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Play with your work, especially if it’s boring.
Ever since I ran away and joined the circus (true story!) I’ve always seen my work as a form of play. The harder the work, the harder I have to play to get through it. I learned this from the Seven Dwarves. They worked all day in the mines, and they didn’t grumble and complain (except for Grumpy, of course, but he was just staying in character). They used a simple technique that I have found very valuable: Whistle [...]
Plan your priorities so they don’t plan you
The first three hours of my day are rigidly scripted. I find that having a choreographed morning routine removes my ability to make bad decisions about how my day starts. (My morning routine changes as my life and circumstances change, so what I do today is not the same as what I did ten years ago.) I often wake before my 6 am alarm. I spend that time listening to guided meditations, rather than doomscrolling on my phone, because I known [...]
The Accountability Formula – Wins, Challenges, and Commitments
90% of the world’s drops are done by jugglers. Whatever you juggle - balls, fruit, chainsaws, or family schedules - you are statistically more likely to drop what you juggle than the people who never throw anything. Dropping the ball is part of how we learn. The placement of the drop - way off to the side, or too far forward to reach - is the very thing that gives you a clue about how you can throw better. This [...]
The Urgent vs the Important: How to Prioritize Your Time
As the military general in charge of US operations in Europe during World War II, Dwight Eisenhower had many difficult days. He had to handle shifting priorities in complex, uncertain situations. His leadership was characterized by a keen understanding of the difference between urgency and importance. “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important,” he used to say. Sometimes they overlapped, which made four types of priorities, classified in a 2x2 grid that has become [...]
Every Project Can Be A Playground
In his book The Game Changer, Dr Jason Fox says that a game is anything that has goals, rules, and feedback. A good game balances all three of these against one another, to make an experience that can be so good it can be addicting. Work is often the opposite. Unclear goals, arbitrary rules, and confusing feedback (if there is any feedback, at all) can lead us to resent our work, procrastinate doing it, and only contribute the minimal effort required to stay on [...]
From Boring to Scoring: Turn Chores Into Games
The house was a wreck. That’s what happens when six young boys spend Saturday morning running amok. My two brothers and I were often left with another family when we were young. This other family had three boys the same age, making us six boys under the age of ten. Containing this hurricane of activity into one house meant the tidiness level dropped quickly (and significantly). To clean up the mess, the household matriarch invited us to use what was, [...]