“My work situation is unique and these ideas couldn’t possibly work in my environment”. Really?
How many times have I heard that statement!
The ideas discussed during my GO System training course are simple and require very little time to implement. It doesn’t matter what your job is, what your title is or where you hang your hat. The ideas discussed during the course are all common workplace issues that will provide you with the quickest relief from the stress associated with feeling overworked and overloaded and will make the biggest difference in your productivity. For those of you that have had an opportunity to attend one of my classes, instead of telling yourself the ideas won’t work because your situation is “unique”, ask yourself, “How can I make them work?” Big difference. I’m sure you’ll find a way!
You are in your car, listening to good music, making good time as you head down the interstate toward the beach. The kids are behaving, your spouse is relaxing by your side and you are far enough down the road that the stress of work and your day-to-day routine are beginning to melt way. Life is good.
I don’t know about you, but it has been my experience that very few people in this situation calmly merge into the single lane in a polite and orderly manner. People get crazy and begin aggressively jockeying for position. They pass you on the left, on the right; some even decide to make the shoulder another lane.
The result is chaos, jammed traffic, stress, anxiety and perhaps anger. Your forward progress grinds to a halt and then you begin slowly crawling toward the orange barrel that finally funnels you and all your fellow travelers into the single lane.
Between the time you first spot the barrels and the moment you finally merge into the single lane, your progress and your stress move in equal but opposite directions. In terms of achieving your vacation goals, this is not very productive time. That’s the bad news.
Here’s the good news. The moment you pass the barrel that closes off all other lanes and funnels everyone into a single lane, some interesting things happen. You begin making steady progress. Maybe you are not going as fast as you’d like, but you are making progress. Once again, your progress and stress move in equal but opposite directions. But this time, things are moving in the right direction.
I believe we can learn a lesson from these orange barrels. When we try to jam too many activities into a workday, it is like trying to jockey for position as we approach a highway construction zone. Everything just gets chaotic, our workload gets jammed up, our progress diminishes and our stress increases.
Maybe you can’t do it all the time, but whenever possible, you are much better off tackling one thing at a time at work. It is much better to make steady progress than no progress.
What are your three top priorities?
Do you know what your three top priorities are for the day? The things you most need to accomplish today? These should take precedent over everything else. However, we all know that fires come up throughout the day, interruptions through phone calls and email and people dropping by, new demands that will push the best-laid plans aside. If you put off doing your most important things until later in the day – guess what? They probably won’t get done.
Try to get all three of your top priorities done before moving on to anything else. If you can do that, you’ll build momentum and your day will be positively productive!
It’s that time of year again and New Year”s resolutions have either already failed, never got started or moving a long successfully. For those of you that made loosing weight a goal this year, I read an interesting article that might just help you be successful – this time.
Read “Recipe for Life” by Judith Matz from the January/February 2011 issue of Psychotherapy Networker.