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You don’t have to throw a fit when you throw something out.

In the August, 2018 issue of Psychology Today, Glen Adamson, author of the book, “Fewer, better things” is said to believe that we should limit our purchases to things we find to be beautiful, meaningful or useful. Since at least two of these three requirements are in the mind of the purchaser, this tells me that anything goes. It may be a sensible suggestion; but does little to curb my spending habits nor reduce any clutter that may appear in my small apartment.

Marie Kondo, author of the book, The life-changing magic of tidying up and spark joy, urges us to get rid of anything that doesn’t spark joy. But depending on your mood at the time, this could prompt you to discard everything you own. And according to an article by Sara Eckel in the same issue of Psychology Today, at least one woman later regretted that she had parted with her beloved books and her late father’s favourite radio.

Stories like this that make me thankful that I limit my coaching of individuals to helping them manage their time as opposed to managing their possessions. The two are certainly related. The more possessions you have, the greater the demand on your time. But at least I feel no guilt in letting them make their own decisions when it comes to tossing stuff.

I have great respect for those professional organizers who help people make decisions as to what to keep and what to toss. We are complicated beings, and it seems impossible to get inside our heads and analyse our thought processes. For example, I couldn’t even begin to fully explain why I could never part with that vintage 1930s typewriter on my credenza even if I were offered $1 million for it.

I like Sara Eckel’s statement: “The key questions: is your stuff – or lack of it – interfering in your life? Does it make you feel overwhelmed? Are you aggravating the people you live with by leaving your possessions everywhere, or by tidying their things?”

Possessions do not necessarily equate to clutter. I have a locker full of possessions that I refuse to part with. I can visit them at any time – without them interfering with my efficiency or effectiveness while I am working in my home office. I realize they will be quickly discarded by my children when I’m gone; but they are my security blanket. They ensure me that I have led a life of significance. I will always have a past, even though I may someday be unable to recall it. I have had friends, experiences and accomplishments – and have loved and been loved.

This allows me to concentrate fully on the present, continuing to do what I love doing, and making new friends, having new experiences, and continuing to lead a life of purpose.

Having said all this, people should listen to all the advice they can get, and some of that may resonate with their own beliefs and help them make their own decisions. For example, here are a few thoughts and ideas I have culled from books and articles such as those mentioned above.

  • Living with less stuff has made many people more clear-headed and content.
  • Lugging bags of usable stuff to thrift shops such as those of the Salvation Army, might leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. It certainly provides a service to others.
  • You are not being disrespectful of someone, whether living or dead, if you toss something they gave to you. They live in your heart, not in the object.
  • Having less stuff in your home, all of which consume time and space, can improve communication and allow you to focus on what is truly important in your family.
  • For every item that holds special meaning to you, there are likely a dozen or more that don’t. If you made an error by purchasing something, don’t compound the error by keeping it.
  • A certain amount of clutter is normal; but its continued growth is unhealthy. Consider nipping it in the bud.

On a more personal note, I find that I work and live much better in an organized, clutter-free environment. And the few things I have tossed and later regretted were more than offset by the hundreds of things I got rid of and never missed.

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Fatal phrases at the front and finish of meetings.

We have all had our fill of the common suggestions for conducting effective meetings – everything from starting on time and ending on time to working with a timed agenda. But I want to add some statements and questions that as a chairperson you might want to avoid.

“Anybody have a good joke before we begin?”

This is rarely, if ever asked. But some participants seem to think the ritual of an icebreaker such as this is mandatory. Socialize before and after the meeting if you wish to do so, but time is valuable, and some people can ill afford to waste any of it. If 10 people are present and earning an average of $60 per hour, those jokes are costly – $10 per minute. Would you pay $50 to hear a five minute “shaggy dog” story?

“If you know of anyone else who should be on this committee, let me know.”

Sure let’s make the committee as inefficient and ineffective as possible. We all know that the effectiveness of a meeting varies indirectly with the number of people present.  And according to the book, Decide and Deliver: 5 Steps to Breakthrough and Performance in your Organization, once you have seven people in a decision-making group, every additional person reduces effectiveness by 10 percent. This is referred to as the “Rule of Seven.” Once the number exceeds twelve, you will find it very difficult to accomplish the meeting’s objectives. The old bromide that two heads are better than one assumes that both hands are thinking in the same direction.

