Category: Articles

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When life gets in the way.

I believe that most people want to do everything they can, exercise, eat healthy, read, write and anything else that makes them better. The few of us that have figured out this riddle know that it takes discipline and a strict routine. Over time we create habits to exercise, read and stay on top of our game until… Life happens and everything changes. Whether it is a life event, like a new child, new house or job. Or we just simply fall out of the routine overtime. 

I have five steps to share that will put you back on track, based on research and personal experience.

First accept: acceptance is the first step at making any positive change. Research suggests that allowing yourself to understand your current situation, gives you the starting point baseline. From there you can work your way up. This is the stage when you set goals and create the milestones that will get you there. If you need help planning check out this podcast! 

Take small steps: we have the tendency to take on too much at once, then we get overwhelmed or burned out. I love the marathon analogy, we finish a marathon one step at a time. So if your goal is to start an exercise routine, start by setting 10 to 15 mins a day, and just start with a walk, try not to disrupt your current flow too much. Creating a habit takes time, but most importantly it takes consistency. If you find yourself struggling in this stage, checkout this article and podcast. 

Adapt to your new routine; Another popular phrase is to experience change, we have to change. As you begin your new regimen, you have to be able to compromise on the areas that are consuming your time. To me the easiest is to drop or limit the time on social media, set limits on your apps. Apple knows that people have become addicted to their devices, they have great tools that tell you where your time is going while on the phone . Remember not to fall into the hyper efficient fallacy: 

  1. Do not lose sleep over it, sleep benefits will far outweigh 
  2. Do compromise for a quick meal cheat 

You might say then, great I found my rhythm and I am back on track, how can I stay on track? We are incentivized by reward, so the moment we feel that our routine has stopped giving us significant results we begin to relax until we completely fall off. At this stage it is important to keep the productivity guide as a reference. A tool like a scorecard will keep your motivation bucket filled, by making sure your commitments are being met. It is also important to have a support system; it can be a friend or a co-worker that is holding you accountable. Our brain chemistry makes us keep our commitment at a much greater pace when we need to report to someone. This is why everyone has a boss, even the CEO has to respond to the board of directors. 

Lastly you may ask yourself what if I find myself here again because  maybe you didn’t follow the previous point. Then be grateful that you are able to come back and look for ways to get back on track. In the book the 7 habits of highly effective people Stephen Covey, he uses the analogy that an airplane is off course the majority of the time the main job of the pilot is to keep shifting the airplane to get back on course continuously. That is really the magic, we need constant nudges to stay on track and fulfill our mission. 

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Productivity guide to a better life

If you stumble upon this page, I would assume you are looking for ways to be more effective in your work and your personal life. I believe that at the end of the day whether we achieve it or not we strive to do the best at whatever we pursue. I have read and listened to over 100 books that provide guidance on how to use time effectively. Here are the 5 practices that are essential at attaining higher levels of productivity 

Becoming Self aware:

I have written articles on meditation and even produced a podcast, if there is one theme that is common amongst all productivity literature is that you need to understand your inner workings. In what circumstances do you operate at your best? What are your pitfalls? What do you crave? How do you fulfill your needs?

It is important to know your weaknesses before you can be productive. I used to get easily distracted, I had an addiction to my phone and online news. I especially felt this cravings at the highest during mid mornings, and after lunch. No matter what I did to focus, it felt like climbing a hill every time. I tried coffee or worse a cookie to bring my energy levels to the point where I can concentrate. By knowing this information, I could work on how to address the main problems. Was I not getting enough sleep? How about exercise? There are a myriad of things that can impede your progress. The first step is knowing the things that are holding you back. 

Improve your health:

When we think of productivity, most people tend to undermine health, whether it is by not exercising, not consuming nutritious meals, or even not getting a good night’s sleep. Before you can embark on any journey, taking care of the basics will set you up for success. If the basics are not taken care of, your own body will cloud your thinking, your energy levels will be low, which means that your outputs will lack quality.

Making small habits, such as meditating every morning, walking, incorporating fruits and vegetables to your diet, will provide your mind with the necessary energy to go through your day like a champion. Prioritizing these changes will also make you stand out, building trust amongst your peers that you are ready for the next level of challenges. 

Finding your purpose:

One of the reasons why a lot of people are not able to meet their goals is because they lack purpose. Without purpose your objectives lose relevance, and it’s just a matter of time before we lose interest and move on. The reason why I write on this blog and I do a podcast is because I find productivity as the foundation to pursue goals. 

To meet objectives that don’t immediately pay, or provide rewards requires a level of grit and resilience that is very rare to find. At the core I believe I am an entrepreneur. I get excited and motivated about solving problems. I have ideas that I want to execute but find myself drowning in the clutter of everyday life.  To pursue your passion you may have to learn uninteresting topics and practice exercises that may seem irrelevant at the moment, that changes as soon as your objectives are aligned to the higher purpose. 

