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Working long hours is pretty common these days. If your Monday to Friday feels like a
constant slog of work and projects with no real time for a breather, is this because you have
too much work or is it because you’re not using your time efficiently?
It’s easy to spend too much time perfecting something or equally not focusing enough so you
end up dragging the task out more than you should. So does working longer hours mean
you’re being productive and getting lots done? The answer is most likely no. When you work
consistently long hours or spend too much time on a task, it’s usually a sign that you actually
just have too much to do. More importantly, it’s a sign you’re not spending your time, energy
and attention wisely.
The Myth About Working More to Get More Done
Our lives are governed by the jobs, tasks and projects we set ourselves or set by our work
environment. When you feel like the amount of stuff you need to get done gets bigger, our
natural reaction is to work longer on them in order to get them completed.
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How many times have you heard someone tell you in an exasperated fashion that they spent
9am-9pm at the office working on something? Our reply is usually one of awe in terms of
how hardworking they must be. But are they really? Productivity is heard to measure but if
one person spent 2 hours on a task that someone else could have completed in half an hour,
it’s more a case of having stretched out the task unnecessarily.
Working more to get more done only drains you of your energy both physically and mentally
in the long run and potentially turns you into a ‘workaholic’. This leads to you not optimally
producing the results you need and could end up with feelings of failure, demotivation and
burnout.
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Time is quite the illusion when it comes to getting things done. The more time you spend on
work, the more that the minute-by-minute urgency lessens. Yet when we have a limited
amount of time, the more we’re forced to focus and use our energy optimally in order to get it
done. Therefore, the more you control how much time you spend on a task, the more you
can control the energy in an efficient way to get it done. An example of this could be those
moments when you’d leave those college assignments to the last minute – that time limited
pressure probably caused you to channel a larger amount of energy over a shorter period
and so you got it done relatively much quicker than usual.
The problem that long hours brings, is that feeling of productivity. Obviously productivity is a
good thing but as Chris Bailey explains in his book The Productivity Project, experiments he
conducted lead him to find that he felt much more productive working long hours than in
shorter bursts even though he was getting the same amount of work done.
This only proves that busyness doesn’t always equal optimal productivity. In fact, productivity
is an elusive idea. It’s hard to truly know how much we accomplish each day yet we tend to
measure this according to how busy we were. However, it’s seldom accurate and can cause
us to believe we’ve achieved more than we potentially could have given a more short and
focused approach.
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REFERENCES
Featured photo credit: Lisa Fotiosvia pexels.com
13 Ways Working Moms Can Balance Work and Family (And Be Happy)
15 Ways You Are Wasting Time During the Day (And How to Stop)
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Risk is something we all have to face in our lives but appreciating its value and impact on
our lives is not always easy.
I asked my social media friends on a survey whether they felt risk was a good thing and
100’s said yes and yet I know from my clients that this doesn’t equate to 100% of people
taken every risky action they could to achieve more and live a life that fulfils them.
Take the client that needed a coaching session to get them to take the jump into self
employment. They knew in their heads that with over 20 years at the pinnacle of their career,
they could do it. But they needed their coach to be the one that took the training wheels off
and said “let’s do this!”
We don’t all take the risks we should in life. What makes a risk feel too big? What external
impactors change our perception of risk and what’s the difference between good risk and
bad? When should we be risk adverse? And how can we work out the difference and step up
to take the risks that could change our lives (for the better)?
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
What is calculated risk?
Is all risk calculated?
How to grow your risk tolerance to achieve more?
The RRIS method
The know-it kit
Face your fear and take risks
What is calculated risk?
Let me ask you:
“Would you cross a 3 lane road of fast moving traffic?” The answer is likely to be “no” right?
What about if I asked “Would you cross 3 lanes of traffic at night?” Still a “No?”
What about if I said “Would you cross 3 lanes of traffic that had a pedestrian crossing?”
Look how the risk changes. It is the same road with the same cars, but we’ve gone from a
risk that we are unprepared to take to one that has an element of control and expected
outcomes. That is what a calculated risk is.
Would you quit your job right now and set up in business on the street corner in an hour’s
time? No of course not. However, would you quit with a plan of action in a set period of time?
Possibly?
