LiveWorkBalance

Well, it’s the end of another lovely/snowy (CYOA - Choose Your Own Adjective) week here in Ottawa, and before we all head off to the weekend, I just wanted to share a few quick articles that I thought you’d like.

First, for those of us working in environments where interruptions are the rule, rather than the exception, Adrian Savage has a great post at lifehack.org listing 6 ways to use concentric defenses to protect your focus. As we all know, some interruptions are more difficult to ignore or defer than others, and Adrian lists some great ways to deal with it. For example:

That still won’t be enough for some people, who suspect you’re fobbing them off and will simply ignore what they want; or that “when it suits you” may turn out to be some indefinite time, far in the future, when the response will be useless anyway. For that, use the fourth defense line: “acknowledge, schedule, repeat with scheduled time, and shelve.”

Secondly, and perhaps well suited to a Friday afternoon, David B. Bohl of Slow Down Fast has an article over at Dumb Little Man illustrating a few examples of how taking a break can be beneficial in the long run. Now, those of you who know me know that this principle is something I fully believe in (though sometimes have trouble following), so this article really resonated with me. David sums up this sentiment quite well:

Your mind needs a mental release from the pressures of the workplace. Too much thought and too many hours invested in only one place lead to stress and fatigue.

So head on over and check out these articles, and enjoy your weekends (and the rest of your work day)!

Cheers,

Adam

Posted on February 8th, 2008 under Quick and Dirty • Tags: benefits, boundaries, focus, interruptions, motivation, relax, winter. •  Print This Post •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback