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How To Maintain Your Work Detox In 5 Minutes A Day

Christine — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:00:57 +0000

Post six of The Two-Week Work Detox Series, and by now some of the angst and overwhelm you’d been feeling about work is starting to recede as you whip your work and life into shape.

The Detox In Brief

Here’s the journey we’ve been on that’s helping you get a grip on things:

First, Set Yourself Goals gave you an exercise to help you get clear about what you really, really want from life.

The Critical Few Activities That Need Your Focus challenged you to consider the key things you ought to be concentrating on if you’re serious about getting off the hamster wheel.

How Is Time Spending You? got you confronting the realities of how you’re actually spending your energies right now. And,

Time Shifting For Success had you figuring the difference between what you say you want and what you’re currently doing. And zeroing in on what really needs to change.

So, you’ve got lots of things that you’ve begun to put into action. But how do you keep up and build on your own momentum?

What Gets Focus Gets Results

The organising power of the brain is immense. Give something enough thought and attention and you’ll bring it to life. Consider this: all of the best works, be they artistic or entrepreneurial, began as ideas in someone’s head. It just so happens that their creators dared to put the energy and focus into manifesting them.

Those goals and plans you’ve just spent the last two weeks hatching now need similar commitment and belief from you. They need to be nurtured. They need you to have an active system of planning, doing and reviewing that turns them into hardcore reality.

Today’s challenge is for you to decide how to do just that.

What works for me is to hand write my goals in a beautiful notebook and review them regularly. 5 minutes a day is all it takes. I’ve got a routine of taking myself to my local coffee shop, treating myself to a good strong coffee, and checking in on myself. Every day, I figure out one or two key things that, if I do them, are going to help me progress my life plans.

Morning coffee might not be your cup of tea, if you’ll excuse the pun. But find your own routine. Your own positive habit that’s going to make an ongoing difference. And don’t just take my word for it that this kind of process works. Check out fellow blogger Karen Ruby’s view on it too.

Whatever works.

The point is to bring what you want to the forefront of your mind even if briefly every day. And if you can build in a longer weekly or monthly review so much the better. If that feels like a chore, find ways to put fun into the equation. Go somewhere quirky to think and write. Use funky pens or your favourite note-making tools. Put your favourite music on and rock it.

Make the decision to do it, and watch day by day as your life and work change.

So, that’s the end of the series, folks. Thanks for being here with me. I look forward to hearing how things are changing for you!

Time Shifting For Success

Christine — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:00:45 +0000

If you’ve been reading The Two-Week Work Detox Series, and following along with the exercises, I suspect you’re already starting to suss out that how you’re focussing your time and energy right now is out of step with what you really want.

In fact, if you take a look at the ideal week you created in the third post, with the 24 hour snapshot you made in the fourth, chances are you see quite a mismatch.

So, today your answers to three questions will help you zero in on what really needs to change.

What needs to stay in your life?

What’s already good that just needs to remain as is? Remember that change doesn’t mean throwing the baby out with the bath water.

What needs to go?

What are all the things you’re doing that have reached their sell-by date? What are the attitudes you’re holding onto, implicit in what you’re currently focusing on, that need to be ditched?

What one thing can you do right now to begin the process of moving away from these things?

What needs to be added to your life?

What’s missing that you need to start doing? How are you going to add these things? What’s the action you can take right now, today, that will get the ball rolling on this?

As you work through all three questions, think too about who can help you, and what resources you can lean on.

So, off you go and make some changes, not forgetting of course to share some of your decisions and insights with me.

Join me again on Friday, for a wrap-up discussion talking about how you keep your good intentions alive over the longer term. If you want to be sure not to miss it, sign up here to get it by email!

Earlier posts in the series

Introducing The Two-Week Work Detox

First, Set Yourself Goals

The Critical Few Activities That Need Your Focus

How Is Time Spending You?

photo credit: nnes

How Is Time Spending You?

Christine — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:00:32 +0000

So, if you’ve been following The Two-Week Work Detox Series, you’ve built a picture of what you want from your worklife, and what you need to focus on to achieve it.

But what are you currently focussing on?

You’ll get the answer to this question by looking at how you’re spending your time. Bottom line, if you’ve been feeling that work and life need a bit of a sort out, the chances are there’s a mismatch between what you should be focused on, and what you’re actually doing.

