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by Rick Baker
On Apr 22, 2016
Many people believe they have no time because they think they are far too busy. Since we all have the same amount of time each minute/hour/day, when people feel/think they don’t have enough time they are experiencing a flawed mindset. Actually, these people do have time and their mindset is clouded by some form of ineptitude. Sometimes it's their ineptitude...their inability to identify their talents and use their talents to perform their work. Sometimes it's the ineptitude of people they work with...again, the problem often boils down to a mismatch between talents and work tasks.
If the people are bosses then they can't blame others...they have to accept the fact their ineptitude is the source of the problem [and the cause of the alleged shortage of time].
Herein lies a Catch-22. People get so busy 'in their minds' they have no time to address their own ineptitude or anyone else's. When this problem takes full hold, their too-busy mindsets fuel their ineptitudes and their ineptitudes fuel their too-busy mindsets. The result is a never ending cycle - a shrinking spiral -of work, busyness, stress, and distress...in a paycheck-to-paycheck business environment...[if business is doing that well].
When I hear people complain about poor business practices at their company, I know they believe they are too busy.
When I hear people complain about being too busy, I know their company is experiencing poor business practices.
Busyness and Ineptitude: These things regularly travel hand in hand, creating a tightly-clutched Catch-22. To excel, people need break the Catch-22 by doing at least one of two actions:
#1 - stop saying & thinking "I am too busy" and
#2 - start injecting better goals, better procedures & better disciplines into their business practices.
***
Of the above 2 actions, #1 is the easier starting point.
But, what if people try #1 and cannot do it...
by Rick Baker
On Mar 14, 2016
Everyone who knows me well knows I have a serious interest in the concept of ‘Time’. [I mean a strong interest in the philosophy and the physics around the concept of Time]. And, people who know me well accept the fact I maintain an ongoing ‘serious peeve’ about self-talk and expression of thoughts like, “I’m too busy” and “I don’t have time”.
Of course, when you have a serious peeve [i.e., much more than a pet peeve], you tend to want to explain it to people. You want to try to persuade them to buy into your way of thinking. And, if you are like me then you write things in an effort to express your thoughts and arguments.
Here are some samples of the things I have written:
- If you think time flies, try holding your breath while your boss is telling a story.
- A person who chases two rabbits is 'too busy' to catch either.
- Beware those vagrant thoughts. [Unless, of course, you want to waste a lot of time.]
- When Opportunities seek out people to visit, they pretty much avoid all the too-busy people.
- Only a silly person would waste time talking about not having enough time.
“Life is a state of mind.” [The U.S. President said that at the end of one of my favourite movies…in 1979.] Actually, life is a relentless stream of states of mind. [I said that in a little Thought Post titled ‘ It's all a matter of mindset’.]
If you believe life is a relentless stream of states of mind then you may be drawn into thinking about the content of your states of mind. You may be drawn into thinking about how those states arrive in your mind. And, you may be drawn into thinking about controlling your states of mind.
That’s what happened to me:
- I accepted life is a relentless stream of states of mind
- I recognized some of those states of mind are positive, while others are negative
- I decided I can, to a degree, control the thoughts that exist in my states of mind
Then…
I decided I did not want my states of mind to contain thoughts like “I’m too busy” and “I don’t have time”.
With effort and practice, I pretty much removed these ‘time-constrained’ states from my mind. I found this improved my quality of life…increased my peace of mind.
This sequence of events compelled me to try to help others remove 'time-constrained thinking' from their states of mind.
by Rick Baker
On Feb 8, 2016
Sure, we can be distracted or negative but let's remember we have these other two choices: being there and being positive.
If you are not naturally inclined to ‘be there’ and ‘be positive’ it will take some time and effort to adjust your mindset into those zones.
Being There: It is easier to 'be there' when you are curious, tolerant, and truly interested in other people.
Being Positive: It is easier to 'be positive' when you are genetically predisposed toward optimism, hopeful about the future, and creative enough to envision alternatives and possibilities.
Perhaps, you are not at this time blessed with any of these traits.
Regardless, you can become an expert at 'being there' and 'being positive'.
Yes, any normal human being can become an expert at 'being there' and 'being positive'. It will, of course, require some effort. It will require some thought. It will require some education - ideally, self-education over a patient period of time. In addition, it will require a desire to grow and excel as a person. And, a good sense of humour will help you along the way.
There is no perfect approach to developing the abilities to 'be there' and 'be present'. These abilities are built over time, by trial and error, and you will make missteps along the way.
It seems to me one of the most important considerations is 'control'. To fully succeed you must understand and (wholeheartedly) believe you can control yourself. To fully succeed you must understand and (unconditionally) accept you cannot control other people or situations. The more you believe in and practice self-control the greater your ability to 'be there' and 'be positive'. The more you accept the limitations around your ability to control other people and situations the greater your ability to 'be there' and 'be positive'.
To be clear - I'm not talking about 'fundamentalist' perfectionism...or about taking huge leaps or about making major sacrifices. I'm talking about taking some initial small steps aimed at 'experiencing the moment' as an observer. I'm talking about setting personal desires/goals aside for brief moments...long enough to listen to one other human being. I'm talking about imagining another possibility that isn't laced with annoyances (or doom-and-gloom thinking). I'm talking about trusting others. I'm talking about thinking between the lines of other people's comments/actions rather than jumping all over them and proving you are right and they are wrong.
PS: Now this all makes sense doesn't it? I mean, it makes sense at least until all that adrenalin and cortisol kicks in.
by Rick Baker
On Jan 4, 2016
I have recently been bombarded by people talking about situations where people they work with are illustrating a lack of attention to detail. The sheer volume of problems brought to me recently cause me to wonder if there is something in the air causing behaviour shifts where people suddenly experience massive difficulty paying attention to details.
