through traffic to get to meetings, dropping your kids off or catching a plane. You can’t escape the car culture that we live in. We are dependent on cars. Maybe one day we can sit in hydrogen powered pods that take us to our destination as we play with our iPhones, but for now we are stuck with driving our cars.
I’m writing about road rage because of my own issues with my commute. I used to get really pissed off at anyone who didn’t match my style of driving. It was pretty sad really. The rage can come on fast. Sometimes I don’t even notice it and all of a sudden I’m screaming. This doesn’t happen very often anymore because I can offset these feelings quickly, but it took one particular reframe to make it happen.
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Listen to Your Heart
“The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.”
- Earl Nightingale
Cells are the foundation of life. Each cell works together to help you survive. Unnourished cells become sluggish. It’s these cells that are starving. They don’t just want to live they want to thrive.
You must constantly feed these cells to keep them energized. That means eating right, sleeping well and feeding your curiosity every single day.
You’ve seen a train pulling over a hundred freight cars behind them. It takes a long time for a train to get the whole load moving, but once it does it requires a lot less energy to maintain velocity.
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What do you base your decisions on, money or happiness?
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Kole McRae of Office Buddha
I used to be a door to door salesman. I would get up around 6am to spend a 10 hour day selling phone services to people who didn’t really need them. I hated the job and dreaded each morning (I got no days off) but for some strange reason I just kept on doing it.
The money was pretty good. It covered rent and food and it let me go out and have fun whenever I felt like it. I reasoned that I only had to do it for a few years and then I could take a 2 year break and just live off my savings. So things sucked right now, the future would rock.
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