Pimp Your Work

Only recently did I write about sleep as an essential part of your workday as well as another article on taking a permanent break, but today’s post takes the cake when it comes to slacking off.  Today we’ll discuss how daydreaming can be a fundamental part of your work.

Don’t look at me like that, I didn’t discover it (but you already know what a slacker I tend to be, so it’s too late for these disclaimers).

In a recent article from The Boston Globe, scientists from several universities in the US and England discuss the importance of daydreaming in our lives.

Traditionally, we see daydreaming as a waste of time or a luxury we can’t afford in today’s hectic workplace.  The truth is that it stimulates creativity, since our thoughts are more abstract and we’re not bound to whatever is going on at present.

Research from the East Anglia University in England shows that children who lack imagination tend to be those who don’t have idle time to daydream.  However, Jonathan Schooler from the University of California claims that not all daydreams are created equal. Some daydreamers get too caught up in the moment and don’t realize that their minds are wandering, while others become aware of these daydreams and put their abstract ideas into good use.

“The point is that it’s not enough to just daydream,” Schooler says. “Letting your mind drift off is the easy part. The hard part is maintaining enough awareness so that even when you start to daydream you can interrupt yourself and notice a creative insight.”
Source: “Daydream Achievers” by Jonah Lehrer, The Boston Globe

So how do we make daydreaming work for us?

Be active when you’re daydreaming.  Don’t just sit and watch your daydreams as if you were sitting on your couch and watching TV.  It helps to be aware if you’ve struck a particularly interesting idea or imagery that you can use in other aspects of your life, including your work.

Don’t edit yourself.  Sometimes, after hitting a golden idea, negativity starts getting in your way.  You start thinking “That would never work” or “That’s stupid”.  If something struck you, it’s likely that it will be useful for something, someday.  Jot it down no matter how absurd it may seem.

Know if the moment is appropriate.  Daydreaming while crossing a busy street is a bad idea.  However, daydreaming while you’re on a break, eating lunch, or washing the dishes is perfectly fine.

The writer, Jonah Lehrer, ends the article beautifully:

One of the simplest ways to foster creativity, then, may be to take daydreams more seriously. Even the mundane daydreams that occur hundreds of times a day are helping us plan for the future, interact with others, and solidify our own sense of self. And when we are stuck on a particularly difficult problem, a good daydream isn’t just an escape - it may be the most productive thing we can do.
Source: “Daydream Achievers” by Jonah Lehrer, The Boston Globe

Tell that to your boss the next time she catches you daydreaming.

Or, on second thought, don’t.

Photo Credit: Image from Sophie  from stock.xchng

Last week, I asked Pimp Your Work readers about their to-do list strategy.  Here’s what some of them have to say:

Lindsay from Writing For Your Wealth says that she doesn’t have a to-do list.  However, this doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have a strategy for accomplishing her daily tasks.”I generally just approach my work day with one or two major things I want to get done, and I make sure I do them. Then I work on other littler projects or call it a day.”

While I have a to-do list, I agree with Lindsay’s perspective on lengthy lists. She adds, “I’m highly suspect of long to-do lists, as I equate them with the ‘be busy’ mentality instead of ‘be productive’ mentality.”

Wayne from Joint Contact took the opportunity to tell us about  Joint Contact as a to-do list.  He says, “In addition of tracking basic tasks, Joint Contact supports a module called “Conversations” that can be used to track and share project notes with small groups or an entire team.”

Personally, I just use Google Calendar and write my to-do list there.  I use the 2-week view, so the daily boxes are small and I don’t make the mistake of being over committed.  It’s very rare that I have more than 4 things on my daily list.  I chose Google Calendar because most of my actionable items are done online, such as writing articles or emailing people.  I also list offline activities, but having less than 4 items on my list each day makes them easy to remember - I only have to look at the calendar once.

Don’t forget to share your answers for this week’s question: Do you think you’re efficient? Click here to answer.  Up until Sunday, August 21 only.

PimpYourWork.com

You’ve got your GTD planner, cross off everything on your daily task list, and your email inbox has zero items.  Then, it happens.

You fall off the productivity wagon.

It was accidental, maybe you were sick a couple of days, or you were thrown off schedule by an extended vacation.  Or maybe you just watched too much TV.  It doesn’t matter what the cause is - it just happened.

You stopped being productive and went back to your old, bad habits.

Did I say ‘you’?  Excuse me, I meant  to say ‘I’. I’ve fallen off the productivity wagon these past two weeks.  The reasons behind it?  A mixture of some unexpected illnesses, a broken body clock, and the Olympics.  Despite these halfway valid reasons (except maybe the Olympics), I’m ashamed of myself.  But I’m trying to get back to being productive, and here’s how:

Find and eliminate time sinks.  These things (or people)  suck your time and attention from the stuff you should be doing (such as work, sleep, recreation, etc.)  Most of my time sinks are computer-based, so I had to reinstall RescueTime (which I talked about before).  It turns out that I’ve been checking email more often than I should, and I tend to spend too much time on online forums (which I didn’t do before). However, I’ve also gained some offline time sinks, such as leaving the TV on while working.