 “Anything else before we adjourn?”

Please, let’s waste as much time as possible while we’re all here – we’re on a roll! If you have already finished the agenda, including any “new business” items, why drag it out? It’s not a crime to finish a meeting earlier than the estimated ending time. That was indicated only so you can plan your day accordingly. And the time allocated to each item was an indication of its importance and how you should manage yourself during the discussion. The actual ending time of any meeting should be when the objective of the meeting has been reached. Any time redeemed is a gift.

“Everyone please get their reports to me as soon as possible.”

You’re asking for trouble. That’s another way of saying, “Get them to me whenever you get around to it.” Not only should specific people be responsible for submitting specific reports, they should also have specific dates to submit them. And those dates should be before the next meeting. Not only are you to assign responsibilities and deadlines, you will have to follow up with the people concerned to ensure that actions decided at the meeting are completed on schedule.

“Let’s all sleep on it and we’ll make the decision at the next meeting.”

By all means. At the next meeting, we may not have a quorum and can delay it even longer. And we want to make sure we have enough items to discuss at the next meeting. We also will have to explain the item to anyone not at this current meeting as well. That should waste a bit more time. Sleeping on it will only increase your sleep, not your wisdom. Make the decision now and get it over with.

If you would like more information on conducting effective meetings, refer to my e-book, Make your meetings more productive, published by Bookboon.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bringing you up to speed.

27 years ago, I wrote the following article titled, “Don’t become obsessed with speed: save some time for the things you enjoy.” I thought I would reproduce it here in its entirety, complete with its outdated references to such things as speedy memos and videos. We had no iPhones, iPads, email or instant messaging in those days, and yet we complained about the fast pace of life. It had taken about 38 years for radio to be adopted by 50 million people, and when TV came along it took only 13 years. But it only took iPad two years and Google Plus 88 days. Speed continues to increase. How are you coping? Here’s the article.

September, 1991.

“Ever get the feeling you’re being rushed through life with little opportunity to enjoy its pleasures enroute? Stopping briefly at O’Hara international Airport in Chicago, I was confronted with the following fast food outlets for travellers in a hurry:

Speedy Buns and Rolls.

Ice Cream Express.

Hasty Pastry.

Deli in a Hurry.

Lightning Lounge.

Bun on the Run.

Mexican in a Minute.

Fast Far East.

These names seem to exemplify the prevailing atmosphere in North America. No longer is rapid transit a mode of transportation; it’s a way of life. People don’t seem to be as concerned with where they are going as with how soon they get there. Who has the time to set goals, plan and determine a course of action?

Get rich quick schemes, accelerated learning and rapid advancement are valued far more than quality relationships and the more tranquil lifestyle. Our society seems to place an unhealthy emphasis on getting things done quickly. We have fast foods, instant puddings and TV dinners. We are wooed by rapid transit, express lanes, fast checkouts and even quickie divorces. We use hasty notes, speedy memos and travelling requisitions. Fast living is in vogue.

We have electronic tellers, moving sidewalks and vending machines that dispense everything from nylons to videos. Escalators allow us to run upstairs faster. Self-serve service stations, bag-your-own supermarkets and stand-up restaurants help to keep us on the move.

Even company names reflect the value of this haste: Speedy muffler, Road Runner, Speed Queen, and Quickasair. Pizza parlours guarantee 30 minute service. Signs promise no waiting.

Time management courses are particularly appealing because they explain how we can get things done faster. Oh, they contain valuable counsel, such as the importance of family time, leisure and personal goals; but even the seminars are being conducted more quickly to meet the demands of people in a hurry. Three-hour and even one hour courses are becoming more popular. Most people seem to be after a quick fix for what ails them.

With speed seems to come a lack of control. We get the feeling we are being whisked through life as though there is a plan for our life, but we’re not in it. And just as to do lists create the impression that crossing off items is a measure of progress, so are we being conditioned to believe that speed is a measurement of accomplishment.

How is all this affecting the quality of life? Already liquid breakfasts allow us to skip time at the table, electronic games replace the need of a partner, and everything we could ever desire is being piped onto our TV screens, eliminating the necessity for social interaction. Where will it end?

