Category: Cognative Errors

Avoiding Burnout

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Do you find yourself constantly thinking about problems at work? Do you answer emails late into the evening? On vacations can you unplug yourself even for a day or two?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are a candidate for burnout. In his most recent newsletter author and speaker Shola Richards addressed what burnout is and how it happens.

Burnout, by definition, is the state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.

In fact, in 2019, the World Health Organization recognized burnout as an official medical diagnosis.

My hope is that this distinction will continue to help remove some of the stigma around burnout. 

Constant working is a sure recipe for burnout. Beyond taking meaningful breaks throughout the day, are there other ways to avoid burnout? In his newsletter, Shola suggests three specific ways. First is consistent self-care.

I cannot say enough about the importance of having a consistent self-care routine. It could be daily meditation, taking a walk outside, journaling, curling up with your favorite novel, going to therapy, listening to a podcast and/or TED Talk, getting eight hours of sleep, hanging out with loved ones, or taking a much-needed break from watching cable news and/or from social media. As long as it’s bringing you joy and it doesn’t hurt you or anyone else, please keep doing it consistently.

Second is to set boundaries. If everyone is pushing to have your attention, that prevents you from giving attention to the things that lift you up. Some people live this way because they are afraid of how others will view them. One profound sentence from Shola demonstrates the error in this way of thinking.

And remember, the only people who will be upset with you for enforcing your boundaries are the people who benefited from you not having any boundaries in the first place.

Third, he suggests paying close attention to the company you keep. The truth is that some people lift you up while others drain you. The simple equation is to be more around the former far more often than the latter.

The best gift that you can give yourself is to separate yourself from the drama-addicted people in your life, as much as possible. Is it always easy to do this? No, but when it comes to living a positive life, it’s not always about doing what’s easy–it’s about doing what’s necessary. And avoiding burnout is possibly one of the most necessary pursuits on earth for your overall health and sanity (especially now). 

To tap into Shola’s weekly insights, please sign up for his newsletter and visit his website.

Things Great Leaders Do Differently

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Developing leadership skills is a lifetime commitment. While anyone can be placed in a leadership position, it takes practice and a bit of talent to excel at it. Therefore, it can be helpful to study the habits and techniques of great leaders to see how they operate.

Author Kevin Kruse was able to do that and published his findings in an article on the Forbes website entitled 10 Surprising Things Successful Leaders Do Differently. The first discovery on the list seems to flip a popular piece of advice on its head: Close the Open Door Policy.

Open door policies are passive ways to facilitate communication and do more harm than good. They make deep work and strategic thinking virtually impossible for the manager. Worse, research shows that half of all employees won’t go through the open door with problems or ideas because they fear repercussions. It’s time to close your door and open your calendar. Recurring, weekly one-on-one meetings are a far better way to proactively facilitate communication, and pre-scheduled “office hours.”

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Another common perception that Kruse challenges is the idea of treating everyone the same. Instead, he believes that great leaders have favorites and treat them differently.

In a misguided attempt to be impartial and fair, too many managers treat all their team members the same. But it turns out that’s the most unfair thing we can do to people. And it’s the fastest way for you to lose top talent. Instead of treating everyone alike, you need to learn to individualize your leadership approach. You need to take the time to understand each of our team members when it comes to their: talent, experience, attitudes, strengths and goals. Then you play favorites, not based on who you like better, but based on who’s earned it.

To learn the other eight surprising things that successful leaders do differently, read the article on the Forbes website.

A Downside to Efficiency?

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One might think that having a website called the Efficient Librarian would mean that I am all in for efficiency. To an extent, that is true. Most of the time it makes sense to find the simplest way to complete tasks to save time and energy. For example, making a habit of the Two Minute Rule makes sense to move forward on quick tasks as soon as they show up.

However, there are situations in which efficiency has a downside. Too often we get locked into one way of thinking. This leads to doing things efficiently but never questioning why they are being done in the first place! For example, several years back I learned that my library system was compiling a very specific quarterly statistics report. When asked what we did with the numbers, the reply was that the final report was being placed in a drawer and never used. In the past there might have been a purpose, but it no longer applied. I immediately told them to stop compiling this report and everyone was relived.

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Additionally, efficiency can be the enemy of experimentation. If new ideas and approaches are needed, doing the old ways more effectively is worthless. Therefore, it is helpful to regularly take time to reflect on our systems. Asking the following questions may provide insight:

  • Why are we doing this?
  • What value does this produce?
  • Is there something else we could be doing instead that would be more valuable?

Even if the task remains valuable, there may be better ways of doing it, either through technology or a newly discovered best practice. Changing over to a different approach will be less efficient while it is implemented. However, the savings over time as the new approach sinks in reaps benefits.

For example, a dozen years ago my library system went all in on self-check and self-return technology. Staff definitely had a learning curve in understanding the new systems and teaching the public how to effectively use them. However, time savings for staff along with fewer repetitive stress injuries made the transition worthwhile. In fact, it did not take long for staff members to openly wonder why we didn’t make the switch sooner!