I take some of my coaching clients through this process in detail, and the occasional one says, “yes, but there are lots of things I have to do.” The thing is we don’t have to do anything. You may imagine that you have little choice about how you spend your time. That, my friend, is mistake number one. That, indeed, is allowing time to spend you. It’s giving over your focus to things that are not in keeping with who you are and what you say you want.

We’ll get into more detail about the whole mismatch thing in the next post.

But today’s exercise is all about getting to grips with what an average day in your life actually looks like.

A Day In The Life Of…

Over the next 24 hour, what I’d like you do, is step back and review your moment by moment activities. Set a half-hourly, recurring alarm using the timer on your computer, phone, watch or whatever. And when the buzzer goes, make a note of just how you’ve spent the last 30 minutes.

No need to analyse. No need to change what you do. Just observe and make notes.

Bring them back here on Wednesday, ready for the next stage in the process. If you want to be sure not to miss it, sign up here to get it by email!

What occurs to you as you set yourself the task of doing this exercise?

Earlier posts from the series:

Introducing The Two-Week Work Detox

First, Set Yourself Goals

The Critical Few Activities That Need Your Focus

photo credit: Robert von Bangert

The Critical Few Activities That Need Your Focus

Christine — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:00:42 +0000

If you’ve been following The Two-Week Work Detox Series so far, you’ll have a good idea now of what you want to achieve from your working life.

You may have noticed, as a few of the commentors did, that the questions around goals in the last post were deliberately open. They did not ask you to focus on your current job or your status quo life. They may have taken you, to use Marion Anderson’s words, into the realms on “how else…?” or “what else…?” That’s fine.

If they didn’t it’s time to go back to your answers to those original questions and challenge yourself. Are you really stepping up to your own plate in the way you’ve approached them?

Off you go and check. I’ll be right here when you’re ready.

Ready?

Today’s key takeaway point

Goals only get realised when you decide you’re going to achieve them, and then put your focus and energy behind doing just that.

It’s that simple. If you say you want something, but you do something else, you’ll get something else. In which case you haven’t got goals, you’ve got fantasies.

Exercise

So, what are the things you must do to enable you to achieve your goals? Start off with a list, or a mindmap, or whatever works for you when you’re thinking freely. Then look at your list, and figure out the few things that, if you gave them all your attention, would really allow you to motor.

Then

What proportion of your time would you ideally need to spend on these things to see them gain traction?

Note, I’m not asking you to think about what proportion of your available time after you’ve done your job and all your other chores. I’m asking, blank sheet of paper, if you were reinventing your life – because, in a way, you really are – how much time do your key activities deserve?

Draw yourself a blank grid of seven days and map it out. Or, better still, download my Ideal Week pdf and use it.

Create your ideal week, step back and feel how good it is to see your life mapped out in front of you, full of the things you really want to be doing.

This is the blueprint you need to take your work detox to the next level on Monday. Meantime, have a great weekend and don’t forget to let me know how it’s all shaping up for you!

Introducing The Two-Week Work Detox Series

First, Set Yourself Goals

photo credit: Dominic Sayers

First, Set Yourself Goals

Christine — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:00:31 +0000

This is the second post in The Two-Week Work Detox, a series of 6 posts coming at you this week and next.

Often at work and in life we become so accustomed to living out other people’s expectations of us we spend most of our time on automatic pilot doing task after task without consideration for whether it actually serves us any useful purpose or not.

What do you really, really want?

That’s really the crux of today’s post. Because unless you can answer that question clearly, and put your energy behind achieving it, you’re going to find it difficult to break free from any toxic work practices.

So, the first step of the detox process is to take time to figure out what your own goals are.

Now, I’m not asking you to regurgitate the targets you’ve agreed with your board or senior manager, or the goals you’ve written in your 2010 goal-setting form. They may – or may not – be part of the equation. Rather, I’m challenging you to think about yourself.

Here’s how.

Take half an hour or so – longer if you can – and set your imagination free. In your mind, picture yourself having the working life of your dreams:

What are you doing?
Where are you doing it?
Who is working with you? What role are they playing in your picture?
When are you doing it?
How are you doing it?
What purpose does this work serve in your life?
How does it reward you?
What else, other than work, is integral to this picture.
Who, other than your work colleagues, are important to you in this picture.
What are you thinking, and how are you feeling about considering your working life in this way?