Once you’ve found your new time sinks, either eliminate them completely or find a way to reduce the time you spend on them.

Check your processes for flaws and possible areas of improvement.  It’s also possible that you’ve fallen off the wagon because of flaws in your productivity system or work flow.  Are there steps that make you prone to distraction?  Do you do a regular review of how productive you are?

I think my main mistake is not doing a weekly review for a long time, so I wasn’t able to scare myself with the realization on how far I’ve lagged behind. Also, I’ve been taking down hand-written notes, but my note-taking system is far from efficient - so I’ll have to research on how to do that better.

Get work done in advance. So that falling off the wagon won’t hurt as much next time, it’s important to be ahead of schedule with work, if it’s possible.  This might mean sacrificing a couple of rest days to get some extra work done,but I find that doing this has long term rewards and can allow you to have a more relaxed schedule after.

Eat healthier and exercise.  Sickness is often something we can avoid.  The key is to take care of our bodies so that they don’t break down on us while we’re in the middle of important projects.

Falling off the productivity wagon may hurt (and be very embarrassing),  but it’s perfectly human.  The important thing is that we try to get back to our old productive selves once we’ve realized that we’ve fallen.

Image by Elisa Perosio from sxc.hu

PimpYourWork.com

Let me be honest: I slept for the most part of the day.  True, it was because I was feeling ill, but after a good day of sleep, I have to say that I feel more capable to tackle the work I have to do. I seem more focused and less likely to give in to distractions.

What are the benefits of sleeping, exactly?  If we think clocking in some overtime work and burning the midnight oil will do wonders for our careers, we might be in for a surprise if we find out that it might be doing the opposite.

A recent article from Scientific American shows how sleeping can make us smarter (emphasis mine):

It is now clear that sleep can consolidate memories by enhancing and stabilizing them and by finding patterns within studied material even when we do not know that patterns might be there. It is also obvious that skimping on sleep stymies these crucial cognitive processes: some aspects of memory consolidation only happen with more than six hours of sleep. Miss a night, and the day’s memories might be compromised—an unsettling thought in our fast-paced, sleep-deprived society.
Source: Scientific American, August 2008

Apart from making us smarter, sleep can also make us more productive, as this article from India Times suggests.  The senior sleep consultant at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals at New Delhi says (emphasis mine):

“First, any person who has a good 7-8 hours (depending upon individuals) of night sleep does not biologically require an afternoon nap. But, of course, a siesta can be very refreshing and re-energising for the people in active professions. It’s a different matter, however, that in today’s hectic life and demanding workplaces, a nap is an absolute luxury. However, for those who can afford this luxury, say for instance self-employed, retired or housewives, it can be a great stress-buster.”
Source: IndiaTimes.com

If sleep is so important in our waking hours, most of which is devoted to work, then this means that a good night’s sleep is also essential to our work.  So if we’re having trouble sleeping, how do we manage to make the most out of it?

Schedule sleep time.  By setting some sleeping time aside instead of just scheduling your waking hours,  we can make a better effort at sleeping properly.  Also, sleeping on a regular schedule keeps our body clock predictable.  A good night’s sleep means we won’t be surprised in to wake up from an unexpected nap during the workday.

Know more about your sleeping habits.  Do you sleep better if the room is completely dark?  Does a glass of warm milk help?  What time do you feel the most active?  Do you wake up in the middle of the night?   If you need help figuring these things out, I found quite an extensive sleep profiling quiz on the BBC website that helps you analyze your sleeping profile and what you can do to fix it.  The only problem with the quiz is that in some portions, it has limited time options (for example, I couldn’t enter that I felt more active and optimized at 3am, the earliest time I could enter was 5am).

Develop a pre-sleeping ritual.  Once you find out what conditions make you sleepy, incorporate them into a nightly ritual before you sleep.  Doing so will help you mentally and physically get into ’sleeping mode’, instead of just lying awake in bed for hours waiting for sleep to happen.

How serious are you about your sleep?  Do you take naps within the day?  Do you try to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night?  What effects does sleep (or the lack of it)  have on your performance at work?

Image by Lynne Lancaster from sxc.hu

Last week, I asked Pimp Your Work readers what would make them want to leave their current jobs.  Here are their answers:

Miranda from Yielding Wealth says “I love my job as a freelance writer. Although if it ever got to the point that I couldn’t take time to spend with my family, I might quit it altogether…”

Lindsay of Writing for Your Wealth has sentiments that reflect my own.  What would make her leave her current job? “…nothing“, she says.  “I’m fortunate enough to have made my ideal job, and I’m working at growing it into a business with assets that will continue to pay me for years to come.”

Another reader, Nada, had a more romantic answer.  According to her, she’d leave her current job if the man of her dreams asks her to move to another country with him.

Cassyk says that for her, any career choice requires a lot of organizational thinking. ” Choosing to make a career change would involve a number of factors for me. I approach new opportunities in the same way I approach my work tasks - organized.”  She adds. ” The decision to leave a job (assuming it is not pure torture) should not rely on monetary gain but more importantly it should offer greater benefit and be more valuable to you in some way, i.e. increased autonomy, career growth, new skill attainment etc.”

