The Surprising Power of Impulse Control - H. James Wilson. Against the backdrop of a declining and temptation-filled Roman Empire, Augustine hesitantly prayed for impulse control: “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.”
More recently, against the backdrop of marshmallow tests and America’s “culture of entitlement and instant gratification,” Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld reexamine impulse control in a new best-selling book and in The New York Times. For them, it’s a success “driver” of better academic performance, higher SAT scores, and upward mobility, and helps explain why certain groups “are doing strikingly better than Americans overall.” It’s a provocative argument, and I expect business practitioners will be tempted to translate the insights into their professional lives. What does impulse control look like in the workplace? Can better impulse control buffer against the proven perils of multitasking, like slower and shallower thinking, lower creativity, and increased anxiety?
Experiencing the Paradox of Control. Dealing with procrastination – 7 ways to use procrastination to your advantage. Procrastination is one of the biggest reasons you are never going to reach your goals.
When you have defined a goal but don’t take any action towards it, the whole goal setting process has been pretty much useless. Procrastination is often associated with negative feelings too. For example, you might be blaming yourself for not taking action on something. You feel intimidated and inferior for procrastinating on the task. However, what is also true is that we do not always have to be productivity superstars (we all procrastinate at times). In fact, we can use procrastination to our advantage. 1. The first tip is something that I learned from Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog.
To do this, you should constantly review your actions and decide, if there is a task that could be safely abandoned. For example, you could decide to procrastinate on watching television (like news) or read newspapers and do something useful during that time (like reading a book). 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Conclusion 1. 2. 3. How to Stay On-Task...Every Day. Whether you work for yourself or for an employer, spending hours surfing the net and updating your Facebook profile won’t get you any closer to your goals … yet you find it hard to keep on-task.
Even when you do try to concentrate, you might get to 5pm and feel like you’ve not accomplished anything. Here’s how to stay focused and get more done – every day. Minimize InterruptionsIf you live alone and work from home, interruptions are unlikely to be a big problem. If you work in a busy office and your job involves a lot of reactive tasks, like answering phone calls or emails from clients, you might be getting interrupted every few minutes. How to Quit Mindlessly Surfing the Internet and Actually Get Stuff Done.
The Best Way to Use the Last Five Minutes of Your Day - Peter Bregman. By Peter Bregman | 9:27 AM January 3, 2011 Julie Anko*, the head of a division of a retail company I work with, was at risk of getting fired.
Here’s the crazy thing: she was a top performer. She had done more for the brand in the past year than any of her predecessors had in five years. The problem was that she was a bear to work with. She worked harder than seemed humanly possible and expected the same of others, often losing her temper when they wouldn’t put in the same herculean effort she did. But none of that was the problem for which she was at risk of being fired. I was asked to work with her, and my first step was to interview everyone with whom she worked in order to understand the situation and share their perspectives with her.
“This is the same feedback I received at my previous company,” she said, “it’s why I left.” I’m often amazed at how many times something has to happen to me before I figure it out. If a person can do that well, everything else takes care of itself. Six Ways to Refuel Your Energy Every Day - Tony Schwartz. By Tony Schwartz | 10:59 AM December 13, 2010 Are you working longer hours, attending more meetings, taking shorter vacations, answering more emails and eating lunch at your desk, if you eat lunch at all?
Does demand in your life just keep getting higher, so you’re struggling more and more just to keep up? Are you utterly sick of hearing the phrase “do more with less?” Does the word “unsustainable” sound about right? Human beings aren’t meant to operate like computers — at high speeds, continuously, for long periods of time. 1. Far too many of us buy into the myth that one hour less of sleep allows us one more of productivity. The research is clear: more than 95 per cent of us require seven to eight hours of sleep in order to be fully rested, and for our brains to optimally embed new learning.
Two simple strategies can help.