by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Planning, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 51 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The truth about multitasking
— From The ONE Thing: The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan (watch the book trailer)
Much has ben said about multitasking, both for and against it. In The One Thing, Gary Keller and Jay Papasan finally bust the myth: multitasking is a lie.
The book cites Clifford Nass, a professor a Stanford University, who set out to study multitaskers as he realized he did not possess the skill. “I was sure they had some secret ability,” he said, but at the end of the study, multitaskers “were outperformed on every measure. Although they’d convinced themselves and the world that they were great at it, there was just one problem… multitaskers were just lousy at everything.”
“The truth is multitasking is neither efficient nor effective.”
There is no doubt that we can indeed “do two or more things at once, such as walk and talk, or chew gum and read a map; but… what we can’t do is focus on two things at once. Our attention bounces back and forth [‘task switching’]… Switching between two simple tasks—like watching television and folding clothes—is quick and relatively painless. However, if you’re working on a spreadsheet and a co-worker pops into your office to discuss a business problem, the relative complexity of those tasks makes it impossible to easily jump back and forth. It always takes some time to start a new task and restart the one you quit… [and] the cost in terms of extra time from having to task switch depends on how complex or simple the tasks are.”
So, let’s set the record straight: we can do two things at once, but we cannot focus effectively on two things at once. Need more proof? Here’s a fun little game (you’ll need a stopwatch):
Say the alphabet out loud and time how long it takes you: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, etc.…
Now count to 26 out loud and time how long it takes you: 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, etc…
I assume you had no problem doing both tasks, and that those are two things that you can do masterfully well, right?
Now intertwine them out loud and time how long it takes you: A, 1, B, 2, C, 3, etc…
What happened? Did you slow down at some point to figure out which letter corresponded with a number? Yep, that’s normal. Did you eventually give up before you finished because it was harder than you expected? Most people do. If you did go through the whole thing, I bet it took you much longer to do this letter-number combination than to say the alphabet followed by counting to 26 the first time.
This is exactly what happens when we are trying to switch from task to task, “[it] exacts a cost few realize [we’re] even paying.”
The book mentions that people who work with computers change windows, check email or switch programs close to 37 times per hour. This means less than 2 minutes devoted per task, and that is further reduced by the time that it takes to switch and (re)focus from one to the other. It’s no wonder we feel stretched to thin and squeezed for time when we are taking more time to get things done because of the lies we’ve been told about multitasking.
“Multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time.” – Steve Uzzell
The authors then ask: if we wouldn’t allow a pilot or a surgeon to multitask, and instead demand full focus from them, “Why are we living another standard? Do we not value our own job or take it as seriously? Why would we ever tolerate multitasking when we’re doing our most important work? Just because our day job doesn’t involve bypass surgery shouldn’t make focus any less critical to our success or the success of others. Your work deserves no less respect.”
Eye opening, isn’t it?
ACTION
TODAY: Don’t feel bad if you get distracted, we all do. Simply bring your focus back to the task at hand and focus solely on that until you get it done, or until which point you are done with what you needed to do (say, now you have to wait for a coworker to give you his part of the slide deck). Repeat with your other tasks.
FUTURE: Build the habit of focusing and not switching from task to task. Remember the alphabet-number game: combining tasks or switching from one to another takes additional time that you may not realize. Here are 11 Exercises That Will Strengthen Your Attention.
Know someone who needs to stop multitasking? Tell them to focus on this post by sharing it via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Collaboration, Creativity, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes.
TODAY’S IDEA: Win-Win or No Deal
— From The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success by Brian Tracy
Following along the same path as yesterday’s post on Thinking “both,” I wanted to focus on its application in business by looking at Bryan Tracy’s Law of Win-Win or No Deal from his book The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success. This law states that:
“In a successful negotiation, both parties should be fully satisfied with the result and feel that they have each ‘won’ or no deal should be made at all.”
Tracy says, “Remember, you always reap what you sow. Any settlement or agreement that leaves one party dissatisfied will come back to hurt you later, sometimes in ways that you cannot predict.” And he goes on to tell a story of a tough negotiator who was boasting “about a hard deal he had wrung out of a [distributor] of his company’s products. He had demanded and threatened and negotiated an agreement that paid him considerably more, both in up-front payments and in percentages of sales, than any of the other clients for which this company distributed.”