As for me, I doubt that I would ever leave my job as a freelance blogger.  If ever it won’t be as profitable for me in the future, I wouldn’t leave it altogether - I’d probably just look for alternative sources of income. I feel like I’m lucky to have work that I am passionate about, that I constantly learn from, that gives me flexible hours, and pays the bills.

How about you?  Do any of these answers sound similar to yours?  What factors affect your happiness with your current job?

PimpYourWork.com

There’s a stereotype about creative people - that they thrive on flexibility, rebel against rigid rules, and are subjected to the forces of inspiration (or lack thereof).  If this stereotype is true, then it’s amazing that creative people get anything done at all, let alone get anything done on time!

Obviously, the stereotype is a myth.  Creative people can be efficient, and, conversely, efficiency can be expected of creative types - even if it seems impossible.

So how can it be made possible?  How can creative people become more organized and productive?

Give ample time for brainstorming and idea generation.  Although great ideas can happen randomly - like when you’re reaching into a bag of croutons or standing in line at the bank.  However, when you’re working on a tight schedule, you can’t exactly tell others “I’m sorry, but the right idea hasn’t happened yet.” If you find that you’re still blocked, LifeDev has 15 suggestions on how to generate ideas.

Know how to set the perfect deadline for your creative tasks.  I recently wrote an article on setting deadlines, and it basically contains the following tips:

• Think of an initial deadline for the project.  This is tentative, something you’ll work with as you compute the perfect deadline.
• Move your actual deadline later than the initial deadline. The rationale behind this is that things take longer than you expect.  Just make sure that the actual deadline is possible.
• List the project milestones and give a deadline for each.  Each project has smaller steps and next actions.  Give a deadline, including the hour, for each milestone.
• Make all deadlines immovable.  In the article, I gave examples on how to make deadlines immovable for your digital calendar.
• Tell outside parties (supervisors, clients, colleagues) a deadline much later (2 to 4 days) than your initial deadline.

Just pick one idea and get on with it.  A few years back, I had this project where it was literally the day before the deadline and I still didn’t pick an idea/concept to commit to.  Although I pulled something off, it wasn’t as good as it would’ve been if I was able to dedicate a lot of time on making it.  The thing is, most creative people I know have several good ideas for a single project, and each idea is trying to outdo the others in your head.  The more time you spend tossing ideas or trying to find the “one great idea”, the less time you have actually getting anything done.  Sometimes, it works just as well to pick one of your current ideas and execute it the best way possible.

Know that as long as you can find something within 5 seconds, you’re doing fine.  Some people think that efficiency or being organized has something to do with being tidy and neat.  This really isn’t the case.  Being neat and orderly is just something that’s superficial. Being organized, on the other hand, means that the way things are arranged makes sense to you, and you can easily find whatever it is you’re looking for - neatness is just optional.

Example: my office has a huge drawing table and a messy cart of art materials.  It looks so disorganized and chaotic, but I know exactly where to reach for my things that I can find my #2 round brush with my eyes closed.

Being artistic and creative doesn’t mean that you have to go with the stereotype of being disorganized and inefficient.  After all, efficiency and productivity doesn’t mean following a set of externally sanctioned rules and standards.  It’s about what works for you.

Image by H Berends  from sxc.hu

PimpYourWork.com

In most industrial cultures, when a parent asks their child what they want to study in college, their desired field of study is measured against money.  Say “I want to study Fine Arts!” and your parent tells you to take up architecture instead.  Say “I want to become a novelist!” and people say it’s wiser to study journalism.  They say this as if journalists and architects are all about making money, and as if artists are always starving.

Is there really a dichotomy of doing what you love vs. working for money?

I don’t think so.  I think we are raised to believe in this false dichotomy.

To get to a more realistic perspective, we’ll have to look halfway between the scam artist who yells “Make money while you sleep!” and the pragmatist who preaches that working hard is the only way to earn a decent living.  On my personal quest to finding this midpoint, I’ve learned the following:

• You can make money from doing what you love, so long as the driving force is the love of work itself and not the money.  Giving your work this kind of purity will prevent you from feeling enslaved by your hobby or passion, which is a risk if you try to make money from the things you love doing.
• It’s not an either/or choice.  Especially in a world or industry where teleworking is possible.  If you can’t earn money doing what you love, you can spend half of your time doing what you love and spend the rest of your time working for pay - until you strike a desired balance between both.
• Working smart helps a lot.  Be results-oriented vs being time-oriented.  It’s not about working for5 hours straight, it’s about what you do with those 5 hours.  This is especially important if, for example, by some unchangeable and insurmountable circumstances you are forced into a job you dislike. You need to have the maximum output for minimum input of time and effort - this will get you to spend less time on your job and more time on things you enjoy.

Were you ever faced with the dichotomy of doing what you love vs. working for pay?  How did you deal with it?

Photo Credit: Image from Ayhan Yildiz  from stock.xchng