There is an idea that “time flies when you are having fun”.Â
* (see below post for disclaimer)
But time flies for other reasons too: When you are stressed or under time-pressure, when you are doing addictive chores, when you are asleep…
So don’t think that just because time flies, you are having fun.
I have spent a lot of time flying through time not having enough fun, so my first New Year’s resolution for 2014 is to regularly re-do an exercise proposed by Marcus Buckingham in his book “Go Put Your Strengths To Work”. It’s simple and you can do it too…
Step 1: Note what gives you energy
As you go through your working day, any time you are having fun or feeling energetic, make a note of what you are doing. Use seperate post-it notes of bits of paper for each idea – this will help when you get to step 3 later.
I have already noted the following in the last few days:
- Chasing new ideas, researching things that get my attention
- Blogging and writing ideas in order to try and communicate them well to other people
- Hospitality and welcoming people
..and the last time I did this exercise, I had also noted:
- Developing a presentation for a large audience
- Speaking to a group of people about a topic on which I am an expert
- Editing an article to ensure the minimum effective dose of content
- Consulting with new potential clients, by phone or face-to-face, asking questions in order to understand their situation, values and needs
Step 2: Note what drains your energy or makes you unhappy
As with step 1, any time you feel drained or unhappy in what you are doing, note it down. Again, use separate notes.
My own ideas:
- Working with particular people … I noted their names, but won’t share here 🙂
- Raising invoices
- Writing administrative emails to tick-off silly little tasks in preparation for a training or conference
- Booking hotels, flights and travel
Step 3: Categorise wherever possible in order to see the thin-red-line
If I remember well, Buckingham proposes to do the exercises (steps 1+2) for about a week. At the end of the week, see if you can find common points between the different notes. Spread them all out on a table and re-arrange them in order to see how they fit together.
This should give you an idea of what really turns you on … and off.
Step 4: The hardest part = Create strategies to maximise the energisers and minimise the drainers
Although I won’t get into this here and now, if you have an idea of when turns you on and what turns you off AND if you are truly willing to invest in your own happiness (so that time flies) then you must work on this step.
Bear in mind that there is always a way to improve your working experience, even if you don’t work for yourself. If you are not sure how to actually make it happen, consider the following ideas to get you started:
- Share your ideas with your manager. If this person is worth their job, they should be interested in your working happiness.
- Do a SWOT analysis, using “be happy” as your mission in order to create strategic action.
- Read “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss or “Getting Things Done” by David Allen
- Kill your sacred cows (as Tim Ferriss would say)
- Look for a new job!
I know very well that this last step may seem a bit dreamy and some people will read and think “It’s not that easy” but that doesn’t mean the exercise is worthless in itself. Think about what gives you strength, what drains your energy and then make the choice to have a Happy New Year!
Thanks for reading,
D
ps
* The idea that “time flies when you having fun” is almost true, but in fact there is a mistake in this phrase which is both philosophically interesting and also, I believe, quite dangerous for the fast-moving, entrepreneurial, recognition-seeking type of folk (like me) that are rather desperately on the road to dissatisfaction and burn-out.
In fact, time doesn’t fly when you are having fun. It stops. It disappears. This is important because our obsession with time as an entity or currency leads to lots of attempts to save it, redistribute it or make it move faster or slower than it actually does.
But even my previous paragraph is faulty, because there is no such thing as time. At least not as it is intended in the phrase “time flies when you are having fun”. In that phrase, the time referred to is “clock time” and in reality, we just stop thinking about “clock time” when we are really having fun. We live in the moment, without regard for what will come later or what came earlier. That is indeed why it is fun. Because we are truly alive in the “now” instead of “thinking” and getting caught up in other ego-led desires. And when we do start thinking about it (“clock time”) again, we see that it has flown by. We are much “later” than we thought.
If this little philosophical suffix interests you even in the slightest, read “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle.
danSTEER 