The author happened to know the people on the other side of the negotiation well, so he asked them to tell the story from their angle. They confirmed the discomfort and toughness of the negotiation and said “they had agreed to pay higher prices and royalties on everything they sold, but they had not agreed to sell any.”
The deal backfired: “the businessman had negotiated a ‘win-lose’ with him winning and the others losing. But those on the losing side had no incentive to fulfill the implied commitment to market the products. They had no incentive to go forward with this person, and no reason to ever want to do business with him again.”
In a zero-sum game, someone always loses. In business it does not have to be that way: aim always for a win-win or no deal. Be clear in your intentions that what you want is the best for both parties. Now, “this doesn’t mean that you [or the other party] have to accept any arrangement that you consider second best.” On the contrary, “when you are determined to achieve a win-win solution to a negotiation, and you are open, receptive, and flexible in your discussions, you will often discover a third alternative that neither party had considered initially but that is superior to what either of you might have thought of on your own.”
ACTION
TODAY: If you are negotiating something today—even if its’ the smallest thing—that’s great! Think win-win, communicate it to the other party, and find out what it is that each of you wants/needs from the deal to consider it successful. Work together to make it happen. If you don’t have any negotiations on your plate now, think about one in the past where you experienced a win-lose (no matter which side you were on). The good thing about hindsight is that it’s always 20/20 and, with that view, you can reconstruct the deal (at least in your mind) to make it a win-win. Learn from it: what would you have changed for the better? How would you have structured the deal differently? Think creatively.
FUTURE: Think win-win from now on professionally and personally. Commit to doing deals where the Law of Win-Win or No Deal applies. Actively seek to find ways to achieve what each party needs and wants out of the situation in a satisfactory way and without feeling that you have to settle for less.
Know someone who could benefit from reading today’s post? Please share it via email, Facebook or Twitter!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Planning, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 29 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: How to be wrong
— From: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
The weather forecast is wrong a lot of times, yet we listen to it every single day. Isaac Newton was completely wrong about alchemy, yet he’s regarded as one the most successful physicists. Steve Jobs was wrong about his NEXT computer, and Apple is now one of the most successful companies in the world. And we can find countless other instances where the people and companies are wrong many times, yet they are successful.
Why?
Because, according to Seth Godin in his excellent book Tribes:
“The secret of being wrong isn’t to avoid being wrong!
The secret is being willing to be wrong.
The secret is realizing that wrong isn’t fatal.
The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness to be not great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret to success.”
“The truth is that they appear to risk everything, but in fact, the risk isn’t so bad. The downsides are pretty small because few of us are likely to get burned at the stake.”
Most of us battle an invisible jury in our minds that paralyzes us at the very first thought of a less-than-perfect outcome. If we let this fear stop us, we won’t be able to move forward. There isn’t an easy, failure-free way to move forward, but here are a series of steps that’ll enable you to do so:
- Become aware of your fear of being wrong.
- Recognize that it’s natural for it to appear.
- Thank the fear for trying to protect you.
- Set aside the fear and move forward to your goal, despite the fear.
- Be willing to go wrong and, when it happens, learn, learn, learn and apply those learnings towards the future.
- Rectify, clean up, set up a new path (now you know where NOT to go).
- Keep your goal in mind and keep going.
“The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.”
ACTION
TODAY: Is there a project that you’d love to take back on because you stopped cold for fear of going wrong? Think of the worst possible outcome and how to mitigate it. Give it a shot and realize that failure is a natural part of moving forward. Every lesson gets you closer to your goal. Every NO gets you closer to a YES.
FUTURE: Next time you’re about to start a new project, allow additional time for the expected wrong ways that you will find. If you are open and cognizant that being wrong at times is part of any project, you will have less of a hard time recognizing the lessons to be learned and moving forward. Keep in mind that being wrong is simply a detour that opens up a myriad possibilities; it is not a dead end and, never, a final state.
Know someone who needs to be ok with being wrong? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter!
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Leadership, Mindset, Networking, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 25 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Memorable networking in just 3 minutes
— From The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen
When we meet someone new we tend to use small talk “because it’s far more socially acceptable than asking pointed questions. But the truth is that by asking better, smarter questions, we can understand the people we meet more quickly and determine rapidly whether they’re friend or foe, a potential business partner or a mate, a future employee or casual acquaintance. Life is short. The less time we waste on the weather, the better.”