The thing about calculated risk is that humans have to deal with their perceptions or reality,
their emotions, feelings and even beliefs to be able to take on risk. And that is why you may
see 100% of people saying “Take the risk”. However if questioned further, I could probably
find at least one occasion where every single person should have taken the risk and they
didn’t.
I’ve seen people turn down contracts, delay travelling, delay saying “yes” to marriage, delay
quitting their job and even delay having their hair chopped off because they’ve not been able
to calculate the risk with an outcome that they deem will be satisfactory.
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The reason some people achieve great things is because they are prepared to test their risk
limitations.
How to grow your risk tolerance to achieve more?
Here I’ve aimed to break down what you need to keep your eyes peeled for, how to fix what
you find and what you need to do so that you can calculate risk and achieve more with the
following methods:
The RRIS method
R – Research everything you aim to achieve.
But also know when to stop researching and get on with it. The amount of clients I’ve worked
with who are so ready they could be the most intellectual person on the planet on their area
of expertise.
It’s easy to get in the trap of “doing just a bit more research” to get you out of taking action.
So do your research and use the other tips to help you to take action on your knowledge.
R – Rationalize your reality.
I often hear clients say things that once said back to them they can quickly (and often
embarrassingly) see that it’s just not true. They’ve twisted reality to enable them to stay safe.
Question what you believe to be true and the results you perceive to be impossible to avoid.
Do you have evidence to prove your reality or are your thoughts just enabling your comfort
zone to stay the same size?
Comfort zones are like big thick duvets. Glorious in the middle of winter with the rain
battering the windows and you are curled up safe and warm, but hideous in summer, when
the same duvet can wrap itself around you becoming a sweaty trap for your legs to get
caught in.
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If you know that a comfort zone is twisting your reality, you can be like two versions of my
clients:
They like to get so far out of their comfort zone that they can’t see it any more. They do big
actions putting into action the right support to achieve them. Learn and move on.
They would literally feel stuck in fear if you offered them option 1, therefore they like to do
things in small tiny morsel sized bites. If this is you, arrange to challenge your beliefs around
anything in your life (not just related to the calculated risk to achieve more).
If you like structure, start the day in a way you wouldn’t. Get dressed before you brush your
teeth, listen to a different radio station, choose a different route to work.
Silly things that make you think about what you are doing can help you see that different is
not bad. Different can be exciting, new, rewarding and so much else. And tiny steps can be
right for some.
I – Ideas can reduce or inflame our capability for calculated risk.
Before you do anything, somewhere in your head it was a thought. When you really
appreciate this, you are able to see that before you take on any risk, you have to have the
ideas behind it to achieve.
Ideas like this will be exciting, life changing, and will work and make my career. What
phrases would you create to describe the result of your idea?
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If you notice they are negative, where’s your evidence? Clients often tell me that I make
them take risks. As a coach, that’s impossible. My job is to enable them to see what they
really want and overcome the beliefs and obstacles towards going for it.
Once we are faced with our facts on our skills, past successes and capabilities, we can’t
help but ask “what is stopping you?” By doing this, you are creating solid foundation to get
great results because your ideas are positive and not made up of illogical untruths like “it
won’t work”, “what if I fail”, “it’s not done like that”, “I will end up looking stupid”.
S – Success over scares
It is a calculated risk and therefore something that is worth investing in and going for when
our level of fear is reduced and our belief about success is raised. Where do you stand on
this scale?
Scared! vs Success!
Now add in the following words to the above scale. Where would they sit?
Staying safe
Stuck
Self esteem
Stopping myself
Can you start to see how there is a big gap between scared and success? And between the
two there will always be elements of feeling safe or stuck and worrying about whether you
can do it. The important thing to remember is that you will never completely bridge the gap
between scared and successful. A little fear is really good for you.
I’ve never had a speaking engagement where I don’t feel a little nervous. 9 years ago that
wasn’t nervousness that was absolute terror. And I once read “it’s not stage fright, it’s
performance energy.”
What description would you like to use do describe your calculated risk? If you were to say it
out loud, would it be a positive sentence or one that reduce you to fear? Your words and
finding your place on the scared to success scale could define your likelihood of success.
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Mandie Holgate
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