It’s great to be able to save time. But to what end? Some people have become so obsessed with saving time that they are cutting time off those things they were trying to save time for. The objective of time management is to spend less time on meaningless activities and routine activities so we will have more time to spend on the meaningful activities. It is not meant to reduce the time being spent on those meaningful activities.

Some of us enjoy a leisurely meal with our family, a night out with their friends and conversation with other human beings. Some of us even enjoy shopping in person, dawdling in a restaurant, or getting exercise the old-fashioned way, walking.

Hang onto those things you enjoy. Don’t allow yourself to be swept along by the tyranny of the times. Make sure you are not shaving time from what you consider quality time.

There’s a story about a speeding motorist who gave this explanation to a policeman who had stopped him: “Officer, this road is so dangerous that I was hurrying to get off it.” He could just as well have claimed that life is so dangerous and that he was hurrying to get through it. Many of us behave as though this were true.

There is certainly nothing wrong with becoming more efficient at accomplishing more in less time; but let’s not be blinded to the fact that speed sometimes distracts us from our values and life goals. Efficiency is doing things in the best possible way; but effectiveness is doing the best possible things. Those things are activities which reflect our values.

During goal-setting sessions people were asked to list the personal activities that were most rewarding, enjoyable and productive. Most people were able to do this with little difficulty. When asked to record the date or month they last perform such activities, they had trouble recalling it because it had been so long ago.

It’s one thing to set goals. It’s quite another to ensure that our daily and weekly activities reflect those goals. This requires constant review as to what we are doing. And it is difficult to review while going at breakneck speed.

Let’s not keep pace with the crowd; but keep pace with our plan – constantly reviewing our progress towards the goals that we have set.”

July, 2018.

Well, it’s 27 years later, and life doesn’t appear to have slowed down any. Have you managed to maintain adequate time for those things that you really enjoy, and that reflect your values? Or has your iPhone just dinged, stimulating a shot of dopamine, which now compels you to access Twitter to confirm that one of your one-liners has just been re-tweeted by one of your 1200 followers?

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Writing things down improves your memory

An old proverb claims, “The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.”

And those of us still using paper planners can rest assured we are making the right decision, according to information contained on an article in the October 11, 2017 issue of Fast Company. The article references studies showing that taking notes by longhand helps you remember important meeting points better than tapping out notes on your laptop or smartphone. This could be a particular advantage for us older folks since most of us lose memory power as we age. It might also explain why some people are switching from smartphones to paper planners for their everyday planning activities.

We tend to understand and retain information better when we read from a hardcopy book as opposed to a digital version as well. In a study conducted by Anne Mangen, PhD, a professor at the Reading Center at the University of Stavanger, Norway, the researcher gave participants the same 28-page mystery story to read either on an Amazon Kindle or in print format. “We found that those who had read the print pocketbook gave more correct responses to questions having to do with time, temporality, and chronology than those who had read on a Kindle,” Mangen claimed. “And when participants were asked to sort 14 events in the correct order, those who had read on paper were better at this than those who had read on the Kindle.”

Writing down your “to do” list frees up working memory, imprints the items in your mind, allows time to evaluate their importance, and provides a motivational sense of accomplishment as you cross off each item.

People may think they are better at comprehending information when they read it on a digital screen because they can read much faster than those reading the text in paper format. But results of the studies show that the paper groups outperformed the digital groups on memory recall and comprehension of the text.

Mikael Cho, cofounder of Crew, claimed that “the separation from the digital space (where I do most of my work) to the physical, helped me feel less overwhelmed.”

The Fast Company article was quick to point out that this doesn’t mean you should start printing your emails in order to read them. Brief snippets of text don’t seem to make any difference.

A paper planner is a great tool for keeping more of your memories intact and slowing down the perceived passage of time. Not only does the act of writing in the appointments and scheduling the important projects and tasks help transfer them to your long-term memory, reviewing those pages after the fact helps solidify them in your  memory. Research shows that thinking or talking about an event immediately after it occurs enhances memory for the event. That’s why it’s so important for a witness to recall information as soon as possible after a crime.

The greatest loss of memory is in the first hour or so of the event. By reviewing it in spaced intervals, you are fixing it in your memory. You want as much of the present as possible to be retained so you will recall it in the future. I schedule every significant event in my time planner, even after the fact. In other words when we spontaneously drop into a restaurant or go to a movie or visit friends, I write the details of that event in my planner when I get home. If it’s a restaurant, I take out the receipt and copy the name, address, and telephone number into that block of time, including the names of the people we might have been with at the time. It was unscheduled time; but it becomes scheduled after the fact.