That’s it for today, folks. The next post, and the next step in the detox process is coming up this Friday. Don’t miss it. Subscribehere for email updates.

If you want any help with this, email me at christine@adifferentkindofwork.com, pick up the phone on +44 (0) 7767 244977, or catch me on Twitter.

Oh, and don’t forget to leave a comment and let me know how you get on!

Introducing The Two-Week Work Detox Series

photo credit: TheMarque

Introducing The Two-Week Work Detox Series

Christine — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:00:31 +0000

Like I said in The Last Summer Holiday You’ll Need, a lot of people around me are frazzled right now, and ready for a holiday.

The problem is that, unless you do something fundamental to change your status quo, the feel good factor from your expensive break will last about two days.

Then you’re once more back on the hamster wheel, living only for your next break.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Welcome to The Two-Week Work Detox, a series of six articles coming to you over the next couple of weeks. It’s going to work like this:

Each post will have a brief but chunky bit of content, followed by self-coach homework and/or questions.
You’ll need something to capture your thoughts, ideas, and actions in. A funky notebook, a Moleskin, your iPad, laptop, or voice-recorder. Whatever works for you really.
Tune in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for each update. Better still, make sure you’re subscribed to the blog to get each new post via email.
Bring your courage, enthusiasm and determination to kick your work-life in the ass.

Sound good?

So, before we get started with the series, I’d love to hear what aspects of your working life you’d like to change? And how can this series help you achieve that?

photo credit: coolinsights

Introducing The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers

Christine — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:44:28 +0000

Welcome to the first in an unfolding and to-be-developed series of posts, creating The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers. To kick off, I want to share three things:

My intention in writing The Manifesto
Some thoughts on how this process will run
Article headings that could shape some meaningful draft content and lead to some meaty conversation.

If this is the first time you’ve visited and are wondering what on earth all of this is about, read Why Pushing Through Is Not Always The Way To Get Ahead, to get caught up on the conversation.

My intention

I want, through this process, to create words, give voice, and bring collective energy to a phenomenon of our time.

It’s the one where gutsy, courageous professionals are daring NOT to be defined by career norms, and are instead choosing to create their very own relationship with work. Whatever “work” looks like to them.

I’m very aware of the organisational and institutional implications of this trend. AND my focus is on describing, assisting and enabling the vibrant idiosyncrasies of the very real individuals who are awake to this challenge.

I’m choosing to write this in an open way because that feels to be in keeping with the spirit of what’s required here. As CV Harquail eloquently said in her last comment:

“some manifestos are starting to feel ‘canned’. While I love the ChangeThis site and mission, and often find kindred souls and ideas there, I also sometimes feel like it’s more soapbox, less action. At worst, those manifestos are exhortations, not conversations that move us forward. All the more reason to see how you might transform the manifesto writing process as a community, building one.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

For me – and I guess for many of you – this is an experiment in not being defined by the implicit manifesto writing rules and daring to do something different. So, this process itself parallels what we’re talking about. Hence, it’s possible that there are some personal development insights ahead for all of us.

I hope so!

How’re we going do this?

What seems to have got the thumbs up from you is the idea that I post some thoughts in a blog-like way and those spark conversation through the comments section. Thanks to Eleanor “Give a Brick” Edwards, I now have threaded comments so you can all comment on one another’s comments too. When we’re conversationed out, I synthesise new thoughts and ideas that have emerged into the original post – or, indeed, completely re-write it as necessary! The ultimate aim is to create a collection of posts that will be developed into a PDF document for free download from this site.

A subsequent thought I had was to offer to reference all contributors in a separate section for that purpose. Which would allow you some recognition of your involvement, assuming you were happy with that?

Separately, let me know of anything else you need or want that would enable you to play your best part in the production process.

The Shape Of Things To Come?

So, here are the conversation points around which I’ve drafted headlines and written a little “abstract” of the content I imagine could go with them.

As you read this, I would ask you to do so with these questions in mind:

What really resonates for you here?
What’s not cutting it for you?
What’s missing, and how would you suggest we add it?

