Just about everyone I know is convinced that they successfully multitask and that other folks can’t.
On a conference call, they have an array of tabs open, answer their phone, watch videos, deal with email and even get in a bit of social media and contribute meaningfully. I call ‘BS’ on this. If this is you and you think you are acting optimally you are dead wrong.
The articles on achieving work-life balance continue to grow daily yet few folk seem to be able to actually achieve this.
Personally, I don’t believe in it. I believe in work-life integration as it is all ‘life’ and we put our energies into different parts of it, depending upon the needs of the day.
As business people we are all familiar with the term, ‘return on investment’(ROI).
But I believe that this is only a part of the story; we should also be looking at ‘return of investment.’
When we make an investment, in this case of funds, we do so usually expecting a return on our investment sufficient enough to justify the expenditure.
It is all about control. We cannot control what the world throws at us, but we can control our reactions.
Famously Viktor Frankl wrote about this in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, a powerful telling of how he survived in a Nazi concentration camp by doing just that; controlling his reaction to what happened.
I am the world champion of ‘procrastacleaning’!
I mainly work from a home office, and it is easy to decide that a load of washing needs to go on or be hung out, the kitchen needs a tidy or the shower a clean. Any of this is easier than knuckling down to do that ‘thing’ that,
I have a home office, and I love the comfort and freedom it affords me, but I am aware of the dangers to my business that working from home brings.
The main danger is that ‘home’ and ‘work’ slowly meld together. It requires discipline not to let the ‘home’ aspect impinge on the work one.
Learning should be a major part of getting things done but learning for its own sake is a distraction and makes achieving goals harder.
My hot button is learning; I love learning and then running what I learn through the filter of my experience, so I can help others achieve their goals. Since my fourth year of high school,
Just about everyone I know is convinced that they successfully multitask and that other folks can’t.
On a conference call, they have an array of tabs open, answer their phone, watch videos, deal with email and even get in a bit of social media and contribute meaningfully. I call ‘BS’ on this. If this is you and you think you are acting optimally you are dead wrong.
By embracing technology, we can set up a new business quicker, we can reach across the globe cheaper and more effectively than ever before, but something is wrong with this open-ended love affair with adopting technology.
The promise is that technology will make tasks smaller and easier to do. We will gain greater control over our enterprises and lives.
We all have dreams. Big ones, little ones. Usually happy ones.
Dreams of fast cars, big houses, three-month-long vacations (and that’s just overseas) a year. Of bank accounts filled to the brim, of only working on those projects that catch your eye and of clients going on waiting lists. Of winning awards, beating the competition and of having truly fantastic staff.