Improve Performance by Taking a Break

What happens when a factory worker is tired and overworked? Big mistakes, preventable accidents, and serious injuries.

What happens when a decision-maker is tired and overworked? Problems get worse, opportunities are missed, and business performance suffers.

What's a leader to do? Take a break.

According to Harvard Business's Jeff Stibel, "Taking a break provides an opportunity to reflect and often it is during such times when the best ideas, our deepest insights, emerge."

David Bohl points out

How many Saturdays have you gotten up in the morning with the intent of “doing something productive?” How many times do you get on your own case about “wool gathering” or daydreaming when you feel you “should” be working?

I do it often and enjoy that time.

When we push ourselves too hard to be productive, we’re missing out not only on the balance we could have in our lives, but also on the benefits of this time when we feel we’re not being productive.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Read Jeff Stibel's blog post here: 7 Ways to Be Happier at Work

David Bohl explains: The Myth of Productivity

Today's CEOs Enslaved by Tight Schedules

Where CEOs a decade ago may have had five choices, they have 100 - and because they're under more scrutiny, they're more pressured to be visible and make themselves available.

Richard Wellins

I hear it over and over (and over) again from top executives:

• I'm too busy!
• I can't concentrate on ______ right now!
• I'll get to that once this crisis is over!

Unfortunately, when the current crisis is over, another one will take its place. What's a CEO to do?

The answer is simple. The execution requires commitment and discipline:

1. Say "no".
2. Say "no".
3. Keep saying "no" until you create a block of time for reflection and strategic thinking.
4. Decide what deserves a "yes".
5. Ditch or delegate everything that does not deserve a "yes".
6. Repeat.

No Time to Think?

Rob McKinnon challenges us to examine how and when we practice three types of thinking:

• Automatic Thinking - Acting automatically, with little thought. This is the processing of data, continuously. In. Out. Yes. No. Got it!


• Rational Thinking - Evaluating, judging and acting according to what you “know” to be true. This is decision-making, problem solving. Still, a daily activity.


• Reflective Thinking - Questioning long-held assumptions, being curious and open to new perspectives that could lead to new approaches and actions.

When leaders complain that they have "no time to think," they are speaking of the third, deepest level.

Reflective Thinking requires the most time.

Reflective Thinking is also the most necessary for fresh insight, creative ideas, and clear priorities.

What is the impact of having no time to think? What does your Reflective Thinking deficit cost you and your company?

Learn more about Rob at McKinnon Company

Laptop Computers: Freeing or Enslaving?

According to a poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, 43% of American office workers do not leave the office behind when they go on vacation. They stuff their luggage with seemingly benign electronic devices. And with so much technology at their fingertips, vacationers are easily lured back to work by their laptop computers (41%), cell phones (30%), PCs (10%) and Blackberries (7%).

Edward Hallowell, psychiatrist and author of Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap!, observes, "These tools can be very freeing. They can allow you to go away, but they can also be enslaving. It's all a matter of how you use them," (Computerworld, July 25, 2006).

As an independent executive coach, I understand the seductive allure of technology. A home office can be wonderfully convenient, but difficult to escape. For those of you, like me, who may find yourself spending too much time on your computer, I offer at simple way to have fun online.

One of my colleagues sent me a link to a charming little movie called "The Eight Principles of Fun": http://www.eightprinciples.com

Sit back and devote five minutes to having fun!

Do What You Love, Love What You Do

Several executives have complained to me recently that they're simply worn out. Too many activities with too little progress. Too much blood, sweat, and tears with too little joy. To many things they "should" do with too few things they "want" to do.

Here's the challenge: In order to do more of what you really want to do, you have to know what it is you really want to do. And many executives are so busy that they've forgotten. They're weighed down with responsibilities and relationships. They're working on everyone else's agenda but their own.

There's a silver lining to this cloud. When you remember what it is you love doing, and spend more time doing what you love doing, you become motivated and happy. Doing what you love creates energy, doing what you hate drains energy. Doing what you love builds joy you can share with others, doing what you hate builds frustration you can share with others.

Suggestion: At the end of a typical week, ask yourself what percentage of your work time was spent doing what you love to do. How can you increase that percentage?

Play is the Fuel that Powers Our Work

I was intrigued by Nicky Penttila's June 2006 article in Urbanite Baltimore Magazine entitled "All Work and No Play". Nicky is concerned that too many adults in the United States have schedules stuffed with goal-oriented activities that leave no time for play. Nicky suggests that play isn't simply something nice to do in our leftover time, it's essential for health, happiness, and productivity.

According to Nicky, "play just may be the secret to thriving in the new information economy. As the U.S. economy tilts more to the service and information sectors, creativity and problem-solving (areas that are developed chiefly through play and playfulness) will be more in demand."

I agree with Nicky Penttila. Play is the fuel that powers our work.

Sadly, several of my client executives have told me that they have no time for play. They have endless "to do" lists with new demands every day. Often I hear, "once this project/busy season/budget cycle/board meeting is completed I'll be able to take some time for myself". Somehow, the "time for myself" keeps getting postponed as new crises surface. Yet an executive that is play-deprived does not have enough fuel for peak performance at work.

I've discovered the hard way that when I work for hours on end without a break, my effectiveness declines. When I focus too narrowly for too long, I lose my perspective. Strange as it may seem, I often come upon a solution to a problem when I'm not actually thinking about the problem.

Also, I have a tendency to become driven to finish a task. No matter how long it takes, I just want to finish. I've learned that when I force myself to stop and devote time to a pleasurable activity, something magical happens. When I return to my desk, the task has somehow shrunk to a manageable size. I am able to set a time limit for completion and stick to it.

I'm learning to give myself permission to have fun.