Sure, from time to time all of us experience problems paying attention to detail. This happens when we are overstressed. This happens when we are attempting to multi-task. And this can also happen when we are experiencing excessive interruptions while we are attempting to work.
However, this cannot or at the very least should not become a normal state of affairs. We cannot achieve business success if we cannot attend to details and perform with accuracy. Attention to detail is essential to successful performance of business tasks.
Putting two and two together, it certainly appears that many people and many businesses will not be successful…unless we can help them do better in the area of attention to detail.
So, how might we do that?
It's probably a good idea to start by asking questions. That's certainly better than assuming we know why the person is having difficulty paying attention to details.
We can ask a question like, “I notice this error - how do you think that happened?”
When we ask that question, we cannot accept an offhand answer. We cannot accept a shrug of the shoulders coupled with, “I don't know.” We cannot accept unclear excuses like, “I'm too busy.” We must make sure the answer has been thought through, at least to a degree.
Sort attention-to-detail problems into two categories:
- The person has never had an ability or skill in the area of attention to detail. Under this category, we cannot expect any better performance than the person has illustrated in the past and we should not set attention-to-detail goals that are unachievable. Solution: people who have never exhibited attention-to-detail skill should not be doing work that relies on attention to detail.
- The person has exhibited skill in the area of attention to detail but now those skills appear to have slipped away. In this case, something has happened to create a change. Solution: to remedy this problem we must understand what has happened. Who can answer that question? Likely, the person is in the best position answer the question. Make sure the person understands you are committed to understanding what’s happened. Ask the person. That’s the right place to start.
***
As you hear people answer your questions consider how you might help them improve attention-to-detail skills. For example, some thoughts...
- Consider the power generated by Napoleon Hill's advice: “Plan your work and work your plan” (‘Think and Grow Rich’, 1937). Embedded within this advice: schedules help us remember to do the right things at the right times. Doing the right thing at the right time promotes focus and concentration on that thing. Timing, focus, and concentration are the ingredients of attention-to-detail.
- Be Present - when struggling to concentrate, at the very least a person can pause and work at removing thoughts about the past and thoughts about the future. When we remove thoughts about the past and the future we are at least limited to thoughts about the present situation. That's a good step toward focus and concentration.
- Airline pilots confirm check-lists save lives - if check-lists work in the airline industry that proves check-lists have some value. And, what about medical teams in operating rooms. And what about shoppers in grocery stores. Check-lists have proven their value. People who choose to ignore check-lists are bucking a successful trend.
- Know how to say, “No” - this applies from small "No" to large "No", from saying "No" to co-worker interruptions to saying "No" to boss work-dumps.
- Don’t fight the fact you cannot multi-task and achieve meaningful success - multi-tasking is the route to mediocrity.
First published October 7, 2014
by Rick Baker
On Aug 18, 2015
Recently, the following quote caught my attention:
"Time is the substance from which I am made."
Jorge Luis Borges
Argentine Author & Poet, (1899-1986)
Quotes about time always catch my attention…because (1) I have always been and still am fascinated by the concepts of time-physics and (2) over recent years, I am alarmed by the increasing number of people who think and say they things like, “I don’t have time.”
I am not familiar with the work of Jorge Luis Borges, so I can only speculate on the context around his quote. Without context, I interpret the quote in my own way. 'Subjective opportunities' - perhaps that is the best measure of a quote's value?
Here, I will not be providing an interpretation of, "Time is the substance from which I am made." Instead, I will share some thoughts the quote triggered.
My first reaction to the quote was to do a double-take….I thought I had mis-read the sentence. After reading the quote the 2nd time and reaching a conclusion about its meaning, for some reason, a question-thought hit me:
“If you don't have time, what do you have?”
The answer to that question came quickly:
“If you don't have time, you have nothing.”
Whether or not time is the substance from which we are made, if we don’t have time then we have nothing.
Perhaps, that’s why I have such a problem when people say things like, “I don’t have time.” Perhaps, that’s why I feel their self-brainwashing is so damaging..so spirit-killing…so unnatural ...
Perhaps, that’s why I now feel the most helpful thing you can do when people say "I don't have time" is ask, "If you don't have time, what do you have?"
Since you care, you ought to offer these wrong-thinking people at least that provocation.
If you care even more about helping people make positive changes, and the situation lends itself…
Help them understand, if they continue to think and say they do not have time then they are right – they do not and never will have time.
And, help them understand, if they do not have time then they have nothing.
Footnote - article About Time
by Rick Baker
On Aug 10, 2015
Let's set Emotional Intelligence aside for the moment.
Let's assume logical-Intelligence holds the position of authority and control over human behaviour.
With Emotional Intelligence out of our way, we can live in a three dimensional world of (logical) Intelligence, Accuracy, and Time – where success is determined by a combination of (1) possessing Intelligence and (2) possessing the ability to convert Intelligent thoughts into Intelligent actions. When observed by other Intelligent people, the people who are skilled at converting Intelligent thoughts into Intelligent actions will be seen as producers of Accurate and Timely actions. Conversely, those who are not skilled at having Intelligent thoughts or converting those Intelligent thoughts into Intelligent actions will be seen as producers of actions that are inaccurate (errors, omissions, etc.) and untimely (procrastination, missed deadlines, etc.).
Attribution Bias suggests most people will not be able to self-diagnose their abilities/performance in these areas. On the other hand, they will be able to destructively criticize other people's abilities/performance.
All this considered, when Intelligence fails to present itself thoughts and actions business offices become battlefields where errors can quickly become the Bouncing Betty mines, the bazooka shells, and the nuclear-tipped missiles of mayhem and mass destruction.
So much for trying to set Emotional Intelligence aside…
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