As hard as I work every day, shouldn’t I have “arrived” by now?
It’s a question that nags at you as slog through each day, bound to the
tyranny of your to-do list, one eye constantly on the clock. It seems
all you do is work, but you only have mediocre results to show for it.
Once you had big goals and the confidence to achieve them, but now all
you feel is tired, stressed, and overburdened. It seems the dreams you
once had—of leading your department, being the top salesperson, joining
the C-Suite—have disappeared into the quicksand that has become your
daily life.
If this scenario describes you, Andy Core says you’re not a loser. Like
so many others, you’re an unwitting victim of today’s demanding work
culture, not to mention bad habits that are sabotaging your best efforts.
“As you go through life, you develop habits and routines that you
think will help you succeed,” says Core, author of the new book Change
Your Day, Not Your Life: A Realistic Guide to Sustained Motivation, More
Productivity and the Art of Working Well (Wiley, 2014, ISBN:
978-1-118-81598-4, $23.00, www.andycore.com).
“Problem is, many of those patterns probably don’t work for you
personally. What’s productive for your coworker may not work well for
you, for example. Or a strategy that was effective five years ago may no
longer work.”
Even your instincts can lead you astray, he says. But you can change
habits and patterns that don’t serve you. You can refocus your
attention, redirect your thoughts, and generate greater motivation,
energy, optimism and creativity, as well as more rewarding relationships.
A credentialed, award-winning thought leader on increasing employee
engagement, Core is the perfect coach to help you become what he calls a
“Thriver”: someone who works hard, meets or exceeds expectations, and
enjoys high levels of personal and professional success, accompanied by
(and this is the best part) lower stress levels.
His book gives readers the tools to create precisely that type of life.
It also includes a curriculum to help companies re-engage employees,
improve communication, retain talent, and boost innovation—all of which
catapult overall profitability.
“To start reclaiming the goals that once inspired and excited you,
you’ll have to change the way you approach your day,” says Core.
“Instead of a worker whose actions are dictated by supervisors and to-do
lists, you’ll need to begin acting like the CEO of your own life.”
Read on for a few CEO-worthy tactics that will help you start thriving
immediately:
Figure out what’s doable in a day. In Change Your Day,
Core writes about a woman named Janet. She came to him hoping that he
could help her find some semblance of balance. She was overworked,
overstressed, and overweight. She had no time to exercise or to spend
with friends and family. She was constantly on the go and fueled by
caffeine, with no chance to recuperate between projects. Not
surprisingly, Janet wanted to change her life.
“Initially, Janet was disappointed when I told her that changing her
life was just too hard,” Core recalls. “But I explained that turning
your whole life around is too big a goal. You can’t sustain that many
major changes at once. Instead, I told Janet, I simply wanted her to
change her day. I wanted her to re-engineer her routine a little bit at
a time, one day at a time, cutting out a small stressor here, and adding
in a more productive habit there. Our whole strategy was to make small,
doable changes that would, over time, create an unstoppable momentum.
“You must do the same,” Core adds. “You must set realistic boundaries.
You must create goals that can be accomplished in the space of a day.
Remember, nearly all problems, challenges, and needs are best faced if
they are brought down to the scale of ‘what can be done right now’ by
taking on ‘one small piece’ of a difficult situation.”
Get big things done before 9 am (instead of snoozing, procrastinating
and lurking at the water cooler). Ever notice how your morning sets
the tone for your whole day? As Sir Issac Newton famously said, “Objects
in motion tend to stay in motion.” So if an object (you) gets a groggy,
frustrating start, you’ll probably feel sluggish and behind the
eight-ball all day long. However, if you start your day with positive
and productive ideas, actions, thoughts, and feelings, you’re likely to
gain momentum throughout the day.
“Here’s an example of what I’m talking about,” Core recounts. “I know a
top salesman named Barry whose daily pattern involves getting up early,
exercising, eating breakfast, spending time with family, and
accomplishing several meetings or other work activities before 9:00
AM. By the time his colleagues are settling into the starting blocks,
Barry has already blown through several important tasks on his to-do
list, and he’s geared to continue that pace for the next several hours.
“The point here isn’t how early Barry’s alarm rings—it’s that he makes
the most of the first several hours of his day instead of snoozing and
procrastinating, as so many of us do,” Core notes. “The truth is this:
what you do first matters."
DO first, then KNOW (not the other way around). Most people
believe that the knowledge that something is important should
make you want to do it. But in reality, that’s not the case. So,
why don’t we do what we know we should do? If we know spending
less time on Facebook will make us more productive, why won’t we just
commit to spending an hour less on the site each day? If we know setting
aside 30 minutes to walk or jog each day will make us healthier, why
aren’t we jumping up off the couch right now?