By reviewing my planner, I am in effect reviewing my life. And I can readily justify this strange habit by the number of times I have retrieved phone numbers of great restaurants we wanted to revisit or to confirm the name of the movie we saw three weeks earlier or to get the name of our friend’s cousin who attended the dinner.

The pen is not only mightier than the sword, it’s a lot easier to carry with you – and does a better job of writing.

 

 

 

 

 

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How to overcome writer’s block

What about writer’s block that you hear so much about?  Well if you know what you have to say, you won’t have writer’s block.  Some writers spend more time staring at a blank computer screen than they spend writing.  Others may freeze after a paragraph or two.  What some people call writer’s block is usually a lack of planning.

Studies show that professional writers spend 40% of their time planning, 25% writing, and 35% editing. If you plan – if you know what you want to say before you start – there is less chance that you will have writer’s block.  Start the article in your mind as you go for your morning walk, take a shower or travel to work.  It’s a similar process to rehearsing a speech or a presentation. That’s the advantage of my daily walk to the coffee shop. The article is almost written in my mind by the time I get there.

If you are still afraid of getting writer’s block, there is another technique that you could try. Before you start writing, have an outline of the article in front of you along with the materials you have accumulated for that article. That’s a common procedure for writing a book, so you could just do it on a smaller scale.

Minimize the opportunity for interruptions.  Have all your working tools in place before you start.  Pick a quiet place to work if possible.  Engage the voice mail.  Close the door if you have one.  Turn of your smartphone or put it on airplane mode.  Ignore e-mail.  Tell yourself it’s only for an hour or two.  Then stick to the task at hand.

Don’t stop to proofread or edit until you have finished the article.  Stopping to edit after every sentence or two is a form of procrastination.  Maintain the momentum once you start.  Scheduling shorter sessions of one or two hours usually result in fewer delays.  Few people can retain a high level of concentration without a break for more than an hour or two.  This could change once you are engrossed in your work but most of us have jobs besides writing and cannot afford marathon sessions anyway.

If you come to a standstill, switch to another writing project for ten minutes or so. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov said he always had a number of projects going at one time. When he could no longer stand what he was doing, he simply switched to something else. He never stopped. In fact he wrote 460 books.

You might take a brief walk around your desk or table to do a few stretches.  If you just can’t get started again, write anything to start the flow as I described earlier.  Once you start writing, the creative juices will flow and you can edit out any superfluous material later.  Don’t wait for creativity to reveal itself.  If you stare at the computer screen, it will simply stare back at you.

When your time is up and you must stop, write one more sentence but don’t finish it, except in your head.  Reading that partial sentence and finishing it at the next session will help pick up your train of thought and build momentum faster than starting from scratch.  The best way to avoid writer’s block is to keep writing.

Note: The above article was excerpted from my eBook, How to write articles for self-promotion, published by Bookboon.com.

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Creativity and organization are not incompatible.

In case you haven’t read my last couple of blog posts, I have been discussing how some books, articles and other literature have been claiming that messiness aids creativity, while others claim the opposite.

Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, authors of YOU: On a Diet, claim that visual clutter slows down the brain. That’s why clusters of road signs double the chances of missing the one you’re looking for. It also explains why website designers aim for simplicity.

As we read more about the workings of our brain, we also learn even more about the importance of getting organized. For example, according to neuroscientist Torkel Klingberg, author of The overflowing brain, the more items on your desk, the greater the demand on your attention. And mental clutter is a suspect in the cause of age-related memory losses. Clearing clutter from your desk, office and home and leaving more wide open spaces also helps to clear your mind so it will be more productive.

There is a seemingly opposing view that mess is great for generating ideas, and many people (including a successful TV personality and producer) feel they are successful because of their messy environment.

I take the middle ground, and mentioned in my previous articles how professional organizer Clare Kumar had referred to “process mess,” an acceptable temporary mess, generated by the nature of the work itself. The accompanying photo shows a view of my office before I started work in the morning. (The photo last week showed it during the writing process.) I admitted that I do get ideas during the messier writing process; but when it comes to the large part of my time involving administrative work, an organized environment wins hands down.

