Feeling like a lead weight is on your shoulders is probably a very common feeling. With the busy lives we lead, we can't help but feel that there aren't enough hours during the day, as if the 24 hours that were allotted to us weren't enough to cover all our priorities.
We can all honestly say though that the overwhelming feeling of having too many things to do is, at some point, our own doing.
When it comes to work, you have to ask yourselves if it's all worth it. If your efforts bring a promise of triumph, then by all means, push yourself forward. Giving up is probably one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make when you strive to win. Every trial surpassed is a step closer to your goal.
Now, if you've made up your mind about going forward and overcoming all the hurdles, here are a few helpful tips that will make your mission easier:
1. Focus on what needs to be done - with the amount of work you still have to do, you need to know which elements are your priorities. Lower priority tasks can be rescheduled while you concentrate on the higher priority tasks.
2. Break down your schedule and allot a reasonable amount of time for each of the tasks - this applies more to the smaller tasks. While you cannot let go of and forget about the trivial matters, you only need to give a fraction of the overall time completing the less important chores.
3. Eliminate clutter - if you find yourself working in a chaotic environment, you will soon see that you also become less productive. Clutter distracts your mind, and if you need to clear the space before starting anything, then by all means, do so. In the end, you can concentrate better and finish your work faster.
4. Set goals - without goals, you simply drift through life like a fish that follows the current of the sea. Goals give you the adrenaline that you need to complete what needs to be done. Attaining your objectives will make you happy, and one way to get to this happy place is by working towards it.
5. Focus - make sure that you set up a corner in your house where there are fewer distractions. Don't give in to temptation and position your work station beside the television. Be strong, be firm, even with yourself.
6. Know when to pamper yourself - spoil yourself and give yourself small rewards. The gratifying portion of your day does not have to be elaborate. In fact, a simple neck message or a cup of herbal tea will do.
7. Ask for help - know that even the heroes in movies needed help at some point. For us normal people, we would most likely need it even more. Seek the advice of friends and know that you can also delegate tasks to the people in your life.
If you continue to stress about everything, your health is bound to fail. It's not a choice between your job and health. It's simply a matter of balance, in knowing when to say no and let go. If the amount of work reaches the point where your health and relationships are affected, then maybe it's high time to do sit down and consider rethinking what you're doing.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Motivation and Goal Setting
If you've ever worked in a corporate setting, particularly in a management position, you're no stranger to the idea of establishing goals and their importance to any business that practices management by objectives.
Even if you've never been in a position requiring you to define specific, measurable goals, you may not realize that every single day you've done so. Chances are, by not knowing you were actually setting goals, you were able to achieve them with far less analysis than accomplished through formal goal setting.
The variation between achieving formal goals versus informal goals is one of motivation. Quite often with formal goals, we may make progress towards our objective, but not have a clear understanding of the process required - and we often see a decline in our enthusiasm to continue or to continue effectively.
This is perhaps most often seen in group work environments, where one or two members of the group seem to "Get It", while others just sort of follow along, contributing as asked and simply waiting for others to ensure the goal is achieved at some hazy upcoming point.
Yet as individuals, we are often able to accomplish our own informal goals almost subconsciously. Each and every day of our lives, we plan, act upon and accomplish countless short-term goals, while simultaneously working towards longer-term goals, by establishing patterns of activity.
For example, you may get up a 6:00 AM each weekday, shower, dress, have breakfast and drive to your place of employment. Odds are you've done these thousands of times without giving it a second thought and yet, you are in fact achieving five goals every morning.
You're able to do this for several reasons - first of course, you understand the primary goal of getting to work on time each day at the task level. Next, your motivation for doing so no doubt includes the desire to avoid being fired for continued lateness. Another motivation is simply a need to demonstrate being a reliable member of the organization.
On a longer-term basis, we often plan for and follow through on everything from vacations and holidays to paying off our mortgages and other debts. Here again, we have plenty of stimulus to do these things and we do them subconsciously. And yet we often meet or exceed these goals with little or no effort.
What's most fascinating about this is that in our personal lives, we rarely use any complicated system to track and complete these tasks. No software, no systems and at best we might scribble down a reminder note to ourselves and stick it on the fridge.
If you really sit down and think about it, there's no reason why you could not apply the same approach to your business or work related goals. A task is a task, whether it has to meet with a teacher at 2 pm or having to ensure a critical order was placed and is being tracked.
If you can find your driving force for staying on top of things at the office as you do at home, you'll never again have any serious trouble meeting your business goals!
Even if you've never been in a position requiring you to define specific, measurable goals, you may not realize that every single day you've done so. Chances are, by not knowing you were actually setting goals, you were able to achieve them with far less analysis than accomplished through formal goal setting.
The variation between achieving formal goals versus informal goals is one of motivation. Quite often with formal goals, we may make progress towards our objective, but not have a clear understanding of the process required - and we often see a decline in our enthusiasm to continue or to continue effectively.
This is perhaps most often seen in group work environments, where one or two members of the group seem to "Get It", while others just sort of follow along, contributing as asked and simply waiting for others to ensure the goal is achieved at some hazy upcoming point.
Yet as individuals, we are often able to accomplish our own informal goals almost subconsciously. Each and every day of our lives, we plan, act upon and accomplish countless short-term goals, while simultaneously working towards longer-term goals, by establishing patterns of activity.
For example, you may get up a 6:00 AM each weekday, shower, dress, have breakfast and drive to your place of employment. Odds are you've done these thousands of times without giving it a second thought and yet, you are in fact achieving five goals every morning.
You're able to do this for several reasons - first of course, you understand the primary goal of getting to work on time each day at the task level. Next, your motivation for doing so no doubt includes the desire to avoid being fired for continued lateness. Another motivation is simply a need to demonstrate being a reliable member of the organization.
On a longer-term basis, we often plan for and follow through on everything from vacations and holidays to paying off our mortgages and other debts. Here again, we have plenty of stimulus to do these things and we do them subconsciously. And yet we often meet or exceed these goals with little or no effort.
What's most fascinating about this is that in our personal lives, we rarely use any complicated system to track and complete these tasks. No software, no systems and at best we might scribble down a reminder note to ourselves and stick it on the fridge.
If you really sit down and think about it, there's no reason why you could not apply the same approach to your business or work related goals. A task is a task, whether it has to meet with a teacher at 2 pm or having to ensure a critical order was placed and is being tracked.
If you can find your driving force for staying on top of things at the office as you do at home, you'll never again have any serious trouble meeting your business goals!
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