by Belinda Lui | Dec 30, 2013 | Business Success, Latest
I was once told by a friend that success is to “work smarter, not harder” — what she meant by this, was that it isn’t impressive to be the last person to leave the office if it’s because it takes you 12 hours to complete a task that might only take 5 hours for someone else to do. We get caught up in the details, paralyzed by fear of making mistakes if we work faster. We might feel a little unmotivated at times because our position isn’t a challenging one. And if it is an overly-challenging position, we might even feel burnt out and too overwhelmed to do better. So what to do?
Here are some ways to work smarter, AND harder for success:
1. Show up, Sit Down, Get it Done
This point seems like common sense, but it’s surprisingly not. A lot of people shy away from the opportunity to own a project or job task. The way I see it, don’t make excuses or create hurdles for yourself — just show up, sit down, and get it done.
2. Reputation, no matter the industry, follows you
We think that the things that we do may not come back to haunt us, but what we might be forgetting is how small this world actually is (especially with social media). Impressions (first, second, and one hundredth) are extremely important. All it takes sometimes is one bad review to cancel out all of your great achievements when trying to land your next gig.
3. Flexibility and fun breeds innovation
It’s important to have structure in your workflow but not necessarily in your workplace. If you find that you’re much more productive in a coffee shop or with headphones in, then do what works for you. Oh, and have some fun while doing it.
4. Breathe. Don’t let the nerves get to you.
We all have moments at work when things seem to be a bit overwhelming – a deadline, a boss, a co-worker, all of the above, etc. The key to success here, is to breathe. Things aren’t as bad as they seem. If you can keep calm and divide and conquer, I promise things will be easier.
5. Be the hardest worker.
Contrary to what my friend told me, I think it’s important to be the hardest worker as well as a smart worker. Being smart isn’t enough if you’re lazy or doing your work without intention. The trouble with choosing one over the other is that you think that they aren’t two separate entities that need to work together in order to achieve success. Work smarter, AND harder.
What advice do you have to be a smarter and harder worker to achieve success?
by Belinda Lui | Dec 16, 2013 | Business Success, Latest
Productivity means making active steps towards accomplishing something — not thinking about what we have to accomplish. What are we “putting down” when we “put it down on paper”: a current of thought, a torrent of emotions, the first incisions of a decision Flannery O’Connor said that she writes in order to discover what she knows. And as research into writing shows, the act of tracing your thoughts across a page can make you more productive, more emotionally aware, and a less irrational decision maker.|
If we spend less time trying to remember what we have to do and spend more time figuring out how we are going to do them, this will result in increased productivity and efficiency.
Here’s why…
1. Writing clears the clutter from your mind
TED speaker David Allen emphasizes that your mind is for processing, not for storage. Storage of information, after all, can be outsourced in any number of ways, including writing down your to-do list on a pad of paper. The insight underlying this is that attention is a finite resource, one that gets depleted over the course of a day. So if you’re walking around thinking about what you need to do next–rather than thinking about how you’re getting to get it done–you’re misspending your neurotransmitters and letting your productivity suffer.
2. Writing assists in retaining a bank of knowledge
Productive people take better notes: if somebody is dropping knowledge on you, writing down what they say allows you to commit your attention to next insight–rather than trying to remember the last one. Like the Chinese proverb says, you can trust the faintest of ink more than the strongest of memories . As you take more and more notes on awesome things said and read, you can amass an awesome bank of knowledge.
3. Writing helps with realizing growth
Journaling in particular helps you see how you have grown. Harvard Business School research director Teresa Amabile has discovered that people feel more engaged, more productive, and have a greater sense of meaning in their work when they record even the most miniscule of accomplishments within their days. She calls this the Progress Principle: the more you’re aware of your progress, the more involved you’ll feel in making it continue to grow–productivity is making use of this learning.
4. Writing helps you understand your life
University of Texas psychologist James W. Pennebaker has found that writing about their lives helps people to organize their thoughts and find meaning in their traumatic experiences–from people diagnosed with HIV to Vietnam veterans. This is crucial, since the more meaning you find in your difficulties, research shows, the more resilient you’ll be in over-coming them, which reminds us of how the happiest people often have the hardest jobs.