I am a confirmed neatnik. (I have an almost irresistible urge to straighten pictures on the walls of someone else’s home when I am an invited guest.) Before I start writing, my materials are organized on and around my desk. Articles on the topic previously ripped from magazines, notes I have written to myself on the topic in the past, seminar notes on the topic, etc. are stored vertically in manila folders to my left. Books on the topic are within reach in an accordion bookcase on to the back of my desk (having been removed from my library of books in advance.) Electronic Kindle books on the topic are readily accessible on both my laptop and iPad, and articles, tweets and other items that I have written in the past are filed in electronic folders on my desktop. Everything is neat and tidy and ready to go – as depicted in both this week’s photo and the one posted two weeks ago.

But once the writing process is underway, the neatness transforms into “organized mess” or “process mess,” which sometimes may slip into the “disorganized mess” category; but not often, since I usually write for only 90 minutes at a time. I described this stage of my writing process last week.

If you want to have a working environment that is always supportive of creativity, try merging it more with nature. Richard Louv, in his book, The nature principle, claims that reconnecting to nature opens new doors to creativity, and that “creative people are often aware of being drawn to the outdoors for refreshment and ideas.” He mentioned that creative people like Albert Einstein and philosopher Kurt Godel used to take walks in the woods every single day at Princeton campus.

Louv also quotes Hilary Mantel, 2009 winner of the Booker Prize, as saying “I always work outside, if I can. It’s important to grab the instant thought.”

Florence Williams, in her 2017 book, The nature fix, adds more examples of creative people who believed in walking outdoors while thinking, such as Aristotle, Darwin, Tesla, Teddy Roosevelt and Beethoven. Williams laments that we’re losing our connection to nature

In choosing your office and decor, you should not overlook indoor plants and greenery, window views of nature, and even paintings of flowers and landscapes. The more we gravitate toward the cities and hole up in our offices, the more we withdraw from nature and its largely unrecognized or unappreciated benefits.

Studies have shown that the presence of potted plants, for example, improves not only creativity, but productivity, performance and learning ability as well. In the case of schools, the presence of plants improved scores in mathematics spelling and science between 10% and 14%.

So it would appear that walking, thinking and working outdoors would be the first choice for generating ideas, and if you can’t do your creating outdoors, bring as much as possible of nature into your work area – even if it is just painting the walls green, the color most associated with creativity.

In my eBook, How work environment impacts productivity, published by Bookboon.com, I relate some personal experiences with working environments. One of my most productive routines is to take a 15 or 20 minute nature walk, ending up at a coffee shop where I write the article dreamed up along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

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Creativity is all in your mind

Most of the articles associating a messy environment with creativity (mentioned in my last blog article) referred to the ping-pong study where participants were asked to write down as many uses as possible for ping-pong balls in a given time frame. Those participants in a messy room came up with the same number of ideas as those in a tidy room; but the ideas were more creative.

I assume this works because in a cluttered environment there are more things to associate with the ping-pong balls. This was mentioned in my e-book, Creativity in action, published by Bookboon.com. In creativity seminars, I have frequently used the old “How many uses can you think of for a toothpick?” exercise. If this question had been asked when I was in my “process mess” mode (see photo), I would probably have come up with uses such as:

  • To use as a spike on which to skewer reminder notes, etc.
  • To use as a writing instrument by splitting the end and dipping it in ink.
  • To use as a shim to sturdy a wobbly printer or desk leg.
  • To chew on – or to break into tiny pieces – when you feel stressed.
  • To separate stacks of papers.
  • To use as bookmarks to allow quick access to pages you want to refer to later.
  • To clean between the keys of your laptop.
  • To stir your coffee.
  • To scratch an itch, and so on.

You can see that the above list of ideas were generated, either consciously or unconsciously, by associating the toothpick with items on my desk or activities I was working on at the time. But if you have a vivid imagination, you could possibly come up with just as many or even more creative ideas while working in an organized environment.

In your mind you can be as messy as you like for as long as you like, and I frequently have brainstorming sessions with myself when my supply of new tweets, time tips, articles etc. start getting low. I don’t want to be writing in a panic at the last minute -although this happens occasionally when life has other plans.

