Professor Philip Zimbardo explains how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Zimbardo is talking about psychological time (subjective time), not the objective time dictated by the clocks on our phones. As you might guess, "time" influences how we perceive ourselves, how we view relationships, and how we act in the world.
This short video offers some eye-opening insights.
Below is the illustrated version of "The Secret Powers of Time". The original video of Zimbardo speaking at a podium follows. While it has the same message, the visuals are very different. This side-by-side comparison shows the value of visual synthesis note-taking.
Back when I was in school, my father asked me to do something. I don't remember what it was, specifically ... but it was a normal thing for a father to ask a son to do.
Later that day, while we were talking, he asked how my day went. I told him about all the things I did. Then, he asked whether I did the thing he asked me to do. I tried to explain that because of how busy I had been, I didn't have time to do what he asked.
He frowned, and I still remember the look in his eye when he told me that from his standpoint, I hadn't done anything.
That put things in a different context.
Each day we make a host of commitments great and small. If my to-do list has 15 items on it, and I do the 13 or 14 of them ... then on one hand, I can feel good about how productive I was. Yet, on the other hand, chances are that the one or two things I didn't do were the only things that were supposed to get done for the person whose task got put off until another day.
Getting Things Done.
Stephen Covey makes a big distinction between importance versus urgency. It's easy to lose sight of what needs to get done if you fill your day with interruptions, distractions, busywork, or time-wasters.
By understanding what is both important and urgent it's easy to clarify the value of what really needs to get done.
Understanding why things need to get done is also a big step forward in terms of prioritizing what you commit to do. For example, Scott Scheper suggests your goal should be to balance out your tasks so that 20% are spent on reactive tasks, and 80% are spent on proactive tasks. Why? Because reactive tasks will make you a living, while proactive tasks will make you successful.
Ultimately, there are many ways to sort, sift, filter and prioritize your list.
There is a rule-of-thumb that 20% of your activities will account for 80 percent of your success (this is often called the "Pareto Principle" or the "80%-20% Rule"). In other words, if you have 100 tasks in your task list, there probably will be about 20 of those that are the key ones to focus on. The key is to find a prioritization method that helps you pinpoint these tasks.
I use several tools. Toodledo and Nozbe are both easy-to-use online to-do lists with a great iPhone client. For teams, I highly recommend the stuff from 37 Signals.
There are times in life when it is hard to imagine finding a path to victory.
So often the answer is as simple as committing to the outcome desired, showing-up, playing full-out, and giving your best until there is absolutely nothing left.
Don't let the cartoons fool you; you can learn a lot in a little over 10 minutes. I really like the visualization technique (of drawing what is spoken); it is surprisingly effective.
In today's business environment, is it optimal to entice people with a sweeter carrot, or threaten them with a sharper stick?
In his book, Drive, Pink calls for a different approach ... one that is built much more around intrinsic motivation. Around the desire to do things because they matter, because we like it, because they're interesting, because they are part of something important. The new operating system for our businesses should revolve around three elements: autonomy, mastery and purpose.
In other words, the main point is that when someone is already intrinsically motivated, applying extrinsic motivation (in the form of reward for good behavior or punishment for bad behavior) is self-defeating because it detracts from the intrinsic motivation, which is a much more powerful force.
I've been reading a pretty good new book that is an interesting mix of stories, life-lessons, and business content. It combines a behind the scenes peek into the situations, emails, checklists, sample interview questions, and "Happiness Framework" that led to some surprising results.
For example, here are Zappos' Core Values from which they develop their culture, brand, and business strategies:
In 1999, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 million. He then joined Zappos as an adviser and investor, and eventually became CEO.
In 2009, Zappos was listed as one of Fortune magazine's top 25 companies to work for, and was acquired by Amazon later that year in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion on the day of closing.
So, you might guess that he learned a few things about what worked, and what didn't.
In his first book, Tony shares the different business lessons he learned in life, from a lemonade stand and pizza business through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more. Ultimately, he shows how using happiness as a framework can produce profits, passion, and purpose both in business and in life.
My kids are getting older. So Father's Day looks a little different than it used to.
But as I look back, there is an investment I made that paid-off in a big way, and I want to share it with you.
Like many parents, I wanted to teach my children that, to a large extent, they control what happens to them. One of the first ways I did that was to set up a "compensation system" for them to earn video games.
Some parents try to limit the amount of time their kids spend watching TV or playing video games. I tried something different. Instead, my kids earned their games by reading books. Here is a photo from way back then.
Paid With Play.
Here's how it worked. When they were younger, 10 books was enough to earn a small game. When they finished a book, it was their right, and my obligation, to take them to the bookstore for us to pick up the next book together. Likewise, when they finished the requisite number of books, it was their right, and my obligation, to take them to the computer store or game store for them to choose any game they wanted.
When they finished hundred books, they got a bonus of earning the next game system. That meant if they had a Nintendo, they could now also get a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.
How Can You Encourage a Jump to the Next Level?
There came a point when I wanted one of my sons to start reading grown-up books. He was comfortable reading a certain type of book, and didn't want to read the kind of books that I read. So, I created a bonus system that counted a particular book as three books. I didn't force him; I just let the easier path to a reward "whisper" in his ear what to read. Once he finished that, he never went back to teen fiction.
It Is a Great Way to Learn About Your Kids.
I also used the bookstore visits to get a sense of how the boys were doing. For example, I might say "I notice that you read five books in that series, maybe you'd like this book". Or, "That sure is a lot of science fiction; what was the last biography you read?" For the most part, though, I didn't care what they read. The key was to get them to want to choose certain books for their own reasons. Ultimately, their preference meant they were learning to love reading.
It Puts Them In Control of Their Destiny and Rewards.
My younger son likes competition. He also broke or misplaced many things. So, in order to earn back the Game Boy unit that he lost, I challenged him to read five books in five days. These weren't easy books either. It was designed to stretch him, and also to teach him that he could read a book a night. The bet was that he either finished all the books in the allocated time, or none of them counted towards games or Game Boys. On the other hand, if he read a book a night for two weeks, not only would he get to have his Game Boy back, the books would count towards a game too. It worked like a charm, and we were both happy.
So, Who Got the Better Bargain?
As they started to get into their teenage years, I needed to up the ante a little. So, 500 books meant they got a laptop of their choice. Both boys cashed in, and probably felt like they were taking advantage of their dad.
I got what I wanted, though; both my boys love reading, and know that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to … one step at a time.
That's an investment that will pay dividends for a long time.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=9593af3c-6600-4142-849b-4c6ee6f94fcd)
