Control Your Environment

At my speeches audience members say to me, "I'm able to handle the tasks in front of me for the day, but if I get one more call or one critical email, everything is just thrown off." That's why it is important to condition your work environment.

Look at your office, your car, your home, and all of the other physical spaces in your life, and ask, "What can I do to make these spaces work for me in the way I work and in the way I live my life?" Take your desk, for example: realize that it must be specifically set up for you. Position your PC monitor in the way that's most comfortable for you. If you need tissues, candy, or certain supplies, then put them on your desk, close at hand.

Look at your desk in new ways. Align it so that it supports the way you work, regardless of how it looks to anyone else. Never mind what the person down the hall thinks! Identify the items you need, and then condition your desk to work for you. Remove piles from the window sills or
cabinets tops and put them into file folders. Gain some clear space!

Getting Things Done: Affirmations

# I choose to be open to new ways of doing things.
# I choose to acknowledge the accomplishments of others.
# I choose to stay connected to the creative process.
# I choose to retain that which supports me easily.
# I choose to reach for the highest that is within me.
# I choose to maintain clarity in my work and my life.

Manage Cell Phone Use or Else

A study published in the "Journal of Marriage and Family" finds that cell phone and pager use has become a vehicle for job worries and problems to interfere with family life for both men and women. Cell phone technology is linked to increased psychological distress and lower family satisfaction in general for working men and women.

Upshot: Manage your cell phone after hours or it will quickly manage you.

Your 2007 Vacation

At this site: the New 7 Wonders of the World you get to make your vote for what you believe ought be regarded as the new seven wonders. Seems like a marketing ploy, but it did get me thinking. Here’s what I would choose:
* Great Wall of China
* Europabrucke over Italy's Brenner Pass
* Machu Picchu
* Stonehenge
* Easter Island Statues
* Ruins of Ephesus
* Mount Rushmore

Runner's Up
* Ankgor Wat
* Sydney Opera House
* Panama Canal
* Colosseum
* Statue of Liberty
* Acropolis
* Eiffel Tour

You deserve breathing space this year. Which site will you visit?

Old Email Never Dies

AP business writer Christopher Rugaber, in a recent article, observes that “U.S. companies will need to know more about where they store e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees in the event they are sued, thanks to changes in federal rules that took effect Friday,” according to legal experts.

In other words: anything you ever email at work will be stored for evermore and may one day be used against you. “The changes, approved by the Supreme Court's administrative arm in April after a five-year review, require companies and other parties involved in federal litigation to produce ‘electronically stored information’ as part of discovery, the process by which both sides share evidence before a trial.”

A word to Breathing Space enthusiasts: if you write it and send it, your message will live on. So think twice before you hit “send.”

Stuffing Our in Bins

All that spam you’re getting? You are not alone. A Reuters report out of London says that “criminal gangs using hijacked computers are behind a surge in unwanted e-mails peddling sex, drugs and stock tips.”

According to Postini, a U.S. email security company spam messages have tripled since June and now account for nearly 90% of the e-mails sent worldwide. "E-mail systems are overloaded or melting down trying to keep up with all the spam," said Dan Druker, a vice president at Postini.

The Reuters report observes that “as Christmas approaches, the daily trawl through in-boxes clogged with offers of fake Viagra, loans and sex aids is tipped to take even longer.” Postini has detected a staggering 7 billion spam e-mails worldwide in November compared to 2.5 billion in June.

According to Spamhaus, an agency that tracks the problem, “About 200 illegal gangs are behind 80 percent of unwanted e-mails.

Reuters: Experts blame the rise in spam on computer programs that hijack millions of home computers to send e-mails. These "zombie networks", also called "botnets", can link 100,000 home computers without their owners' knowledge. They are leased to gangs who use their huge "free" computing power to send millions of e-mails with relative anonymity.

Snooping Bosses

If you think your employer is checking your e-mail, Web searches and voice mail, You're probably right.

Take Your Vacations!

Americans schedule an average of 14 vacation days a year, the average Britisher schedules 24. Americans typically don't use 3 of those days, giving back time to their employers.

True Leisure is Vital

True leisure is necessary in our lives. It cannot be squeezed into our busy days. It must happen at its own pace. We need to take the time to relax. Without a balance between work and play, we become "human doings" instead of human beings.

The Right Tools, for the Right Job

Jerry Gitchel, president of Make Technology Work, explains the right tools for the right jobs for staying in touch with customers and associates.

* Instant Messaging from a computer or cell phone is best for a quick answer to a specific question.

* Telephone - best when used to brainstorm with others and for providing feedback on emotion and tone. It lacks the ability to archive or easily share info with a third party.

* Email - best for frequent non-urgent communications if you remember that they are not private. Easy to forward, lasts forever.

* The web - best when used to publish timeless information as desired, for current or future customers or associates.

* Audioconference - best for realtime communication and collaboration, enhanced when used with web-based documents.

* Online conferences - best when you need to add video capability to a group event. Lacks continuity between separate events.

* Online collaboration - best when used to create a comprehensive project management solution requiring document management, web publishing and/or support data, including images and video.

Let's Take Back our Time

Here is an excerpt of an insightful article by William J. Doherty appearing UU World September/October 2004, called “Let's Take Back our Time”:

“Welcome to the strange new world where being home for dinner is a radical act. For three decades a new spiritual and social justice issue has been arising in our culture and our congregations, but we've been too busy to notice it. It's the problem of time: over-work, over-scheduling, and a chronic sense of hurry. We have become the most productive and the most time-starved people on earth...”