For homework, take time this week to look at one of your systems or tasks. Ask the questions above to determine if it is useful to continue doing it. You might be surprised by the results!

Celebrating Small Wins

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When was the last time you celebrated a small win?

Oftentimes we save our acknowledgement of success for big ticket items such as completing major projects or winning significant awards. For leaders, it is easy to dismiss small wins as simply our employees doing their jobs. Yet it is important to highlight success as it shows up in the moment in order to keep people excited and on task.

In a recent article on the Fast Company website, Ashley Cooksley, CEO North America of The Social Element made a strong case for celebrating small wins. This is especially true for rough fiscal times.

As business leaders, it’s easy to forget about the small things our teams do every day to keep the company moving forward. We face major challenges on a daily basis—and it’s fair to say that not every business ended last year on a high note financially. Budgets have been squeezed, and companies have been given a nearly impossible task of consolidating third-party partners while also finding efficiencies.

As leaders, we feel this pressure while doing as much as we can to shield our teams. This means we’re often tasked with finding moments worth celebrating, even when faced with some of the business’s largest challenges.

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When celebrating these small wins, it is helpful to understand the motivations of team members and what they appreciate.

First, you must understand your employees enough to discover what truly drives and inspires them, and then acknowledge and celebrate their accomplishments accordingly. Tools like the DiSC personality test can help you grasp what motivates each individual as well as what brings them joy.

Some people seek titles, recognition, and visibility for their exceptional work within the company. Promotions even with a minimal pay increase can send the signal that you acknowledge their contributions, and importantly, that others will also notice their achievements. Meaningful shout-outs in front of the department or to the company will go a long way toward demonstrating that they’ve been seen and valued.

To learn more about how to honor small wins, please read the rest of the article.

Einstein’s 7 Rules for a Better Life

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E=MC2

The most famous equation in all of physics was developed by arguably the best-known scientist ever, Albert Einstein. While that equation had to do with calculating energy, Einstein was not just a student of theoretical physics, but also a great study of how to live a good life.

In a recent article on The Big Think, Ethan Siegel explores Einstein’s 7 Rules for a Better Life. Taken from a recent biography on the great scientist, Siegel shares life lessons which served Einstein well. For example, take Rule #3, Have a Puzzle Mindset.

Einstein was pretty much the prototype individual for someone who viewed every difficulty he faced as a puzzle to be solved: in physics and beyond.

Consider his oft-misunderstood but most famous quote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” While many people had looked at the puzzle of objects moving near the speed of light before — including other geniuses like FitzGerald, Maxwell, Lorentz, and Poincaré — it was Einstein’s unique perspective that allowed him to approach that problem in a way that led him to the revolution of special relativity. With a flexible, non-rigid worldview, Einstein would easily challenge assumptions that others couldn’t move past, allowing him to conceive of ideas that others would unceremoniously reject out-of-hand.

Rule #4 carried on this thought by sharing the advice to: Think deeply, both long and hard, about things that truly fascinate you.

Over the course of his long life, Einstein received many letters: from those who knew him well to perfect strangers. When one such letter arrived on Einstein’s desk in 1946, asking the genius what they should do with their life, the response was as astute as it was compassionate. “The main thing is this. If you have come across a question that interests you deeply, stick to it for years and do never try to content yourself with the solution of superficial problems promising relatively easy success.”

Learn about the remaining five rules by clicking over the The Big Think website.

Parrells Between Money and Productivity

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Have you heard the admonishment that “Time is Money?”

It is an old saying that exhorts us to make best use of our daily actions in order to reap financial rewards. Taken to heart, it would also imply that being productive will increase the amount of money we acquire. Is there truth to this conclusion?

Tiago Forte believes that there are similarities between productivity practices and budgeting. In an article on his website, Tiago shares thirteen parallels that define successful application of both skills. The first one has to do with aligning with a deeper purpose.

“What do I want my money to do for me?” Everything else depends on the answer: if you value freedom and autonomy, your decisions will look very different from someone who values security and stability.

It’s likewise very valuable to ask yourself, “What do I want my work to do for me?” Besides the obvious answer of “provide a paycheck,” the conclusion you come to has profound implications for where, when, and how you work.

If you value creativity and self-expression, but an ever greater proportion of your to do list is filled with administrative tasks, you will eventually experience dissatisfaction and burnout, regardless of how many hours you work or how much it pays.

Another parallel he shares has to do with shifting our thinking. Tiago believes we should let go of what “should be” and honestly accept what is actually happening.

There is a deeply seated human tendency, when things aren’t going how we believe they “should go,” to simply deny reality. We can make up justifications, rationalizations, and excuses effortlessly, and maintain them even when the impact on our health, happiness, and relationships becomes unbearable.