What ideas did I actually get during my first few writing sessions while working on my stress book? Well, for one thing, while looking through the book Performing under pressure, I had the idea for another book on “staying on top of your job,” since getting behind in your work could create a lot of pressure on you.

I also got a few ideas for tweets. For example, the fact that some people are creative in a messy environment and others in an organized one, gave me the idea “Creativity is all in your mind.” I might be able to do something with that one – perhaps even as a title for this article. I was also reminded that I should revise and reissue my old stress resistance quiz.

I’m sure I’ll get more ideas as I continue writing my book. It always happens. And I’ll be sure to jot them down at the time so I don’t forget them – and continue with my writing. I use our Daily Priority Pad (available at our website) to do this. It was actually designed by my son Jason, who found he needed something to use in tandem with his iPhone.

It is ideal for my writing sessions since I can quickly jot down things I need to do, ideas for the future, people to call – and there’s even a “Back Burner” section for future book ideas or future plans. I don’t let ideas, creative or otherwise, distract me from my writing if at all possible. I even put my iPhone on airplane mode while I’m writing.

I’m not sure if you’re really interested; but in my next blog articles I will describe how I collect and store all the reference materials that I use in my writing and perhaps a few ideas on writing that have proven useful – and of course a little more on this creativity debate. When it comes to keeping information,  people may label me a pack rat; but it has helped generate 23 e-books, two paperback books, hundreds of articles, and thousands of tweets in the last six-years, not to mention material used in my newsletters, seminar notes and PowerPoint presentations.

Everyone has their own method of writing. There is no one best way. But I do agree with professional organizer Clare Kumar when she claims that “process mess” is natural occurrence, and not something that should label you as a messy.

Life is good. And full of ideas waiting to be harvested.

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A time to be messy

Many years ago a TV personality from Montréal, Canada, interviewed me during a National Association of Professional Organizers conference in the U.S. It was for a TV special he was doing on messiness. Naturally, considering what I do and what I preach, I explained the various benefits of getting organized and working in a tidy office – emphasizing its impact on efficiency and personal productivity.

It turned out he was a messy himself, and proud of it. I soon discovered that he was a creative genius in his field. He spent an equal amount of time telling me the merits of messiness and how it relaxed him, inspired him, gave him pleasure, and of course creativity.

I gave it my best shot, including the average time wasted searching for things, the interruptions, and the lack of focus and so on – to little avail it seemed at the time. He kept returning to the joy he received from his messy environment.

Probably through frustration, I ended up telling him something to the effect that if he found a messy office was pleasurable, relaxing, and inspired his creativity, then he should keep it that way. But once he had dreamed up a new project and was ready to get down to business, he should move to a second office – one that was organized and more work-friendly. There he could complete the project efficiently, effectively and on time.

It was a tongue in cheek suggestion, and I must admit I was a little embarrassed and resentful at the time that I was unable to present my fellow organizers in a more favourable light.

Fast-forward about 20 years, and I recently read several articles on the merits of a messy desk and its relationship to creativity. One of the articles was titled “It’s okay to have a messy desk,” and subtitled “It’s also fine to have a clean one. There are advantages of both,” written by Diane Peters.

In that particular article, a professional organizer who I know and respect, Claire Kumar, was quoted as saying that it’s necessary to have a lot of stuff around when our job requires it. She called it “process mess.”

Now the lightbulb turned on. Claire had hit the nail on the head – “process mess.” I feel I have an organized office – when I’m not working. But once I start the writing process, which consumes about half my time, I have reference books, notes, photos – you name it – strewn about my desk. I try to keep it all visible, and in different areas of my desk; but if you walked in on me, it would appear as clutter.

My eyes dart from one piece of paper or book to another as I write, make notes, and dictate to my computer in any order. I sometimes start to write a blog article, and it ends up being a book. I just keep writing a series of blog articles on that topic and later piece them together to create the book. At the same time, get my supply of tweets from ideas generated by other people’s books or articles as well as ideas for new seminars to deliver locally. I continually make side notes of ideas that come to me during this “writing” process.

I prefer to call it “organized mess”; but it does stimulate creativity. It’s akin to brainstorming, where one idea generates yet another.

Once I have completed the “creative writing” part of the project, however, my desk is once more neat and tidy, and the “administrative” portion begins. The books I write for Bookboon.com require a bibliography, both a long and short description of the book, a “multiple choice” quiz, formatting according to their specs, and so on.

