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- Kudos for completing your To-Do list this week!
On efficiency, laundry machines, healthy complaining and demanding bosses.
The weekend is here.
Isn’t it a great feeling when you know that you did everything you needed to do this week? Inbox zero, To-Do list completely checked off, no unreturned calls or messages?
I assume it’s a wonderful feeling, but I don’t really know. It never happened to me. I would bet that it never happened to you as well. If it did, reach out and tell me how you did it.
There are many reasons why we feel we are always in full capacity mode:
Most of us work on several projects at the same time, or on a complex project with several layers, and we are expected to show progress in all of them.
We are expected to work at a higher pace than in the past, and we are supposed to reach several milestones in a relatively short amount of time.
We use more asynchronous communication methods (e-mails, messages, slack, etc), which lead to a much bigger volume of messages.
We get paid to reach outcomes (complete projects successfully, reach a set goal in sales, etc), not to work a specific amount of hours. Our daily or weekly working hours are not necessarily enough to reach those outcomes.
In other words: we are expected to do more, faster and better.
About a century ago, electrical appliances entered the household. Making the laundry, which used to take about 4 hours for an average load if done manually, took now about an hour with an electric washing machine. Each new appliance would reduce the overall time invested in housework. […]
Enjoy,
🧏🏽♂️ You call it “a gut feeling”, we call it crappy decision making
Decision making. This will help you make better decisions.
Listening to your gut can be rewarding if you are really into digestive sounds, but quite misleading if you are into good decision making.
It might help if you are just brainstorming, but when you need to make a decision - one which you’ll have to live with its consequences - relying on our instinct means willingly falling prey of a long series of biases. We tend to overvalue our past experiences, to prefer solutions that make us avoid conflict and discomfort, and to ignore blind spots. There are better ways to go at it.
🗣 You decided to keep complaining? Fine. At least, do it properly
Personal Development. This will help you improve the way you experience hardships.
What do you do when something bad happens? Complain? I knew it.
A few facts:
1. Complaining moderately helps coping with difficulties.
2. Complaining all the time rewires your brain into looking always at the negative aspects of any situation.
3. People who complain more often are more likely to develop depressive behaviors.
So if you really want to complain, complain in a healthy way and only if it helps.
The following article explains what the right way to complain is.
👑 Is your boss more demanding lately? It might be only the beginning.
Workplace Dynamics. This will help you make sense of your boss’ behaviour.
I’ve had a long series of good bosses in my career. When I listen to some of my clients’ experiences with their bosses, I understand how privileged I’ve been.
Incompetent, ego-driven, despotic are only few of the words I’ve heard in this context, and I am not sure that those are the most derogatory I’ve heard.
Still, “work” used to end at some point during the day, and the torture would end for those who had to suffer from toxic bosses. And then the pandemic came, and it gave those bosses the right to upgrade from plain despots to imperialistic despots - and to take control of the totality of their employee’s day.
You should also take a look at:
EarBuds Podcast Collective is a weekly podcast recommendation newsletter that sends you 5 podcast episodes according to a theme, and each week is curated by a different person. Subscribe to find new, sometimes mind-bending audio entertainment.
If you didn’t do so, you should join the Tea Hut, my new Facebook group. It’s a great place for people who really care about working at their best. I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn as well!
Unrelated.
Never, never keep your phone in your back pocket while robbing a house.
You might call the police by accident, like these two thieves in Staffordshire, England.