Tag: careers

  • How to Hack Your Creative Workspace

    How to Hack Your Creative Workspace

    This is a guest post by Allie Smith-Hobbs. 

    It’s the middle of summer. How’s your productivity? 

    grant deadlines

    There are nights where I’ve been up in the wee hours ruminating about projects. And although our work endeavors can sometimes be frustrating, they can also be the reason we joyously jump out of bed in the morning and rush to the computer with excitement. Work thoughts often fill our minds, but have you given much thought to where you do your work?

    The where of your work matters. 

    grantwritingworkspace

    Your workspace can dramatically affect your entire work experience including both your creativity and your productivity.

    Whether you’re a small business owner or a tenured professor, your clarity and quality of work will reflect your inner state. It’s very difficult to write clearly or work productively with muddled goals and fuzzy thoughts. While the much bigger topics of core alignment, inner clarity and mental schemas are definitely at play when it comes to our creativity and productivity, there are a few simple steps you take right now to hack your workspace.

    So grab a cup of tea, spend a few minutes answering these questions and make a few tweaks to dramatically improve not only your creativity and productivity, but also your overall quality of life.

    mockupNIHgrant

    Location. Location. Location.
    This is where the magic happens. Your workspace is your personal real estate. 

    Where do you find your groove? Is it in a high energy environment like the corner of a bustling coffee shop? Or perhaps a quiet space in your home office with a cat on your lap and a latte on the desk?

    Your workspace may include the office, a local coffee shop or even a laptop while lounging by the pool.

    If you have the option of working wherever you want, pay attention to which locations give you inspiration and which give you even more distractions. Depending on your vocation, you may or may not have much latitude when it comes to where you plug in your computer. If you’re required to work in your onsite office, you still have choices that can improve your productivity. How about giving yourself the gift of two hours of uninterrupted time behind locked doors with all distractions (including phone and internet notifications) turned off? What could you accomplish without the constant distraction and drain of colleagues popping by every few minutes?

    Aesthetics
    And speaking of distractions…is clutter overwhelming your desk? Is there a stack of paperwork that needs to be filed?

    Our moods contribute to our productivity (or procrastination).

    What type of mood does your workspace invoke? Does it make you feel tanked of energy – even if you’ve only been there a few minutes? Or is it filled with things that inspire you?

    If you experience a particular emotion every time your eye lands on something, it’s in your best interest to make sure it’s a positive emotion. File those papers, pay those bills, clear off the table – you’ll find it easier to get things done.

    Music and Silence
    Music is powerful and silence is golden. Are you a fan of music or do you need silence during your business hours? Does putting on the headphones put you in a focused state? Personally, I love music but during intense writing sessions, I find most music a distraction (particularly if it has lyrics). The Spotify channel “Deep Focus” is an exception, as its tracks are selected to improve a flow mindset.

    I crank the tunes when in an editing phase or when doing creative multi-tasking, which is a different mindset than getting ideas down in a rough draft, documenting in a spreadsheet or anytime I need to get into the nitty gritty details of a project. It’s your preference when it comes to your auditory input, what’s the difference between focus and distraction?

    Routine and Variability
    Do you thrive on the discipline of a routine to get tasks done at the same time and/or day or do you prefer variability to keep you interested and your ideas fresh? You may prefer a different environment when churning out rough drafts, mind maps and brainstorms versus the refining and editing phases.

    Do you prefer being in solitude or do your ideas flow from collaboration and interaction? From scheduling to location, what routines work best for you?

    You define your creative workspace. A customized workspace that fits your personality and work habits will contribute to a peaceful, energetic and organized mind. 

    Let’s hear from you – are you a solo writer, researcher or entrepreneur or do you need to chat and collaborate in the hallways to ignite your creativity? Do you lock yourself in your office for a late night or do you get up early with a cup of coffee and do your best work at the kitchen table before 8 am? What changes can you make – right now – to make your workspace a place you want to be?

  • Is your life ruled by "Lizard Brain?"

    Is your life ruled by "Lizard Brain?"

    Chances are, it is.

    If you have difficulty making tough decisions…

    If you have far too much on your plate and not enough time for it all…

    If you suffer from procrastination or perfectionism…

    If you like to wait until money is assured BEFORE you invest in yourself….

    If you regularly listen to the news and react with anger/frustration/fear…..

    These are signs that your LIMBIC system has control. The limbic brain came from our reptilian ancestors… eat, have sex, and run away from danger. That’s about it. It’s pretty good for those things… if that’s all you think your life should amount to, then keep on doing just that.

