The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

from HBR.org by Tony Schwartz

Why is it that between 25 and 50 per cent of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work? It's not just the number of hours we're working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time.

What we've lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It's like an itch we can't resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.

Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? Do you bring your laptop to meetings and then pretend you're taking notes while you surf the net? Do you eat lunch at your desk? Do you make calls while you're driving, and even send the occasional text, even though you know you shouldn't?

The biggest cost — assuming you don't crash — is to your productivity. In part, that's a simple consequence of splitting your attention, so that you're partially engaged in multiple activities but rarely fully engaged in any one. In part, it's because when you switch away from a primary task to do something else, you're increasing the time it takes to finish that task by an average of 25 per cent.

But most insidiously, it's because if you're always doing something, you're relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour.

I know this from my own experience. I get two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time and then take a real break, away from my desk. The best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal.

If you're a manager, here are three policies worth promoting:

1. Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused.

2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on their priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it's urgent, you can call them — but that won't happen very often.

3. Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. 

A single principle lies at the heart of all these suggestions. When you're engaged at work, fully engage, for defined periods of time. When you're renewing, truly renew. Make waves. Stop living your life in the gray zone.

The inner being and Mind

Excerpt from the book "Peace of Mind in Daily Life" © Copyright Remez Sasson 

Pupil: You have earlier said that I am not the mind, but a power above it; could you please clarify this point?

Teacher: The fact that you can give orders to the mind, act contrary to its dictates, and reprogram it in accordance with your own will, proves that YOU are indeed NOT the mind.

Pupil: Your words confuse me. Until now, I had no doubts that my mind and myself were the same entity.

Teacher: This is what most people think. Let me clarify this concept. To operate a machine or drive a car, there must be someone in charge to make them work. A machine or a car cannot work on its own, is it not so?

Pupil: Right.

Teacher: If it is possible to change the programming of the mind and calm down its restlessness, it means that the power that is making this possible is something separate or higher than the mind, exactly as the one who operates a machine or drives a car is separate from the machine or car, right?

Pupil: Yes, this makes sense.

Teacher: There must be something or some sort of subtle power separate and higher than the mind, which is able to reprogram it and change its habits. If it were not so, it wouldn't have been possible to gain peace of mind. If you are able to say to your mind, "Be quiet", and it obeys you, especially when its desires are different from yours, it means that you are the one giving the order, not the mind. It cannot order itself to shut up. There must be something or someone else who gives these orders, and this someone else is YOU, THE REAL YOU. Acceptance of the concept that you are not the mind brings you to some important conclusions:

• You don't have to accept, follow and dwell on every thought that the mind brings up.
• You have the option to accept or reject thoughts at your own will.
• You can act according to your will, in spite of the mind's resistance.
• You can be in charge of your mind and master it.
• You can decide on a certain action, behaviour or goal, follow your decision and achieve your aim.

Whenever you overcome laziness, procrastination, weakness or a negative habit, you assert your supremacy over your mind and prove to yourself that the mind is not the real you, but a tool that you use. By acting contrary to the mind's dictations or desires and inclinations, you prove to yourself that you are not the mind, but the power above and beyond it.

Pupil: What is exactly this power, which is above the mind?

Teacher: This power is "the real you", your real and true essence, which is called by different names such as: "The Inner I", "The Spirit", "The inner being" the "Higher Consciousness" etc.

Pupil: So, if I accept this concept, it would be easier to teach the mind to work for me instead of against me?

Teacher: Yes, That's true! First accept this concept in theory and act according to it. Later, as you gain experience, especially after going through the concentration exercises, about which we will speak later, you will have direct experience for proof.

If you accept the idea that you are not the mind, it would be easier for you to separate yourself from the mind, and this will enable you to assert your inner strength and become the conscious director of your mind and life, instead of being at the mercy of external influences and subconscious past programming. It is up to you to claim your rightful role as the master of your mind.

I can show you many examples of situations, where this will be to your advantage.

Let's say you decide to go for a walk, to exercise your body. As soon as you have this thought, your mind tells you that you'd better stay at home and watch TV instead. To persuade you to stay at home, it will bring up all kinds of justifications and reasons, why you should not go for a walk, but stay at home.

