Several of my clients have told me they want to help people be happy. They measure—well, they attempt to—each individual’s happiness. I have not found measuring happiness all that helpful. For me, happiness is an outcome, a result, of satisfaction. Satisfaction with my choices, satisfaction in finishing, satisfaction with my results. I wonder about happiness […]
Is Happiness Your Goal? Read More »
Everyone has a relationship with money. We need money to buy things, such as food, clothing, and shelter. We want enough money so we can be happy. And, our relationships with money often dictate the decisions we make. In my recent question, When Do You Choose Yourself? I wrote about some of the decisions we
How Do You Feel About Money? Read More »
Everyone is crazy-busy. Too many of us multitask, listening to a book or podcast when we walk or drive, focusing and pushing through on specific work, making the “most” of our time. When do we make time to think? Do we ever? I asked myself this very question last week. I had—for me—a long drive
When Do You Make Time to Think? Read More »
In Massachusetts, we get our cars inspected every year, on the anniversary of the month of the car’s first inspection. I’m lucky enough to have to inspect my car in January. In the cold, muck, wet, snow. You can tell how much I enjoy this. For inspection, timing is everything. Go too early in the
When is the Right Time? Read More »
I was thinking of how I make tradeoffs. In many projects, people often think we need to optimize for time and against quality. It’s a fake tradeoff, because the cleaner the project environment, the faster the team can proceed. If you’re a software person, you know that the time you invest in build automation and
Can You Trade Off for Ease? Read More »
I’ve been traveling a ton in the past couple of months. That means I get to meet all kinds of people—professionals in my field, hospitality people in hotels, taxi drivers, you name them. People often tell me how they feel about their work. Some of the professionals hate their work. So do some of the
How Much Grunt Work Do You Have? Read More »
I was writing the geographically distributed agile teams book this morning with Mark Kilby. I said, “I have to fight for all my empathy skills. They might come naturally to you, but they don’t for me.” He laughed. Empathy and sympathy are quite different. To me, it’s about the context. Here’s the difference: Empathy is
Are You Fighting to Build Your Empathy Skills? Read More »
My town is busy planning and discussing and planning and discussing (yes, continue for several more recursions) the plans for the new high school. We need a new high school for many reasons. A lot of it is the physical plant, the physical resources. (See where the high school stands.) Note that the Resources and
What Are You Sentimental About? Read More »
It’s July 4, here in the US, our Independence Day. We celebrate with parades, cookouts, and fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks. I’m a fan of watching fireworks. And, I’m a fan of independence. And, I bet my notion of independence might not be the same as yours. Here’s what independence means to me: I
What Does Independence Mean to You? Read More »
I like structuring my work. Some structures don’t box me in. I use timeboxes and a daily structure to organize my time. I have a default set of book and article organizations. Sometimes, that means my Groove Turns Into a Rut. More often, the structure enhances my creativity. I feel more creative because I don’t have
When Can Structure Enhance Your Creativity? Read More »