And so begins an exercise to help our networking that Dave Kerpen shares with us in his book The Art of People. The exercise is geared to getting to know the person you are meeting “better than you know many of your friends, in just three minutes with just three questions.”
Kerpen mentions he was a skeptic at first, yet once he tried it at a conference, he was convinced immediately of the effectiveness of it. Further, two years after having the conversation with a total stranger, he could still recall the details easily. That is memorable networking!
The three questions are:
- “What is the most exciting thing you are working on right now?” (1 min)
- “If you had enough money to retire and then some, what would you be doing?” (1 min)
- “What is your favorite charity organization and why?” (1 min)
As you can see, these questions bring out our passions, our dreams, and our deep emotions when we answer them. They get to the heart of what makes people tick. Thus, they are guaranteed to break the ice and get to know the other person via the stories that he/she tells. And stories are memorable and relatable.
However, there are many other questions that will produce a similar effect. Craft the ones that suit you in order to bring out the best in the people that you meet, for example, “If you weren’t doing what you do today, what would you be doing and why?” “Who’s been the most important influence on you?” “If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be and why?”
ACTION
TODAY: Try out these questions on someone that you meet (preferably), or someone with whom you are barely acquainted. Pay attention as to how you know each other and how the relationship changes, for the better, in less than 3 minutes. It’s a powerful exercise.
FUTURE: Keep this exercise in mind for the next time you meet new people. If you think it’s awkward to ask them these questions, blame it on us! Simply say, “ I just read this crazy [blog] that talked about asking better questions when you first meet someone. Mind if we try out a couple of these questions and each answer them?”
Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, if you know someone who could benefit memorable networking!
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 20 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: The Law of Navigation
— From The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell
John C. Maxwell, an authority in the field of Leadership, explains the Law of Navigation as follows: “Anyone Can Steer the Ship, but It Takes a Leader to Chart the Course.”
What he means by this is simple, albeit not easy. “[Leaders] see the whole trip in their minds before they leave the dock. They have vision for getting to their destination, they understand what it will take to get there, they know who they’ll need on the team to be successful, and they recognize the obstacles long before they appear in the horizon.”
Whether the trip or project is big or small, complex or simple, leaders learn what it will entail and plan accordingly from experience and/or by getting help from experts in the field. They are intentional and purposeful and they go through a planning process to maximize the opportunities to succeed.
When making a thorough assessment, it’s important to look both inward (to draw on experience), and outward (to examine conditions and get ideas and knowledge from other trustworthy sources). Leaders “examine not only measurable factors such as finances, resources and talent, but also intangibles such as timing, morale, momentum, culture, and so on. […] The secret to the Law of Navigation is preparation.”
Maxwell offers the acrostic PLAN AHEAD as a way for us to keep a handy reminder of the strategy to use when charting a course for navigation:
Predetermine a course of action.
Lay out your goals.
Adjust your priorities.
Notify key personnel.
Allow time for acceptance.
Head into action.
Expect problems.
Always point to the successes.
Daily review your plan.
“In the end, it’s no the size of the project that determines its acceptance, support and success. It’s the size of the leader.”
ACTION
TODAY: What trip (project/task/other) do you have ahead of you (or are you in already) where you have to lead people? Think of it and run it by the PLAN AHEAD steps that apply (depending on the stage that you are at). Where and how can you plan for a better outcome? Make a list of the people who can lend a hand or advice to steer you towards a successful outcome, call them if you can to get their advice, or plan to meet with them in a near future.
FUTURE: Practice reflecting on your experiences, both positive and negative, so that you can discover the valuable lessons in them. Do your homework ahead of time before embarking on any journey: find people who have been down that road and talk to them about their experience and get their insights. Also, find out which way you naturally lean towards: are you a can-do-anything optimist or a down-to-earth realist? Then find someone who is your opposite and include that person on your team so that you can have more balance.
