Going back to the office. Continuing to work from home.
It would be nice if for once we would not make out of this an ideological dilemma. There are good arguments for both sides, and when you think about it, it is not really a dilemma. Managers just need to find the courage to ask their employees where they prefer to work, and then follow up to make sure that their choice is respected.
There are different ways to contribute to the success of an organization.
What is the thing you want to absolutely achieve? Tomorrow, this week, this month, this year.
What is it that you need to do to make it happen? Make a list.
Go through the list, one point at a time, and do not shift your focus until the list is done. Do rest, relax, take breaks. Particularly if the list is long. But do not invest energy, time, and meaningful work on a new shiny object.
Once you are done, reassess and celebrate the work you have done.
That’s it.
Nobody likes the idea of being irrelevant, and yet a growing incapacity to focus and control our attention is making us more irrelevant than ever.
What will you do about that?
People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand. […] they actually think they’re more productive. They actually think they tend to – and most notably, they think they can shut it off, and that’s been the most striking aspect of this research. […] unfortunately, they’ve developed habits of mind that make it impossible for them to be laser-focused. They’re suckers for irrelevancy. They just can’t keep on task.
Clifford Nass, The Myth of Multitasking
Things that stall a (professional) relationship: sarcasm, passive-aggressive messages, dominating the conversation, lack of communication, inappropriate comments, delays with no explanation, losing your temper, unilateral decisions, power moves, keeping score.
Things that advance a (professional) relationship: helping, saying I am sorry, asking for a chat when there’s a misunderstanding, listening, asking open questions, sharing mistakes, starting with how are you? and tell me more about that, telling about how you feel.
Thinking about that relationship that’s making your workdays miserable, are you stalling or advancing it?
When you are taking decisions that will impact (negatively) others, it’s not a bad thing to ask yourself: Do I really have to?
Often things make a lot of sense on paper: cutting costs, increasing profits, getting some surplus to invest in expansion. But is it appropriate in the here and now? Can it be avoided? Can the policy be changed?
Of course, decisions like these are rarely taken lightly. Just make sure you are considering all perspectives, not just the one that is more common, easier, more anticipated.
You've got this 