Where to Keep Ideas?

March 17, 2018Leave a comment

DA-Small David Allen is fond of saying that “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” As a knowledge worker, your ability to generate and implement ideas is crucial to your success. The challenge is that we can never know for certain what will turn out to be a good idea and what will end up as a discarded thought. However, it is guaranteed that a forgotten idea will never be implemented. Therefore, it is important to have a method to capture ideas as they appear.

In a recent blog post, David Allen addresses this topic.

“How many thoughts and ideas do you have daily which represent useful things to do or potentially enhance or improve projects, situations, and life in general? How many have you had and forgotten, and forgotten that you’ve forgotten? …

“Most people have (or could have) many more of these kinds of thoughts than they realize, during the course of any 24-hour period. Most people don’t get value from many of them, because they lack both the habit and the tools to collect those thoughts when they occur. If they aren’t captured, they are useless, and even worse can add to the gnawing sense of anxiety most people feel about things “out there” they know they’ve told themselves they should or would like to do, but don’t remember consciously what they are.”

Read the rest of this post at www.gettingthingsdone.com.

Overcoming Procrastination

February 13, 2018Leave a comment

Do you want to know how to overcome procrastination? I’ll tell you in the next blog post.

Just kidding! When I present the Efficient Librarian workshop, I’m often asked the question, “How do I overcome procrastination?” While it seems challenging the solution is easier than you may think. In a recent blog post on the Getting Things Done web site, GTD expert Meg Edwards wrote about her own experience with procrastination and the simple way she overcomes it:

megedwards I realized that the two things I did that caused me to procrastinate were:
1) I had a negative definition of the outcome
2) I focused on the complexity involved … which overwhelmed me so I did nothing.

What I did that got it moving was:
1) I changed the negative definition of the outcome to a positive definition that motivated me
2) I clarified and defined the next action which simplified what I needed to do so I could relax about the complexity around it.

Read the full blog post on the Getting Things Done web site.

The Big Secret about Goal Setting

January 5, 2018Leave a comment

DA-Small What is the value in setting a goal for yourself or your organization? Many cynics discount goals as artificial creations that don’t translate into actual results. They argue that we are going to do the work anyway, so why set up a fake expectation?

In a recent blog post David Allen discussed what he believes to be the most useful perspective on goals and why they matter.

“There is always the dilemma of trying to set targets low enough to be realistic, but high enough to be galvanizing, exciting, and challenging.

This is a topic for endless business books and motivation pundits. I just want to highlight one perspective I’ve found very useful over the years: The value of goals is not in the future they describe, but the change in perception of reality they foster, in the present.

What we focus on changes what we notice. Our brain filters information, seeing one thing in a situation instead of something else, based on what we identify with, what we have our attention on.”

Read the full post at the Getting Things Done blog.

Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

January 3, 2018Leave a comment

new year resolution Welcome to 2018! Let me ask you a question. Did you make a New Year’s Resolution before the ball dropped in Times Square? According to a Forbes article from a few years ago, more than 40% of Americans make a resolution, but only 8% achieve it. The article provides four timeless tips for succeeding with a new resolution:

Keep It Simple – Make it short and easy (i.e. lose 10 pounds by May)
Make It Tangible – Set clear actions (i.e. attend 2 classes at the gym per week)
Make It Obvious – Chart your progress (i.e. count calories and minutes worked out)
Keep Believing You Can Do It – Don’t Give In!

When you think about it, most resolutions are about making a new habit or changing an existing habit. Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, provides a free resource on his web site with helpful hints on keeping a New Year’s Resolution. You can find it here.

I wish you a productive and efficient 2018!

Work/Life Balance Myth

November 21, 2017Leave a comment

davidallen It has long been proposed that one of the secrets to a happy life is finding a work/life balance. This is a magical equation where the right mix of meaningful work offset by an exact amount of normal life activity equals contentment. However, is this really as true as it seems?

In a recent blog post, David Allen discusses this topic and comes to his own conclusions.

“There’s not really work/life balance, there’s just balance. I mean, work is anything you want to get done, right? It doesn’t have to be pejorative. Having a good vacation can be work. Just think of the affirmation: Wow, this really works! Is that a bad thing?”

Read the rest of his blog entry on the Getting Things Done web site.

What makes us feel good about our work?

October 20, 2017Leave a comment

Why do we go through the trouble to get up every weekday to commute to work? Sure we need the money and it can be fun to spend the day with our coworkers. However, are their motivational factors that make the difference when it comes to committing ourselves fully to our jobs and businesses?

danariely This is a question of great interest to behavioral economist Dan Ariely. So much so that he did several experiments which aimed to probe deep into how people assign value to the work they do. The results of the experiments were shared in a TED Talk. From the video description:

What motivates us to work? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn’t just money. But it’s not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our work.

Click here to watch Dan Ariely’s TED Talk.

Discipline Over Default

October 18, 2017Leave a comment

brianknight The quest for greater efficiency and productivity in our work is a noble endeavor. However, in every quest there is an obstacle in the way of success. In this case, it is our own unconscious default behavior that sabotages our best efforts at change and keeps us stuck at square one.

In a recent blog post, Brian Kight of Focus 3 describes the difference between a disciplined way of thinking versus a default way and how adopting the former can help you achieve your goals.

“Discipline over default means thinking and acting discipline-driven rather than default-driven, a core practice of our training. The unfortunate fact is that most people behave default-driven and don’t even realize it. Choosing to be discipline-driven over default-driven isn’t a one-time decision, it’s an everyday decision. … Default is the enemy of discipline. It’s the self-perpetuating chasm between you and your goals, and that should frustrate you.”

Read the rest of the Focus 3 blog post to learn more about how engage in a more discipline-driven approach to work and life.

The Elephant and the Rider

July 25, 2017Leave a comment

There is a general assumption that we are in control of our own decisions. It is often assumed that our conscious mind makes informed choices based on rational thought which then guides our life. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth as our emotional mind is often far more powerful than we care to admit.

switch Chip and Dan Heath discuss this dilemma in their book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. They use an image from the work of psychologist Jonathon Haidt of the “Elephant and the Rider.” The Elephant is our emotional mind, which is big, strong, and reactive. The Rider is the logical side which is purposeful, rational, and factual. As the Heath’s explain on pg.7:

“Anytime the six ton Elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, the rider is going to lose. He’s completely over matched.”

The Heath brothers then present a three stage model to empower the Rider to move the Elephant in the right direction in order to make a switch. The model is useful for changing habits, planning for the future, and making calm choices in the face of emotionally charged issues.

Check out Switch today. You can also get resources from the Heath brothers web site following a free registration process.

Meaning of Discipline

July 5, 2017Leave a comment

The word discipline conjures up many emotions. For some, it is a negative word denoting punishment or strictness. For others it seems stark and foreboding, like being stuck in a hard, joyless routine. However, discipline is also a positive force and something that everyone needs to succeed.

In his blog, Brian Knight of the company Focus 3, breaks down the origins of the word:

“The word “disciple” comes from the Latin word discipulus meaning “student”. Most people believe a disciple is a follower, probably because of the religious context, but in reality it means student. A disciple is (and I’ll make up a word here) a *studier*.

The word “discipline” is from the Latin word disciplina meaning “instruction and training”. It’s derived from the root word discere — “to learn.”

So what is discipline? Discipline is to study, learn, train, and apply a system of standards.”

For Brian, having discipline means having more choice, control, and better options in your life. To learn more, read his blog entry on the Focus 3 web site.

Efficient Librarian

Exploring the Intersection of Efficiency and Librarianship

Category: Success Thinking