Call To Action

An inspiring introduction, talking about who New Work Pioneers are; what in the world, and in their own lives are prompting them to take an approach to work that’s outside of what has, till now, been considered the “norm”; and why now offers a brilliant opportunity for seizing the moment to consciously design their own work path.

The New Work Pioneer’s Holy Grail

A post that talks in detail about the biggest challenge for New Work Pioneers: acknowledging that they are choosing the path of the individual, and not the path of the herd; that they and they alone are in charge of their own destinies. What blinkers do they have to remove in order to see things this way? What fundamental principles and practices do they need to adopt to help them do so? How they empower themselves to think of their “deviance” in a positive way.

The Success Mindset of New Work Pioneers (and How To Cultivate It)

How New Work Pioneers are redefining for themselves what “success” looks and feels like, away from being about extrinsic things like big job titles, promotions, bonuses, corner offices, big salaries, and all the things that go with those things, towards being about achieving personal goals, maintaining good relationships with partners, friends, family. The New Work Pioneer’s relationship with money and wealth. The challenges of embracing this mindset in a world that values all things external. The shifts needed to bring this mindset alive for oneself and how to make them happen.

How New Work Pioneers Are Re-Writing The Old Career Rules

The inventiveness and genius that New Work Pioneers are using to really make work work for them. How they’re realising the solution to their initial career discomfort is not a ready-made one, but one for which they alone hold the answer. How, through an evolving understanding of themselve, their values and their passions, they are getting creative about carving out unique ways to honour that in their own lives. How they are finding ways to live within the “As Is” work model, but to do so on their terms.

The Hallmark Challenges Of New Work Pioneers (and How To Overcome Them)

An article that confronts the realities of the struggles that New Work Pioneers face in their quest to create a working life that really jives for them. The challenges of cutting free from all the internal and external beliefs and limitations that keep them from wholly manifesting the best of themselves. The challenges of living outside the norm, but being understood and being accepted by the mainstream. How these challenges can be reframed in ways that allow them to be overcome.

Here’s How New Work Pioneers Navigate Their Journeys

Recognising that the process of New Work Pioneers is not a wholly logical one, but one that also has an emotional, emergent aspect, that takes time to be wholly worked through and understood. The practices, tools and resources New Work Pioneers can use to positively support them through their journeys.

Okay, guys, so this is my starter for ten. My thinking from here is that, given your feedback on what I’ve written today, I’ll take one of these headings each Friday over the next weeks and we’ll work them through together.

What do you think? Over to you now – let the conversation begin!

The Silent Rise of the New Work Pioneer

Christine — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:26:44 +0000

Did you see Get Ready to be a Change Maker by Bill Drayton and Valeria Budinich over at the Harvard Business Review this week? The article talks about recent economic history, how we’ve cycled through agricultural, industrial and technological revolutions and are now on the cusp of another change again. In their words:

“We are transitioning from a world in which a small elite runs everything to a world in which everyone needs to be a player.”

Whilst it’s good to see this being recognised and articulated, and thought given to what leadership needs to look like now, I think that academics and business leaders alike are vastly underestimating the effects of a movement that’s been afoot for years already.

For, whilst they’ve been clinging to their status quo world, a not so small tribe of people has been making things different for themselves, without any need for institutional guidance or direction.

I call this tribe The New Work Pioneers.

They may not yet recognise themselves by this term, but, just as surely as the disenchanted Europeans set sail for the New World all these centuries ago, this group of individuals have already left the old world of work for real or metaphoric pastures new.

The tribe’s membership includes those who have ditched traditional workplaces to create their own lifestyles; those – including freelancers and artists – who saw early on that work as we currently know it wasn’t for them; and those who are taking a different kind of consciousness into employment with the aim of giving themselves a more liveable corporate experience.

The thing that has prompted each individual’s initiation to the tribe has been different. Sometimes it has been a personal change, like the loss of a relationship; the birth of a child; a serious physical illness, either of one’s own or of a close relation; or a mental breakdown.

Sometimes it has been a change prompted by an employer: an experience of harassment or bullying; a redundancy or its threat.