“Study after study shows that knowledge alone usually isn’t enough to
impact our desires,” Core shares. “In fact, the opposite is true. First,
you must do something—like bite the bullet and put on your
workout clothes! If you experience positive feelings, attitudes, and
results because of your action, you will learn that whatever you just
did is good, and you’ll want to do it again, and again, and
again. Over time, you’ll develop a new habit, and you’ll become an
evolved person.
‘In other words, you must DO in order to KNOW in order to BE different,”
he adds. “Remember, nothing in your life gets better until your daily
patterns get better.”
Own up to your junk hours. “Junk hours” are a little like junk
food: while they provide short-term pleasure, they contribute to
long-term imbalance and exhaustion. For instance, junk hours might
include chasing rabbit trails on the Internet, shooting the breeze with
colleagues at the water cooler, checking email in order to avoid doing
other work, or even attending an unnecessary meeting.
“In order to maximize each day, you need to own up to your junk hours,”
Core instructs. “You need to identify when you’re going through the motions
of work, versus when real work is being done. Don’t be ashamed
that your junk hours exist, because everybody needs to take breaks and
shift gears. Your task now is to exchange your low-value ‘junk’
activities for ones that build greater health and value into your
workday.
“For instance, I know one woman who, instead of taking an endless string
of coffee breaks, sets aside 20 minutes each afternoon to knit. I know
another man who decided to spend his lunch hours either with friends or
going to the gym, instead of trying to squeeze in more work around bites
of a burger. In both instances, these scheduled breaks increased my
friends’ energy levels and sense of well-being. They felt less of a need
to take low-value breaks, and began to experience more productivity.”
Instead of adding to your to-do list, build a new pattern. Maybe
you’re thinking, Sure, I’d like to change my day, but the thought of
adding a boatload of items to my already out-of-control to-do list makes
me want to crawl back into bed. I can’t handle any more tasks and
responsibilities! If that sounds familiar, take a deep breath. The
changes that build momentum are rooted in decisions, not additional
tasks.
“To build a productive new pattern into your life, you usually won’t
have to add new tasks to your day,” Core confirms. “Instead, you’ll
simply what you are already doing, or want to do, in a way that becomes
habitual. For instance, if you want to wake up an hour earlier so that
you can jump-start the day, you simply have to change the time your
alarm rings, and the time you go to bed. If you want to be more
productive at work, you might have to replace aimless procrastination
with scheduled breaks. In both cases, you’re changing the way you
perform existing tasks, not adding new ones.
“Remember, though, it isn’t sufficient to simply trigger the start of
a new behavior,” he adds. “You need to make sure that you have a
motivating reason to make this change, as well as the confidence and
energy to sustain it so that it becomes a pattern.”
Start with one thing. Then add another. Then another. Losing
weight is one of the most commonly made New Years Resolutions. It’s also
one of the most commonly abandoned. Core says that’s because people
think of losing weight as a singular change. It’s not. To lose weight, a
person will need to eat healthier, eat smaller quantities, and become
more physically active. That’s three changes. And each of those
sub-changes has many smaller components; for instance, eating healthier
might involve drinking more water and less soda, eating more fruits and
veggies, reducing refined sugars, etc. That’s a lot of changes to keep
track of!
“The point is, don’t take on more than you can handle,” Core says.
“Break each goal down to its smallest components, then pick one
of them to tackle. Pursue this change until it becomes a habit, then
move on to the next one. Start with one thing, and don’t add another
until you’re ready. Positive motion creates positive emotion.”
Make a Big-Box checklist. It’s a given that you have a to-do
list. Maybe it’s on paper, on your smartphone, or just in your head…but
you have one. It’s also highly likely that your list isn’t as useful as
it could be. Too often, you get stuck doing the urgent instead of the
important. Core has a solution: make an actual, on-paper checklist each
afternoon for the following day or each morning. Put a box by each
task—the more important that task is for you to complete that day, the
bigger its box should be.
“I focus first on my big box tasks,” Core explains. “At the end of the
day, if most of them have checkmarks, it’s generally been a good day!
Yes, prioritizing my daily list by the size of the boxes on it may sound
simplistic, but it has made me feel much more accomplished and satisfied
with my day. It also has helped me relax in the evenings because it is
easier to remember the big boxes I’ve checked off, thereby making it
easier to leave work at work. I’m no longer distracted by each shiny
ball that rolls by—I’m able to ignore them and train my focus on what’s
really important.”
Think about it so you don’t have to think about it. We all have
“those” tasks and obligations that eat up a lot of our time, that we
find difficult and frustrating, or both. For instance, when you come
home at the end of each day, maybe you find yourself standing in the
middle of your kitchen with no clue what to cook for dinner. Core
recalls that as a hunt-and-peck typist, he was once slowed down and
aggravated by the need to produce papers and reports.