In the same way, when I self-publish a book, I have to go through the various steps to make it print-ready, including the cover, size, paper stock, layout and so on.

A significant percentage of everyone’s time is administrative, not creative. For some people it may approach 100% administrative, depending on their job. In that case their desk and work area should be organized to facilitate efficiency, not creativity.

If you have a job requiring creativity, you don’t need a separate office – as I once blurted out to the interviewer. You just need an organized one, with a guilt-free allowance for what Claire Kumar refers to as “process mess” as the need arises.

I’ve never yet met anyone who has a job that is 100% creative. If there is such a person, I know where he or she can find an office to replicate. It’s somewhere in Montreal.

I snapped the accompanying photo of my desk just before starting to write a book on stress. I snapped another photo at the end of my writing session, which I will include with next week’s blog article. At that time I will provide more detail on my tidy-neat-tidy writing cycles – and how ideas are frequently generated during the process.

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The importance of punctuality

I read an article recently that claimed that people who are late are more successful, and live longer. Don’t believe it. Chronic lateness is stressful, unacceptable in business, and can be detrimental to your success – and even your job.

Most people don’t want to be late. They don’t do it intentionally. And they are more times than not embarrassed, frustrated and stressed – and probably have their longevity threatened, not lengthened, by chronic lateness. People are late for different reasons, including poor time management skills, disorganization, and even due to health problems such as depression, OCD or mild cognitive impairment. And poor time management, organizing skills, and procrastination and poor self-control – all could be a result of, or exacerbated by, weak executive functioning.

Executive functioning refers to those brain based self-regulating skills that we use every day to get things done. They take about twenty years to fully develop, and if weak, can play havoc with our ability to plan ahead, resist distractions, and arrive at our destination on time. At work it becomes most evident in missed deadlines or arriving late at meetings or forgetting appointments.

Lateness in most cases can be overcome with time management training; but different people require more time and effort in applying the recommendations than others. But even weak executive skills can be strengthened through effort. Strengthening these various brain-based skills is covered in detail in my eBook, Strengthening your brain’s executive skills, published by Bookboon.com. But in general you should get adequate sleep, avoid stress, eat properly, and exercise both your body and your brain. This is essential since your brain, which is only 2% of the body weight, consumes up to 25% of the energy nutrients distributed by the blood.

Most of the reasons for being late have little to do with weak executive skills, and can be remedied by common sense, etiquette and the application of sound time management and organizing principles.

  1. Make up your mind that you will be punctual from now on. In many cases lateness is caused by a lack of commitment to arrive on time. Have the right mindset.
  2. Record commitments in your planner, and also record the time you must leave the house or office in order to arrive on time. Plan to arrive 5 to 10 minutes early.
  3. Always allow more time to travel to the meeting or other commitment than you think it will take. This is the same as scheduling more time for a task than you think it will take. It will allow for interruption by people you meet on the way, traffic congestion, parking, and so on.
  4. To determine the time needed in item 3, visualize the trip in your mind, adding time for each segment, such as taking the elevator, walking to your car, driving to the other office building, finding the right room, and so on. Then add your safety factor.
  5. Don’t be trapped by the one last thing If you’re ready to leave and it’s still early, leave anyway. Utilize the time at the other end rather than trying to finish one more task before you leave.
  6. If you have a morning meeting or other commitment, get everything you will need for the event ready the night before. Always plan ahead.
  7. If you use an iPhone or other electronic device, set the alarm for the time you have to stop what you are doing and leave for your meeting.
  8. If something unplanned and unavoidable happens and you think you might be late, make a quick courtesy call so others won’t waste time waiting for you. When you arrive, apologize briefly but skip the excuses.

Punctuality is not just good etiquette, it’s essential. In business, it shows you are professional, respect other people’s time, manage your time well, and are on top of your job. It also lowers your stress level and provides a feeling of being in control. On the other hand, chronically late people are usually not high on the list for promotion.

In your personal life, it shows respect for your friends and acquaintances, an eagerness to participate, and a reputation for being dependable and trustworthy.

Arriving on time has its rewards.

 

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Develop a positive attitude

We can grow old physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually or we can simply continue to mature in all of these areas until the day we die. Yes, sorry about that – we will all die someday regardless. But don’t make this your goal. Don’t make death your destination. Instead, make growing older a journey, and make that journey as enjoyable and meaningful as possible. You can do this regardless of any handicaps or hang-ups you may have picked up along the way.

