Practice Notes

Welcome to the August Practice Notes

What's new in the world?

Focus on the things that really matter

A nice idea, but easier said than done.  We’ve long been fans of David Rock and his ideas on using our brains efficiently, and also David Allen’s approach to getting things done. 

Now, Peter Bergman has added to this body of knowledge in his about-to-be-released book:
18 Minutes: Find your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done.

What’s his big idea?  It’s great to learn new work and efficiency habits.  But to sustain them, we need to give up trying to ‘be good’ and instead restructure our environments.  Three ways to do this are:

1. Identify up to only five things you want to focus on for the year.  Those should take up to 95% of your time. Create five action lists based on these five areas plus one called – the remaining 5%.  Spend no more of 5% of your time every day on the 5% list.

2. Each morning, look at your six-box action sheet and transfer the most important items in to your calendar. 

3. Ask someone to hold you accountable.  Tell that person what you intend to accomplish with your plan: say it out loud and make sure the other person is listening.  This creates greater accountability and commitment.

Bergman uses the dieting analogy to make his point.  Don’t exhort yourself to stay away from cake every day.  Instead, get rid of cake from your pantry, get a Lap-Band fitted (that’s a real environmental change!!) and join Jenny Craig.

We’ll be adding Bergman’s ideas to ours from now on.  (Lap-Band’s aren’t obligatory.)

Well-being via PERMA

Martin Seligman, considered by many to be the founder of positive psychology has developed a new approach to well-being.

His definition is based on the acronym: PERMA.

P: Positive Emotions
Successful business teams need 2.9:1 positive versus negative emotions.  Successful marriages need a 5:1 positive versus negative ratio. 

E: Engagement
People are engaged at work when they’re using their higher strengths to meet challenges.

R: Relationships
Build stronger relationships by responding positively to each other.

M: Meaning
The idea here is to project back from the future and think about how you’d like to be remembered in your role.

A: Accomplishment
Seligman focused on the concept of grit, ie a person’s or a team’s passion and perseverance to achieve a long-term goal. 

PERMA is a valuable mix of well-being measures to inform public policy and organisation wellness.  We expect his ideas will get more coverage over the next year or so.