“Figure out where these areas are for you, and commit to learning a new
pattern,” he urges. “For me, that meant buying a book and relearning how
to type using a two-hand method. In the cooking example above, that
might mean getting into the habit of planning meals and shopping for
their ingredients each weekend. Yes, learning new patterns can initially
be tedious and laborious. But once they’ve taken hold—often in three
weeks or less—they’ll speed up your performance, streamline your effort,
and lower your stress. By putting in some thought about ‘problem areas’
now, you’ll save yourself from having to think about them later.
Eventually, this method changes once tedious tasks into automatic, ‘I
don’t have to think about it’ behaviors.”
Infuse meaning into your work. First, let’s get one thing
straight: doing meaningful work does not mean that you will “love” every
second of it. “Meaning” can simply be a recognition of what you enjoy
about your work. With that understanding, though, you’ll be more
motivated, productive, and satisfied. Core recommends completing the
following exercise:
-
Focus on what gives you the greatest joy and meaning at work—be able
to define it.
-
Reflect on how you are making a difference at work and through your
work—be able to give examples.
-
Reflect on the meaning of your work as it relates to your core values.
-
And then…seek to increase what you enjoy!
“You’ll come to find that the ‘administrivia,’ the mundane and routine
chores required of you, and the not-so-exciting aspects of your work
become easier to do, and get completed more quickly, if you have a
strong focus on what you do find exciting, rewarding, or
fulfilling,” Core promises. “Personally, thinking about how I hope to
help people with my next speech, presentation, or coaching session helps
me to get through the parts of my workday that I don’t enjoy as
much, like paperwork, scheduling, and staff issues.”
Seek to serve, not shine. To some extent, it’s human nature to
look out for Number One. We all want to rack up accomplishments, receive
accolades, and garner recognition. But in many situations, the desire to
shine can cause you to get in your own way. Just think of the overeager
salesman whose desire to exceed his quota makes him come off as pushy.
Instead of convincing you to buy his product, his self-serving attitude
just makes you want to cut the meeting short.
“Ironically, the key to shining is putting others first,” Core explains.
“People who channel their efforts toward making others’ lives easier are
nearly always respected, included, and considered valuable. When you
help others reach their goals and become their best, you’ll usually find
that the same things happen to you.”
Fill up your energy bank account so you can make withdrawals when you
need them. Throughout life, circumstances arise that are beyond our
control. You may experience a major illness, lose a loved one, or be
forced to relocate. You may have to occasionally work long days and go
without sleep. The list goes on. It’s because of these out-of-our-hands
circumstances, says Core, that we must all focus on controlling what we
can.
“What I mean is, know your needs and capacities, and try to not to
exceed them on a regular basis,” he says. “In other words, get enough
sleep. Eat nutritiously. Exercise when time permits. That way, when you do
find yourself needing to push the limits, you’ll have a healthy margin
of energy, motivation, or whatever to draw on. Manage what you can
manage as often as possible in order to compensate for what you cannot
manage.”
Forget the future. (Really!) The future can be an inspiring
thing…but it can also be a scary and misleading one. Awfulizing,
what-ifs, and doomsday thinking can plunge you into paralyzing anxiety.
And making incorrect assumptions can send you down the wrong path.
That’s why, aside from setting goals for yourself, Core says you should
try not to let your mind wander into future outcomes.
“Thrivers trust in an execution mind-set, and focus their attention and
efforts on the here and now,” he says. “That’s because nobody can
predict when or under what conditions the future is going to unfold. The
only thing a person truly can do is to focus on the processes of
today—and live them out to the max. That’s not only going to produce
personal peace in the present tense, it’s going to be the best possible
preparation for whatever the future holds. Enjoy the
process and take great joy in the rewards!”
Forgive yesterday so you can work on today. Core
says most successful, hard-working people are often hard on themselves
to an unproductive level. They are their own worst critics, and spend
valuable time lingering on mistakes and slip-ups. Long after the
event—whatever it was—is over, they beat themselves up relentlessly
instead of spending their time in a more productive state.
“Treat yourself with the same compassion and generosity you’d extend to
another person who’d messed up or fallen short of a goal,” urges Core.
“If it helps, follow the two-hour rule I learned from one of my past
coaches: When you have a bad performance or make a mistake, you have two
hours to pout, scream, cry, wallow, or do whatever you think will help
you deal with the disappointment. But when 120 minutes have passed, it’s
time to start moving forward again.
“Remember, nobody is perfect,” he adds. “We all make mistakes.
What sets Thrivers apart is the fact that after a fall, they forgive
themselves faster, get back up and continue the journey forward.”
“By making small changes in how you approach your day, you can begin to
take back your to-do list and accomplish the big goals that will really
help you thrive,” Core concludes. “It’s time to stop allowing your quest
for success to leave you feeling tired, stressed and disillusioned. So,
how will your tomorrow look different from your today? What is one small
change you can make right now to start re-wiring the patterns that
define your life?”