Please share your project with me! I’d love to know what you’re working on. Where will you use the PLAN AHEAD steps? Anything I can help with? I’m happy to lend a hand if I can serve as a resource. Let me know and please don’t forget to share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, if you know someone who can benefit from The Law of Navigation. Thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Collaboration, Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Planning, Productivity, Tools
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 39 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Spring cleaning
— From Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Happy Spring! And Happy Fall to our gurupies in the Southern Hemisphere! (Gurupie = blend of guru and groupie = how I fondly refer to the EntreGurus’ community, because we all follow the ideas of the gurus.)
This is a time for cleaning, not just our homes, but also our schedules and our minds. Let’s get rid of all those commitments and thoughts that no longer fit us, and substitute them for those that inspire, enlighten and empower us to reach our goals.
In Essentialism, Greg McKeown says, “Think about what happens to your [closet] when you never organize it… it becomes cluttered and stuffed with clothes you rarely wear. Every so often it gets so out of control you try and purge [it]. But unless you have a disciplined system you’ll either end up with as many clothes as you started with because you can’t decide which to give away; end up with regrets because you accidentally gave away clothes you do wear and did want to keep; or end up with a pile of clothes you don’t want to keep but never actually get rid of because you are not quite sure where to take them or what to do with them.”
“In the same way […] so do our lives get cluttered as well-intended commitments and activities we’ve said yes to pile up. Most of these efforts didn’t come with an expiry date. Unless we have a system for purging them, once adopted, they live on in perpetuity.”
The best approach for our personal and professional closet, as well as our physical one too (why not?), is as follows:
- Explore and evaluate. “Instead of asking, ‘Is there a chance that I will wear this someday in the future?’ you ask more disciplined, tough questions: ‘Do I love this?’ and ‘Do I look great in it?’ and ‘Do I wear this often?’ If the answer is no, then you know it’s a candidate for elimination.” In your life, be it professional or personal, the equivalent is asking, “Will this activity or effort make the highest possible contribution towards my goal?”
- Eliminate. “Let’s say you have your clothes divided into piles of ‘must keep’ and ‘probably should get rid of’.” Are you really ready to get rid of them? We usually start hesitating… “If you’re not quite there, ask the killer question: ‘If I didn’t already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?’ This usually does the trick.” In life, the killer question is: “If I didn’t have this opportunity, what would I be willing to do to acquire it?” And if you want to take it up a notch once you have explored your options, the next question is, “What will I say no to?” Of course, it is much harder to say no to opportunities (and sometimes very good ones) than to give your clothes away to charity, but then again, keep going back to the question in Number 1.
- Execute. “If you want your [closet] to stay tidy, you need a regular routine for organizing it.” In business an in life, “once you’ve figured out which activities and efforts to keep—the ones that make your highest level of contribution—you need a system to make executing your intentions as effortless as possible.” Among the many ideas that McKeown suggests for executing the discipline of keeping our personal and professional closets neat and tidy is asking the following questions with each project you are about to undertake: “How will we know when we are done?” “What are all the obstacles standing between me and getting this done?” and “What is keeping me from completing this?” Also, replace the idea of “this has to be perfect or else” with “done is better than perfect.” In the case of an “obstacle” being a person, say a colleague, who is swamped and has not given you what you need, the author says that being kind and helpful is always the best bet. Ask, “What obstacles or bottlenecks are holding you back from achieving X, and how can I help remove these? Instead of pestering him, offer sincerely to support him.”
ACTION
TODAY: Make a list of the commitments that are in your personal and professional life’s closet. Then go through the questions in No. 1 and No. 2 above to determine whether it’s best to keep them or not.
FUTURE: Just as you would give your gently worn clothes to a charity for someone to get a second life out of them, those projects that you undertook at some point deserve to be given a new life under someone else’s attention, work and enthusiasm. I think of those projects as puppies: you love them dearly and they are adorable, but it’s impossible to keep them all; so you make sure that they go to a loving home where they will live a happy life and lack nothing. Same here. Don’t drop all your unwanted projects abruptly (unless you want and there are no consequences). Instead, find a loving home for them. Your conscience will be at peace and the people involved in the project will be grateful. A loving home could be a colleague to chair the committee, a fellow in your industry to take care of a client you can no longer serve, another parent to take your place at your child’s school bake sale, another member of your charity’s board to coordinate this year’s gala, etc.
Know someone who needs to do a bit of Spring cleaning? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