5. Writing helps you become more wise
The last reason to write about life: it helps you study your emotions, which makes you wiser, faster.
“What we construct as wisdom over time is actually the result of cultivating that knowledge of how our emotions behaved,” says USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, “and what we learn from them.”
This reinforces Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s recommended first step for making better decisions: buy a notebook
(Information from: Fast Company)
How has writing helped you in terms of productivity? Tell us in the comments.
by Belinda Lui | Dec 11, 2013 | Business Success, Latest
As Heraclitus so succinctly put it, “The only constant in life is change”. As people, some of us struggle daily in order to adapt to the changes that life thrusts upon us. As professionals, the same theory applies. The workplace, the marketplace, even the avenues in which we conduct our business are changing at rapid speeds – so how do we stay on top of it all? How do we ensure that we are doing what it takes to be ahead of the game?
There are probably plenty of ways, but I’ve compiled a list that has helped me stay relatively successful with change, in work and in life:
1. Know your strengths and weaknesses
With a Type-A personality, I like to believe that I can do anything and everything; under budget, on-time, and better than anyone else can. It’s humbling to discover, however, that failures are blessings in disguise. They teach you how to be better. If you learn from your mishaps, you will sooner recognize where you sink and where you swim.
2. Persistence
Failing at things is a good thing. Success doesn’t look like smooth-sailing; it looks a whole lot like multiple do-overs, learning from your mistakes each time. The discovery step on the road to success and embracing change, is probably my favourite. Keep failing until it works. To quote the late Nelson Mandela, “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again”.
3. Motivation
Realizing that nothing stays the same for very long, it isn’t ideal to remain idle in anything that you do. Even when you’ve mastered a skillset, you must remain motivated to stay current with emerging trends. What motivates you? For me, it’s working in a position that continually challenges me to be better at what I do, no matter what that may entail. Figure out what motivates you and keep reminding yourself of this when things seem unbearable.
4. Work/Life Balance
What’s that? With the uprising of Social Media and Technologies, you’re almost always connected to your workplace. It’s important to keep your work life and your personal life separated, however, even if that means putting your SmartPhone somewhere where you won’t be tempted to respond immediately. You can set aside dedicated time slots throughout the night to check work e-mails but it is easy to get carried away when these boundaries are not clearly defined.
Change is inevitable, but hopefully this list gives you some insight on how to more readily embrace it.
What are some of the ways that you deal with change?
by Belinda Lui | Dec 9, 2013 | Business Success, Latest
I was shown a video last night that I wanted to share with you: found on the VICE website, this video shows a man, Sun Jifa, who lost both his hands during a fishing explosion. He couldn’t afford prosthetic hands – so he made a pair for himself out of iron. His bravery and perseverance in overcoming this devastating accident is already worth mentioning – but what makes this story an even more encouraging one is that he now dedicates his life to making prosthetic arms for the less fortunate in China. It’s a story about overcoming challenges.
Overcoming challenges isn’t only about helping yourself, but to help those around you overcome them as well.
He doesn’t do it to make money – he charges his clients a minimal amount (that is usually given to the clients from Government aid) so that they can continue working to sustain a family. He does it because he knows what it feels like to be handicapped and not be able to afford the things that can help him lead a normal life.
We can all take a page from his book when we consider the bravery and perseverance required to overcoming challenges; in the workplace and in life.
Oftentimes, it is easy when faced with a challenge to turn and run the other way. Adversity is a gift, if you can appreciate the lesson. I agree that it is easier to see a difficult boss, a daunting task, or even a conflict with a colleague as a deterrent to going in to work with enthusiasm – but perhaps facing these challenges with tact and dedication will prove fruitful in the end.
Taking it a step further, if you can turn your challenges into doing good for those around you (offering encouragement to a colleague, taking on extra projects to relieve your teammates, even research possible new developments to give back to your community) then you might just find yourself a happier person, more successful and fulfilled in the knowledge of the betterment of yourself and overcoming challenges.
