Idag har varit en lång dag. Men också en väldigt bra dag. Så nu är jag i något slags tillstånd som snarast kan beskrivas som överinspirerad och helt slut. Om man nu kan ha det som kombination.
Men efter 13 h arbetsdag så är det inte särskilt kompakta eller kvalitetssäkrade tankar. Så på det temat vill jag tipsa om en extremt bra bok om time management och hur våra energiflöden fungerar, The power of full engagement. På allvar alltså. Läs. En utförlig recension hittar ni här. Och plankat ordagrannt från den recensionen så är en teaser till innehållet:
Fully Engaged: Energy, Not Time, Is Our Most Precious Resource
The basic premise of the book is that people are most productive when they go through periods of high stress followed by periods of renewal. This is in contrast to the typical idea of time management in which everything is approached like a marathon with a consistent level of stress throughout. The problem with that route is that it doesn’t account for your natural fluctuations in energy. It eventually leads to “burnout” or significant disengagement (you’re just collecting a paycheck).The Disengaged Life of Roger B.
Roger B. is a person who spends so much of his time responding to external stimuli (the incessant demands of his job, a busy family, community responsibilities) that he’s essentially burnt out on everything and isn’t giving good performance in any area of his life. This is mostly because he never takes time for himself to genuinely relax and figure out what he wants out of life. I’ll admit that pieces of the story sounded incredibly familiar to me.The Pulse of High Performance: Balancing Stress and Recovery
The key idea in this book is that best way to really perform well in any area of your life is to stress that area hard, then follow that period with a respite that’s free from stress. That doesn’t mean being on call or just having low stress. It means time to recover and rethink. It means a genuine period of rest and reflection and regrowth without a continuation of the stress. A great sports champion doesn’t play nonstop. Why should a great writer or a great employee?Physical Energy: Fueling the Fire
The authors start off by looking at physical energy, heavily looking at physical fitness as a way to build up physical energy. They recommend that people train by working very hard for periods, followed by periods of almost no work at all. Stress your body nearly to the point of breaking, let it rest and recover, then repeat. This will make your body stronger.Emotional Energy: Transforming Threat into Challenge
A similar theme – stress, rejuvenation, repeat – pops up again here when looking at emotional energy. Rather than facing a steady ongoing level of emotional stress, you should look at that consistent threat as a challenge and tackle it head on. Yes, this will cause a great deal of stress at once, but resolving that issue will reduce your stress over the long term.Mental Energy: Appropriate Focus and Realistic Optimism
You can’t just focus mentally on one thing all of the time. You also can’t focus entirely on what others insist that you focus on. You have to spend at least some of your time doing what you want to do, unwinding from the tightness that you’ve built up. Without that unwinding, you’re unable to keep the things you need to focus on in your life in perspective and you’re unable to determine what’s realistic regarding them.Spiritual Energy: He Who Has a Way to Live
Here, the authors argue that much of the ongoing stress in our lives comes from living in a way that isn’t in accordance to the values we have, whatever they may be. Often, living in accordance to those values means occasional peaks of stress (when doing something that’s hard) followed by a sense of peace and ease of living because those values guide you. You aren’t doing things that are wrong to you, making life easier to handle.Defining Purpose: The Rules of Engagement
So, how do you really get started on this? The authors say that the foundation of all of this is purpose. Why are you here? What do you want to do with your life? What’s the destination? On top of that are your values, which guide you to that purpose. You move toward that purpose by simply taking on challenges in your life head-on, then taking genuine breaks where you turn off that cell phone.Face the Truth: How Are You Managing Your Energy Now?
It’s often hard to face the real challenges in our life. We tend to take shortcuts that work well in the short term, but fail us in the long term. We keep up a wall at work. We take a pessimistic, snarky attitude about things. The list goes on and on. However, if we take that short-term heat head on and face the truth of our situation, we can move onto a path that actually makes life easier.Taking Action: The Power of Positive Rituals
How do you keep going on this path? The authors suggest positive rituals. All of us have a morning ritual where we go through certain actions automatically each day. If you want to move toward the big goals in your life, you need to add to your daily rituals. Make going for a walk each day “normal.” Make working on your novel a bit each day “normal.”
Och till mina kollegor där ute, passa på att testa Amazons 1-click om ni har en surfplatta. Alla andra läsare också såklart. Det är så bra. Men vi diskuterade det här ganska intensivt idag jag och mina kollegor. Jag lovar att jag ska skriva ett förklarande inlägg om hur jag använder e-böcker och en liten guide på vägen hur man går över till (mer) e-baserat läsande. För lite av en träningsfråga är det. Men det inlägget tar vi en annan dag.