“This is a spiritual issue as well as a social justice issue for us as Unitarian Universalists. Overbusyness has spiritual effects. Every spiritual tradition emphasizes the importance of silence and repose; most have some form of Sabbath and seasons of reflection. Our culture of busyness is antithetical to the spiritual life. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton expressed it well in Confessions of Guilty Bystander:

There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence, and that is activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of this innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone and everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”

Maintaining Control

A reader asks: Many days I am in control for most of the morning and part of the afternoon, but then all of the sudden, like a train derailment, everything seems scattered and out of control.

I suggest that you take mental pauses throughout the day, particularly as new developments occur. The best laid plans often go astray and those people who are able to maintain control know when to let go of one activity and redirect their focus towards another.

Remember as well that being in control is more related to how you feel about the situation than the presence of evidence. Keep reminding yourself that you are, in fact, in control. Ten minutes before the end of the day if your boss springs a one-hour assignment on you that must be done immediately, you can regard this as a major intrusion in your day or you can see it as a professional challenge or an opportunity to demonstrate your overall value to your company. Make a note of the times you have taken on such challenges and bring them up particularly at raise times.

Before, during, and after handling the late assignment thrown on your lap, keep considering the many benefits of completing it. These include learning something new, practicing maintaining grace under fire, and serving as a reminder for you to discuss this type of situation with your boss so that it doesn't happen too frequently.

Wellness On Wheels

Here’s a site apparently for the ultra-frantic: Wellness On Wheels – “Most people live life at a frantic pace-rushing around in the morning, getting ready for work, dealing with rush hour traffic, working through lunch, racing home to find something, anything, they can call ‘dinner’, and then try to catch up on all the personal responsibilities at night or on weekends. It’s exhausting!”

“We come to you! No travel time, dealing with the weather, or getting yourself psyched up to work out - we bring the health club to your door! And when we show up at the appointed time, we also provide focus and motivation, ensuring that the time spent exercising is safe and effective!”

What we Cannot Control

A reader comments; “I could be more responsible regarding use of my time but certainly there are some things that are out of my control...”

Yes, for one thing your productive work life is finite. You will only be able to work for so many years at such and such a pace. One day that will no longer be possible. The big absolute, of course, is that life is finite and death is guaranteed, so far. If you are in your thirties, you have about 12,000 to 14,000 days and that's it.

Day to day, change is out of your control – it is guaranteed that how you used to do it or what worked yesterday will have less and less value with each passing day. You certainly want some stability in your life particularly in the areas of values and relationships, but don't fear change or close yourself off to it.

Stay Fresh and Vibrant

As I wrote in my April, 2006 zine I know people who will take courses on topics completely out of their field, who try new dishes at restaurants, and who strive to keep themselves open to new ideas. The odd and wonderful thing is you can do all kinds of new and different activities in your personal life that will serve to stimulate your creativity at work, break free of attachment, and overcome the inertia of immobility when you want to get things done.
Here are a few ideas:

At work:
* Take a planned 15-minute break twice daily
* Eat away from your desk
* Brainstorm with people not in your department
* Furnish your workspace with plants, pictures, or art that inspires you
* Learn some aspect of the organization that is completely foreign to you

Away from work:
* Change your magazine subscriptions
* Read a literary novel or epic
* Dress differently for different occasions
* Relax on your porch
* Install a hammock in your backyard

In general, to develop your awareness:
* Take an impromptu weekend trip to someplace you haven't visited
* Enroll in a course
* Join a book discussion group
* Volunteer at a charity
* Take up a new sport

Tickler Files

If you're overwhelmed by what crosses your desk, it's worth considering the benefits of having a file folder for each month of the year and a file folder for each day of the month. This idea, the "tickler file" system, has been in practice for years.

Create a file for days 1-31 of the month, and place it at the front of one of your file drawers. Behind that, have a file for each month of the year. If it's the second day of the month, for example, but you receive something that you won't need to deal with until the 15th, then put it in the file for, say, the 13th to allow yourself some slack. If anything comes in that you don't need to handle now, put it in your tickler file. This yields some immediate benefits. It keeps your desk clear and eliminates a lot of worry about where things go.

As the days and months go by, you continually take files that were in front and put them in the back. Once you get this system in place, you'll find that many of the things you file may not need to be acted on later. The benefits of this system are immediate.

Time Wasted on the Job

According to an online survey conducted by AOL and Salary.com, workers waste more than two hours a day on average by surfing the Web, conducting personal business, chatting with co-workers,and just zoning out.

From Breakdown back to Control

Do you find yourself in control for most of the morning and part of the afternoon, but then all of the sudden, like a train derailment, everything seems scattered and out of control?

Take mental pauses throughout the day, particularly as new developments occur. The best laid plans often go astray and those people who are able to maintain control know when to let go of one activity and redirect their focus towards another.

Remember that being in control is more related to how you feel about the situation than the presence of evidence. Keep reminding yourself that you are, in fact, in control. Ten minutes before the end of the day if your boss springs a one-hour assignment on you that must be done immediately, you can regard this as a major intrusion in your day or you can see it as a
professional challenge or an opportunity to demonstrate your overall value to your company. Make a note of the times you have taken on such challenges and bring them up particularly at raise times.

Also before, during, and after handling the late assignment thrown on your lap, keep considering the many benefits of completing it. These include learning something new, practicing maintaining grace under fire, and serving as a reminder for you to discuss this type of situation with your boss so that it doesn't happen too frequently.