Tag: productivity

Success Leaves Clues 

Carl Setzer

This morning I woke early. It was not planned (generally isn’t). 

I brain-dumped on how I could be managing all my projects better. All the things I think I could do better. 

I realized how weird it might be to get excited about this. 

Remember: I’m focused on growth. I don’t want to be focused in maintaining an illusion of perfection. If there are no challenges in my life, I’m not challenging myself. I’m not growing. I have no interest In staying in that state. Now, I admit that there’s something to be said for a stresses existence. And there are times I wonder why I do THIS to myself. 

I want to grow. I want to do better each time. That doesn’t happen by sitting around congratulating myself. 

So, yeah, I’m pretty stoked about my analysis. There are things to grow. Success leaves clues. I spent time looking for them.

Warren Buffet Quote: The Value Of Saying “No”

Carl Setzer

 Saying “No” to opportunities…a huge challenge for me. Mastering this provides key benefits. The biggest? Focus. The more time and energy directed towards the things that matter, that we value, the more we accomplish. Related to that: distractions. Saying “yes” too often ensures a distracted, unfocused, confused life. One with missed deadlines, people left hanging, and the burden of extra stress. Damage that community too much and you become branded as someone unreliable. 

Protecting our focus matters greatly. What else do we have? Life is just a collection of moments. We don’t get them back. It’s critical to spend our time doing things that we value. That’s the path to a satisfying life. 

The Lies of Impostor Syndrome

Carl Setzer

I love this one by Jorge Cham of PhD comics.

Reminds me of all the times that I’ve had anxiety attacks when asked to push outside of my boundaries. So, a few things to remember:

  • Prof. Jones has plenty invested in the success of his students/team. And a good leader will see things in you that you can’t see. And such a leader won’t let you sit mired in fear and insecurity, but push you past your self-imposed boundaries.
  • Mentors like the above are one of the most crucial elements to pushing past mediocrity into greatness.
  • Impostor Syndrome = LIES!!!

Alrighty, back to your regularly scheduled Thursday.

An Element Of Efficiency: Slowing Down To Speed Up

Carl Setzer

Eienstein Quote.jpg

With all the work I’ve done studying organization and productivity systems, a common element: taking time to thoughtfully consider actions. In today’s day-and-age, it’s easy to get caught up in stimulus:response, on reactive reactions. Or, as the adage goes, “running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off”.

Taking time to:

  • Determine the scope of the problem
  • It’s nature
  • What really is the causality
  • Reviewing our priorities

These are all critical to developing the correct solution for a particular challenge. There are always multiple responses and actions one can take. Knowing which one corrects the situation without creating a worse one requires considering all these elements.

It’s so easy, especially in today’s hyper-sped world, to lose sight of the time necessary. The urge to “do something NOW” is so powerful, and it often creates more damage than solution.

Our progress moves faster when we aren’t spending time repairing damage our inattention to details creates.

Working Past Exhaustion: A Recipe For Mistakes

Carl Setzer

Oh, the frustrations of long, long days!

I generally work normal work hours. Sure, at times I’m on my computer on weekends or after hours. But I’d be doing that anyways.

However, I’m taking an evening class right now. The class meets one night a week, so that demand isn’t that much. But after an 8+ hour day, a 3 hour class can get wearying. And the class is mostly sitting in front of a screen, which is what I tend to spend all day doing.

Tonight, by 8:45, I was pretty much toast. I hadn’t noticed it until I saw several dumb mistakes. And those mistakes caused me the aggravation of redoing about a 1/2 hour’s worth of work. Fortunately, it took less time to re-do than to do originally. But that means extra work, needless extra work.

I was clever enough, though, to see that and, after fixing the mistakes I’d made (at least I’m pretty sure I fixed them), I opted to stop.

At times, when effectiveness hits the floor…and punches right on through, any effort at all will be counter-productive. That’s a hard lesson to learn, internalize, and keep in mind regularly. I, too, suffer from the mindset that “if I only worked harder/more/whatever…”.

I know that sometimes the only way to be effective is to stop and rest, get my head back together and then restart.

It’s just living it that’s the challenge.