We could start by reminding ourselves of all the blessings – the good things that have happened to us in the past. As author J. Ellsworth Kales remarked, “One of the gifts of getting older is that we get to keep all the ages we’ve been.”

Never regret growing older. As musician Tom Petty once said, “If you’re not getting older, you’re dead.” (Of course if you were a Jellyfish, you would live forever if it weren’t for disease or predators. But who wants to be a Jellyfish?)

Neurologists tell us that we tend to remember the negative things that happen to us better than the positive things – except when it involves emotional events that really make an impression, such as your wedding day.

June J Pilcher, a psychologist at Clemson University, says the human brain is more attentive to negative events – probably because of a survival mechanism keeping us alert for life-threatening situations. According to the March/April, 2016 issue of Scientific American Mind, this was demonstrated in two studies published in 2015 in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

That seems to have held true for me. I vividly remember the day the doctor told me I had cancer. I can easily recall the surgeries throughout my life – gall bladder, appendix, and prostate – even tonsils as a youngster. (Isn’t it amazing what we can live without?) I can recall stepping on a nail as a kid, having stories rejected by magazines, and sitting on the bench most of the time as a high school basketball player, and even those really bad toothaches as a toddler.

When the brain experiences an emotional event, the amygdala releases dopamine, which helps memory and information processing. That’s the principle we use when teaching memory training and overcoming absentmindedness. For more details on specific memory training techniques, see my book, Boost your memory and sharpen your mind, published by Bookboon.com.

We should remind ourselves of those things we take for granted, such as never having to go hungry or having loving parents or healthy children or great friends and so on. This will put us in a more positive frame of mind. As we will see later, a positive attitude helps to promote health, happiness and longevity. So put a positive spin on life. It’s the healthy thing to do.

Dr. Edward Creagan in his book How not to be my patient refers to research indicating that pessimists have a 19 percent shorter lifespan than optimists. Bernie Siegel in his book Love, Medicine and Miracles mentions research that reported a ten-year survival rate of 75 percent among cancer patients who reacted to the diagnosis with a fighting spirit, compared with a 22 percent survival rate among those who saw their situation as hopeless.

A negative attitude can cause stress and lower the body’s immune system. One Harvard study showed that those with the most negative attitudes at 25 suffered the most illnesses in their forties, fifties and sixties. Another study involved 69 women with breast cancer who were asked three months after their surgery how they viewed their disease and how it affected their lives. 5 years later, 75% of those who had responded positively and with a fighting spirit were still alive compared with less than half the other patients. There is little doubt that attitude can have either a negative or positive impact on your health, productivity and well-being.

An agreeable personality may enhance your brain’s built-in pain-killing powers, according to an item in the March April 2013 issue of Scientific American Mind. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that the brains of volunteers with more agreeable personalities released more natural painkillers, thus enhancing the placebo effect.

Exposure to non-stop negativity can disrupt learning, memory, attention and judgment according to Robert Sapolsky, professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University. Researchers have linked negative emotions to increased risk for illness, and positive emotions to health and longevity.

A happier, healthier lifestyle is more important than ever, and along with it, an attitude that tends to stress-proof your life. It’s important to get sufficient sleep, daily exercise and social support. But it’s equally important to be aware of the good things that happen to you – those positives amid negative events.

When things look bleak, humour helps. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Laugher reduces stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, aids immunity, changes mood for the better, helps you think – and improves memory.

Sandra Kornblatt, in her book, A better brain at any age, also gave an account of how humour during instruction led to increased test scores.

For sure humour is an enthusiasm builder, and some health care professionals refer to it as “internal jogging.” Since it’s contagious, it’s also good for the people who are with you. Watch comedies, read jokes and recall humorous things that have happened to you in the past.

A sense of humour may actually increase longevity. There are reasons to think so. I checked the dates of comedians – or at least those I have quoted several time in the past when I needed to add a little humour to a book or article. Over half the people I checked lived into their nineties. Two of them reached 100.

So when it comes to developing a positive attitude, having a sense of humour is no joke.

Note: The above article was excerpted from the book, How to grow older without growing old – available at our website, www.taylorintime.com.