I’m working on my next year’s “plans.” I use quotes around that word because I use lean approaches to plan my work. I decide which work to do now, and I finish that work. Then, I pick from many options for the next bit of work. Based on my throughput, I have enough possibilities for …
Three Questions to Become More Adaptable and Resilient in the Future Read More »
I love to make it easy for me to do my best work. To do so, I need to think about what I want to reinforce and what I want to dampen. When I create reinforcing—or virtuous—feedback loops, I use my data to do more of what I want. However, that’s not always easy to …
Where Can You Create Reinforcing (Virtuous) Feedback Loops? Read More »
I love to get stuff done. I count various measures on my way to my productivity, but when I cross things off my lists? Yeah, I love that. I know what being productive feels like and looks like for me. It often feels like some amount of “stuff” per unit time. But creativity? I used …
How Do You Know When You’re Being Creative vs. Productive? Read More »
Do you keep lists of work to do? If you’re like me, you have the work-list, the home/personal list, and the honey-do list. (The honey-do list is for my honey (husband) to please do.) I also have a potential list, which I don’t pay much attention to. I purposely do not call this a backlog. …
What’s on Your “Done” List or How Do You Recognize Your Accomplishments? Read More »
CAL Newsletter: Where Do You Choose to Draw Your Boundaries? Sometimes, people ask us for more than we want to offer—or can reasonably achieve. When people ask us for more than we want to offer, we have many options for responses. Each of those responses reflects our boundaries. That means we need to know how …
I’ve been shopping for a dress to wear to my younger daughter’s wedding. (I’ll call her YD because that’s definitely not her name.) I have many criteria for a dress. Aside from flattering me, the dress has to work with my rollator. That means the dress can’t be chiffon. At OD’s (Older Daughter) wedding, I …
How Can You Use Optimism to Achieve Your Goals? I recently learned about “dynamic optimism” and “passive optimism.” Dynamic optimists act. They see their reality, they set a goal. They use a variety of steps to achieve their goal, using the growth mindset all along the way. They persevere. Passive optimists don’t do those things. They hope for …
CAL Newsletter: How Can You Use Optimism to Achieve Your Goals? Read More »
I spoke with a treasured colleague, Alex, a couple of weeks ago. He told me he was so busy he couldn’t “find” the time to write. I asked about his family and the house. No, everyone’s okay. Cooking, cleaning, kids—all good. He’s not working out any more than usual. I then asked this question: “How …
Do You Offer Your Attention to People Who Deserve It? Read More »
I read Daniel Steinberg’s newsletter about Small Big Thinking. He wrote about small things that appear big. And big things that appear small. In my experience, those small big things tend to be irritants. For instance, I have a pair of perfectly good sneakers that don’t stay tied. There’s something wrong with the shoelaces. I …
We often talk about “spending” time. I often think about spending in two ways: To expend, as in energy. To exchange some value for something else. For example, I spend money in exchange for goods or services. I’m not so sure I like the idea of “spending” time. I can’t ever get another second of …