Whatever the catalyst, tribe members get to a point where they ask themselves serious questions about their work and its role in their lives. “Does life really have to be like this?” is not an uncommon one. Once voiced, New Work Pioneers accept the challenge of creating a different kind of work for themselves. In this they set themselves apart from the millions who might hear the questions, but be unable or unwilling to answer them.

New Work Pioneers have much in common:

They value themselves as people and have a real sense of the choices in their lives. They’ve stopped to think about whose lives they’re living: their own or their families and friends. They’ve chosen the former.
They appreciate the fundamental role work plays in their lives, not only as a source of income, but also as a way of bringing who they uniquely are to the world. They take their own talents, beliefs and values seriously.
They’re committed to find the way to do what they love and to love what they do.
Their value of themselves extends to their partners, families and people around them, and to experiences beyond work that enriches them. They know that work and life are not opposing forces, but part of the whole picture of who they are.
They see the importance of relationship in their lives and take the time to nurture positive connections with people around them.
They have a readiness to challenge the status quo of work and to rewrite some of the bizarre rules that are in play around it.
They are committed to their personal growth and development and they see work as a vital aspect within that. They know that as they change, their work changes too, and vice versa.

So, some questions for you: do you recognise yourself in this description? What kick-started your journey into doing and looking at work differently? And what other things do you think New Work Pioneers have in common?

How to make sure you never get ahead

Christine — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:49:30 +0000

If you’ve been surfing the web you’ll have seen there are a number of blogs and bloggers around that want to make you believe you can be successful on your own terms at work. Here’s how to avoid their pernicious influence:

Remember what your parents told you about work being a necessary evil. They were right. And life’s about suffering, isn’t it?
When you share your wildest dreams for a different kind of work with your partner and friends and they say, “You must be kidding”, agree with them.
Know that it’s nigh-on impossible to change direction once you’re in an established career. Some people have done it, but they’re the exception, and clearly money wasn’t an issue for them.
Keep applying for more of the same jobs. The next one’s bound to be better.
Write your CV exactly like the job sites tell you. There’s a formula for what good looks like. Might not be how you’d write it. But remember this isn’t about you.
Stick to the traditional job search methods. At least you know they work, which is more than can be said for social and other networking. And, for what it’s worth,LinkedIn and BrazenCareerist are completely off the wall fads.
Learn the rules of interviewing. Particularly the ones about misrepresenting your experience. After all, you do want to make out you’re a good fit, don’t you?
Figure the work wear uniform for your profession, level and location. You know there is one. Black suit? High heels? Chinos and polo shirts? Get with the programme, buddy!
Be permanently attached to your BlackBerry, iPhone or laptop. Oh, and that includes when you’re on holiday. Your family will just have to understand. Too bad for them if they don’t.
Attend every meeting you’re invited to. Even if the subject has nothing to do with you and bores you rigid, you can’t take the risk of not being there.
Stay in the office longer than you really need to if you want to show your loyalty. It’ll reap benefits come pay review time.
Engage in heroic activities in the name of work. Walk for miles in transport strikes. Drive your car in the snow and ice when the road authorities advise staying at home. Always remember how indispensable you are.
Learn the rules of office politics and play them. Game playing at work is just one of those things, and you want to be a winner, yeah?
Shut up and put up. Learn your place in the hierarchy and defer to those above you. If you see anything unethical going on, turn a blind eye. You don’t want to risk your next bonus.
If you ever find yourself saying, “there’s got to be more to life,” understand that disillusion is a natural part of adult life. Accept it.
If the stress of work makes you feel ill, see a doctor. There’s some pretty good medication they can give you these days. Your company might even have an occupational health department that can teach you some ways to cope with your workload better.
Do whatever training you’re sent on. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s a load of old bollocks. Your company is paying a lot of money for it on your behalf, and you’ll want to make sure to please the trainer so they give HR good feedback about you.
If something goes wrong, find someone to blame. You played no part in it and if you’re smart, you’ll avoid any shit landing in your direction.
Oh, and finally, stop reading this blog. And blogs by people who are really kicking the status quo of work in the ass. In particular avoid Chris Guillebeau, Jonathan Fields, and Pam Slim. There’s a lot of insanity out there. You don’t want it to brush off on you!

I know there’s more – what advice would you add to help people ensure they achieve the status quo?