If you can mentally separate yourself from your mind, that is believe, feel and consider yourself separate and independent of your mind, you will be in a better and more authoritative position to reject its excuses and justifications, and to do what you really want and decide to do. You will not blindly and unconsciously obey every thought, whim and desire of the mind.

Pupil: This is real mental mastery. 

The Rocky way..story of Sylvester Stallone

I recently became aware of Sylvester Stallone’s powerful story. Early on, he found it difficult to realize his dream of becoming an actor/writer. After watching a boxing match between Mohammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, he became inspired to write the script for Rocky. He then took his script to producers; they loved the idea but were not pleased that he wanted to be the lead actor in his own star vehicle. They even offered him $325,000 for the script only. This would translate into an inflation-adjusted $1.3 million in today’s dollars. Stallone turned it down, adamant that he should star in the film. Eventually, they acquiesced to his demand at the risk of losing the script, and he was paid $35,000 to star in Rocky. Now, films that he has starred in have grossed upward of $2.6 billion worldwide, earning him both critical and commercial acclaim. He clearly made the best decision. However, suppose he had bought into the producers’ assessment of his value rather than adhering to his own sense of his worth?

A real danger of having a negative sense of worth is that you never know when you are going to get a chance to do the extraordinary. If you don’t feel worthy of the opportunity, then it is hard to capitalize on it.

100 million people have read this book. Have you?

iPad versus iPad

The most significant thing about Apple’s announcement this Wednesday was how little they had updated the iPad. There were only three major changes: a Retina display, which makes its resolution better than a high definition TV’s; a quad-core graphics processor that improves performance two-fold; support for 4G LTE network, which doesn’t make any sense for users in India since we have only 3G mobile networks here.

Tere Siva from Delhi belly

Happy Holi 2012

My Kitchen Garden

Everyone has memories of their grandmother cultivating a garden. Gardening is also a way of recharging your batteries… We often hear people saying that when they are weeding, it clears their minds. Plants have a marvelous effect on stress! Cultivating your own kitchen garden has become more and more fashionable, particularly in the last Cultivating your own kitchen garden has become more and more fashionable, particularly in the last 4 or 5 years, and balcony gardens have started to come in recently. More and more people are having a go at growing their own vegetables, herbs and spices. Not forgetting that it can be educational and fun for children as well.

Under the mango tree

Since March 2009, UTMT (Under the mango tree) has grown from just sourcing honey to providing beekeeping training, capacity-building and ensuring market access to nearly 3000 farmers across 6 states over the country impacting more than 15,000 rural lives including farmer’ families. Some of these activities have involved:

• Training 1,432 farmers in beekeeping including women, thereby increasing their income by Rs 10,000 -12,000/ annually.

• Providing 1,500 small beekeepers direct market access for their sustainably harvested honey and increasing their annual income by 25%. 

• Creating 55 Master Trainers to provide support to scale up the BPR model at farm level and by Rs 12,000 per annum. 

• Bringing to the market 8 Metric Tonnes of honey and 5 Metric Tonnes of beeswax. 

Impact of Beekeeping on Agricultural Productivity:

Results from a UTMT short-term research study on the impact of indigenous beekeeping with the Apis cerana indica on agricultural productivity, show that of 16 locally important plants studied showed increased productivity with the highest being Capsicum (Bell Pepper) at 227% and ridge gourd at 27% as compared to farms with no bee boxes.

Persuasion

James Borg, a work psychologist and coach, says: "It is no exaggeration to say that a person's success in life is totally dependent on his or her ability to persuade and influence." Borg estimates that the top 80 per cent of the workforce achieve success through their ability to persuade other people that they are worthy. In-depth knowledge of the art of influencing people reaps a number of benefits. You can acquire practical techniques, strategies and skills for influencing people with impact. It builds rapport effortlessly and use pacing and leading to influence others. Most importantly you win people over, build and maintain trust and make a positive impact when persuading. We all depend profoundly on our persuasive powers every day. Whether you are trying to get people to side with you, influencing others to make a decision, asking for something, or attempting to bring about a change of behaviour or attitude in others, your success will depend on how persuasive you can be.