Visual cues are a powerful way to remind ourselves of new habits we’d like to form. For example, if junk mail tends to pile up, put a waste basket or paper shredder where the mail typically accumulates. You might be surprised how often you notice the receptacle and decide to process the mail and purge it right away instead of…
Category: Meaningful Management
Keep a list of distractions
When working to achieve a goal, distractions will inevitably arise. Keep a pad of paper and a pen nearby, scribble down distractions to get them out of your mind. Then, refocus on the outcome you set out to achieve and then get back to work. This allows you to capture the tangential tapestry of ideas that naturally arise without losing…
Biasing your mind for success
Our minds only have the bandwidth to focus on one goal at a time. This is both a blessing and a curse. The curse is we all wish we could simultaneously keep many things in mind. The blessing is that our mind will latch onto ONE goal if we keep everything else out of the way. And our mind will…
What’s NOT missing when you’re frustrated
I mentioned, last week, frustration is often a sign that something is missing. That something that’s missing is often the piece of information that will liberate your frustration. This is the case with many other afflictive emotions too. What’s NOT missing is blame, fault, intent, personality, and motive. These are further distractions from what is missing because these will only…
Alcohol isn’t the only thing that diminishes self-control
When it comes to making wise decisions, self-control plays a critical role in negating the urge to act in unsavory ways. We’re all aware of the effects of consuming alcohol, it lowers inhibitions, hence why people use it to deal with social situations. But there are many other ways self-control is altered. Ego depletion is an example of a not…
I’m making a decision???
A pernicious peril in decision making is not realizing you’re making a decision. At least this is the case with important decisions. Every day you make countless decisions automatically. That’s normal. Life would be impossible if you had to carefully analyze each and every decision. For example, what to eat for breakfast, when to take a bathroom break, how fast…
Creating something new requires thinking about your customer
When you start to think from the perspective of your customer, and not the bottom line, innovation arises with ease. For example, someone that runs a gift shop that wants to have an edge, here are some ideas that spring to mind. People are busy, don’t underestimate the value of providing a concierge level of service to customers. Wrapping a…
Productive frustration
Negative emotions can be problematic if left unchecked, like frustration, but they can be a guide too. If something is frustrating you, see if there’s something you’re missing. Some extra piece of information that is vital to understand the situation that you either don’t know about or have forgotten about. For example, Jonathan and I were shopping the other day…
Tell people you’re not qualified
If someone asks for feedback, one of the #1 reasons why you want to ask them what type of feedback they’d like from you, is to ascertain if you feel qualified to give the feedback. For example, if someone asks me to tell them what they think of a pie, and I probe a bit further, I might find out…
Vote and move on
If you’re part of a board, or committee, you need to become adept at recognizing polarized issues. It’s not rocket science, yet for some reason it seems to trip up people on boards and committees. I’ve never understood holding open discussions about issues that people will never agree about, when the people who will ultimately decide have already made up…