I hope the story of Sun Jifa serves as an uplifting motivation for you on this gloomy Monday morning, and for every time you feel as though there is a challenge too difficult of overcoming.
To watch this video, click here.
by Belinda Lui | Dec 5, 2013 | Latest, Management
Ever wonder what makes Google the holy grail of productivity and creativity? There’s no magic in the drinking water at the Mountain View, CA company. The tech giant draws from what Google’s chief social evangelist, Gopi Kallayil, calls the nine core principles of innovation.
Kallayil shared his insights at this week’s San Francisco Dreamforce summit.
Here are the nine rules that any enterprise, large or small, can adopt to steal Google’s culture on innovation.
1. INNOVATION COMES FROM ANYWHERE
A medical doctor on Google’s staff argued persuasively that Google had a moral obligation to extend help to those typing searches under the phrase “how to commit suicide.” He ignited the charge to adjust the search engine’s response so that the top of the screen reveals the toll free phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. The call volume went up by nine percent soon thereafter. The same change has been adopted in many other countries.
2. FOCUS ON THE USER.
Worry about the money later, when you focus on the user, all else will follow. Google improved the speed of its search capabilities with predictive analysis so search suggestions come up after the user types a few keystrokes. This Instant Search feature saves the user a few microseconds with each entry. Google sales reps were concerned that this shortened the time customers would view ads, but the company went ahead and believed that it was worth the risk.
End result? Thanks to Instant Search, Google estimates the time saved is equivalent to giving back mankind 5,000 years after a year of collective use. “Create a great user experience and the revenue will take care of itself,” says Kallayil. In addition, more customers will be attracted to your product’s increased benefits.
3. AIM TO BE TEN TIMES BETTER
If you come into work thinking that you will improve things by ten percent, you will only see incremental change. If you want radical and revolutionary innovation, think 10 times improvement, and that will force you to think outside the box.
4. BET ON TECHNICAL INSIGHTS
Every organization has unique insights, and if you bet on it, it leads to major innovation. Google engineers, not the auto industry, came up with the idea of driverless cars after seeing that millions of traffic deaths come from human error. Working with an artificial intelligence team at Stanford University, Google engineers have produced experimental cars that now have travelled to Lake Tahoe and back to the Bay Area and have given the blind more independence by driving them to shop and carry out errands.
5. SHIP AND ITERATE
Ship your products often and early, and do not wait for perfection. Let users help you to “iterate” it. When Chrome was launched in 2008, every six weeks Google pushed out an improved version. “Today, using that approach, Chrome is the Number One browser in many countries,” says Kallayil, “You may not have perfection in your product, but trust that your users will get back to you.”
6. GIVE EMPLOYEES 20 PERCENT TIME
Give employees 20 percent of their work time to pursue projects they are passionate about, even if it is outside the core job or core mission of the company. “They will delight you with their creative thinking,” Kallayil promises.
7. DEFAULT TO OPEN PROCESSES
Make your processes open to all users. When Google created the Android platform, it knew it could not hire all the best developers on the planet. For that reason, it “defaulted to open,” and encouraged developers outside of Google to create apps for the one billion people using Android devices daily. “That is how an ecosystem is formed,” says Kallayil. In marketing, Google asked users how they would market its voice search app, and children sent clever videos that rivaled the campaigns of the big ad agencies.
8. FAIL WELL
There should be no stigma attached to failure. If you do not fail often, you are not trying hard enough. At Google, once a product fails to reach its potential, it is axed, but the company pulls from the best of the features. “Failure is actually a badge of honor,” he says. “Failure is the way to be innovative and successful. You can fail with pride.”
9. HAVE A MISSION THAT MATTERS
“This is the most important principle,” Kallayil says. “Everyone at Google has a strong sense of mission and purpose. We believe the work we do has impact on millions of people in a positive way.” Each person should have his or her own story.
(Information taken from: Fast Company)