Simply knowing what is happening is half the battle when it comes to money or productivity. Getting a hold on the “current state” requires letting go of the lenses and stories we use to buffer reality and protect our ego. This is why making a comprehensive Project List is so powerful – it lays out the current state of affairs in objective detail, allowing us to make fully informed decisions.

Learn about the other eleven parallels by reading the rest of the article.

The Tyranny of Small Choices

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Have you ever stopped to consider how many choices you make during the day?

Often when we think about decision making our minds consider the big operational decisions we make at work or in our lives. Yet the vast number of decisions we make every day are small. These choices range from what shirt to wear in the morning, to choosing a restaurant for lunch, down to what TV show to watch at night. Most of us pay little heed to these types of decisions, as they seem inconsequential beyond the moment they are made. However, sometimes these small decisions have outsized impact due to the fact that thousands or millions of people are making similar choices. This leads to the tyranny of small decisions.

In a recent article on the Big Think website, author Jonny Thomson explores how small choices can have oversized impacts. Early in the article, he explains the concept of the tyranny of small decisions.

In 1966, the economist Alfred E. Kahn first coined the term ‘tyranny of small decisions’ in an article of the same name. Kahn used this concept to describe how a series of small, individual choices could lead to an end point no one really wanted. It’s when various discrete and minor actions string together into something not desired by the decision-makers as a whole.

Kahn used as an example a train service that has lots of passengers in the winter, but little ridership in the summer. The choice the passengers make about when to take the train, seemingly inconsequential to each individual person, add up to impact the train service to the point where it could shut down.

Later on in the article, Thomson offers some examples of ways that the tyranny of small decisions can immediately impact your life and business. This first example is about skimping on training days, especially around cybersecurity.

Sixty percent of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyberattack. Cyber-vigilance matters, and small decisions to skimp can have huge ramifications. Buying only basic internet security might save some money. Missing or having irregular cyber-awareness training might make you popular with your team. But few businesses can survive an $80 million hack.

Learn more about the tyranny of small decisions and ways to avoid them by reading the rest of the article.

Beginner vs Advanced

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Have you ever got advice? Of course, you have. The real question is how often has that advice been useful?

The problem with advice is that it may be good for some people, but not for all. Also, some advice is helpful at the start of an endeavor but could be restricting as experience is gained. Tiago Forte recently thought about this problem and wrote his conclusions on his blog at Forte Labs. His primary insight concerns the crucial difference between beginner and advanced advice.

In any given pursuit – tennis, chess, jiu-jitsu, painting – there is a hierarchy of skills that you have to acquire one by one to progress. More fundamental skills lie at the bottom, like the base of a pyramid, and serve as a foundation for more advanced skills to be gained later on.

I’ve noticed that people often want to skip the beginner stages and go directly to the advanced ones. That’s an understandable desire – why spend more time as a novice than you have to? But if you don’t have a strong foundation and try to build too high, your efforts will inevitably crumble.

How do we determine the difference between beginner and advanced advice? Tiago suggests the following:

Beginner advice tends to take the form of an extremely simple, impossible to misunderstand, black-and-white rule.

The more advanced you become, the more options and pathways become available to you, each one tailored to a specific scenario. In other words, you have to choose which advanced strategy is right for you.

How what does this mean for productivity skills? Read the full article on the Forte Labs blog to find out.

The Overlooked Secret for Work Satisfaction

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What drives people to do their best work every day? Is it a big paycheck? How about impressive benefits? Perhaps it is awards and other types of recognition? While all that is nice, none of these factors is the most important to a sense of meaningful work.

In fact, the secret to workplace satisfaction costs nothing.

It is simply a sense of progress.

There is an ancient Greek myth about a cruel king named Sisyphus, a mortal cursed by Hades to roll a boulder up a hill for all eternity. The catch was that just before he reached the top, the boulder would slip from his grasp and roll back to the bottom, forcing him to start over. For too many people their workday is Sisyphean in that they put in hours of effort with no sense of progress to claim for it.

According to Teresa M. Amabile, and Steven J. Kramer, authors of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, the best way to find satisfaction at work is to have a sense of daily, meaningful progress. In their surveys of workers, they found that 76% of people’s best days involved progress, while only 13% involved setbacks. As they summed up:

“Of all the positive events that influence inner work life, the single most important is progress in meaningful work.”

What was more surprising to them was how little management understood and appreciated this fact. According to their surveys, a sense of progress was dead last in a list of possible motivating factors. This demonstrates a strong disconnect between perceived and actual reality. On the positive side, it means that managers who pay attention to workflow, clear barriers and set out clear goals will help their employees feel more successful and fulfilled.

A sense of progress is important to authors. There is an old adage that authors succeed by writing something every day. Even if the work they produce is ultimately not used, the dynamic of forward progress in the task of writing is essential to eventually finishing that novel or long essay.

To learn more about how a sense of progress can improve your everyday work, read The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.