    And here’s where it will lead to:

    * As an entrepreneur, you’ll go from one marketing/sales program to the next, looking for the “magic bullet” that saves your hide. But somehow the hide-saving never quite happens. Meanwhile, you never seem to overcome those “hurdles” that keep rearing their ugly head each time… as you overwork yourself to the point of being ready to go back to a day job.

    * As a researcher, you will be scratching and clawing to get that next grant. You’ll procrastinate and perfect, spending nearly all your time on the small stuff, never finding the time for the big stuff that would move your life and career forward. You’ll know you’re capable of SO MUCH MORE and you scratch your head, wondering why you never seem to quite BE the SO MUCH MORE that you are.

    This lizard brain is very tricky… it not only keeps us shrinking back in fear from taking the big leaps that will truly make a difference… but it ALSO keeps us chasing after one “holy grail” after another to keep us entertained … just one more launch, just one more grant, just one more XXXYYYZZZ until salvation! Yay!

    As long as you are ruled by the FEAR (well disguised so that your ego doesn’t have to admit that you’re afraid – “who, me? I’m NOT AFRAID!”)… and as long as you are ruled by the chase-the-next-easy-out… your life, your business, your career will go NOWHERE.

    I can say that with confidence because I have previously let the fear infect me… I have let the lizard brain take over. Too many times. Each time I have gone backwards on money, relationships, and health. It was only by taking charge again (and getting good help) that I regained control.

    The only way to leave the lizard brain behind is connecting with your higher self. Scientifically that is your neocortex. Spiritually that is your core, or your “soul.” Operating from that place is THE OPPOSITE of being ruled by lizard-brain. It’s chill, it’s abundant, it’s fun, it’s easy.

    Beware lizard brain: it’s a big investment. And because this is what you might NEED, rather than being another easy little shiny-object or delaying tactic, you are probably firing full out right now. Red light. Red light. Scary. Let’s click onto the next post, or go get a coffee and procrastinate… again! Tomorrow will be better, or maybe the next day, or the day after that. Yes. That’s the easy way out. Lizard likes EASY. Yay!

    Well, if your higher self is watching all of that lizard brain stuff, and ready to actually TAKE CHARGE and do something about becoming the BEST person you can be (which will ONLY happen when you learn new habits to operate from the HIGHER SELF), then reach out to me. Like I said, one spot – that’s it for now.

  • Super-sizing your work is screwed up

    Perhaps the most stark contrast between Europe and the US is the issue of quality vs quantity.

    I recently returned from a 2 week sojurn in Europe, and was shocked the first time I went into a US grocery store. Shocked at the quantity of it all, and yet, amongst all that quantity, the difficulty of locating reasonably-priced quality foodstuff – like good meats and cheeses.

    I’m not here to lambast the American way of life. There are many things I love about it. But one thing that I really hate about it is that we have gone down a path that’s not good for us. It doesn’t help us enjoy life, it’s not good for our environment, it’s not good for our kids: a focus on quantity rather than quality.

    Everything is bigger in the US. From stores to streets to cars to houses.

    Those things are perhaps ok being bigger (except for Humvee’s, which are just simply gross).

    But there’s a more subtle and insidious “biggerness” that has crept into the American psyche, and that is the “biggerness” of our work.

    I know way too many people that think working all the time is expected/good/normal.

    It’s not.

    Europeans don’t work all the time. They take vacations. They often take time off in the middle of the day.

    Yes, perhaps their economies aren’t quite as “good” as the US one. But what does that really mean, after all?

    Is the US economy really all that good, either? It’s not. It’s been languishing ever since 2008, and it will likely languish more.

    It’s because we’ve lost sight of what’s important. Work is important, but “super sizing” our work is killing us… as individuals and as a society.

    Two weeks off (max) at most jobs. That means 50 weeks per year devoted to work. Work becomes the whole identity. This is ridiculous! Work should not be one’s sole identity.

    But a lot of people sacrifice family relationships, hobbies, and friends in the name of this supersized work.

    It’s time to rethink what we’re doing with our careers. It’s time to understand that – just like good food – there’s a “right amount” – and if you go well beyond that amount into excess, it ends up being a negative thing rather than a positive thing.

    Careers are not a place for excess. We need to “right-size” our careers to a more sustainable level – one that consumes some portion of our lives – but certainly not all of it.