Create a scorecard:

I will dedicate an entire article on this, however this is an essential topic that needed to be included in this article. It is not enough to create goals, and key measures, you also need to be able to to track progress. Tracking your efforts gives you momentum, because you are able to determine if your efforts are producing value. Imagine you are running a 5K without any distance markers, it will be hard to tell how far you have run, which can have a negative effect in your completion time.This is why you need a scorecard: When building one make sure it includes: 

  • Goal: e.g read X, learn X, Do X
  • Measure: create indicators that can track, how are you going to know if you are succeeding or failing e.g time per day, week or month, what is that magic number? Generate X revenue, cut X cost. 
  • Frequency of your reviews: Weekly? Monthly? Quarter?

Make a Routine:

What is a routine? In ordinary words a routine is a habit, something that we do continuously (i.e brushing our teeths, sleeping, eating). In terms of productivity this is the wrapper around everything we want to do. From little we have learned that slow and steady wins the race, over small sprints, that is because when we are consistent with our endeavors, our probability of attaining success is much better.  

Therefore, you can have a clear purpose, you can have goals that are attainable, you can even be aware of your internal body operations; however if you are not able to incorporate your goals into a habit, you will not be able to succeed.   

Wrap Up

To be a highly productive individual, you need to be organized. Your entire life has to be predictable, your work, your personal life, and your play. Once you are able to control the things around you, then you can begin to plan for the things you really want.  From time to time people are prey to work, or personal life commitments that get into the way of achieving our higher purpose.  Note that when planning, planning for the unexpected is as essential as to plan for the things you want to do, otherwise the unexpected will continue to hijack your progress. 

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Meditation Benefits

When it comes to productivity a lot of what we want is focus. Focus on the things that we believe will bring us the things we need, whether that is money, joy, or even health.  Everyday we need to find the strength and motivation to wake up, do our work, exercise; however we avoid this work, and choose instead to be on social media, go to the fridge and eat whatever snacks are available.  Basically, instead of us controlling our minds and body, we let our mind control us. We, as humans, are aware of this, so we make up ways to come back to the task at hand, such as building a strict routine.  

People that have been able to master the art of meditation are able to control emotions, and carry on life with much less stress than the average individual. It has been proven even scientifically, where neuroscientists have performed MRIs on people that meditate and people that don’t and the difference is remarkable. People that do not meditate hold on to pain much longer than those that practice mindfulness.

How do I incorporate meditation in a busy schedule?

There is a saying that even 5 mins a day of meditation, has amazing long term effects.  Follow these quick steps to get started yourself.

  1. Find an app that you feel comfortable using, if you don’t feel like paying, there are many free options available.
  2. Create a routine, what I have found is that if I want to go the distance, I have to 1. Schedule it and just do it. Do not be too strict, remember there are days when we might miss to brush our teeth; we do however come back to that task as soon as we are able.
  3. Start small, don’t attempt to meditate for long periods of time when you start, begin small and increase as you see fit. 

Benefits:

  1. Sleep: For some, when it is time for bed it is either difficult to fall asleep or fall back to sleep if awakened in the middle of the night. There can be many reasons for this, even medical, but on average people have thoughts that become disruptive for the body to naturally do its thing. Meditation can help without meditation. 
  2. Feelings: One of the core structures of humans are the feelings that we experience, such as joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust. While we enjoy the feelings of happiness, fear and sadness in high dosage can be problematic. They can take over and impede us from moving forward. Meditation allows for the feeling to happen, but does act towards it, and it does not give additional energy to it. In exchange we become resilient and are able to move on.   
  3. Self Awareness: We are always caught up with everything happening, that we forget to enjoy the moment. The here and the now, the food that we eat, the flowers, the air. There are joys that we can enjoy now and not dwell on the past or the future. 
  4. Increase patience: When we don’t practice mental health, our minds become overwhelmed, which leave little to no room to analyze the situation. We let emotions like anger get the best of us, to only come back and get the feeling of regret. Meditation allows us to watch the emotion, label it or for the feeling to pass before we act. 
  5. Increase tolerance: Patience is similar but tolerance allows you to take on more without the emotional baggage. As the famous saying from the bible says “ if you are slapped in one cheek to offer the other”. Meditation allows you to see beyond the physical pain and focus on perhaps the goal that you are trying to achieve. In case of violence you may be the reason for de-escalation. 
  6. Reduction of stress: When our minds are overwhelmed with thoughts on things we need to do, or things we should have done, we become paralyzed.  This paralysis causes us to feel like we are unable to function or do anything. It is like we are always full and nothing new can be added. Meditation can help by allowing our thoughts to flow without taking any action towards them.
  7. Reduction of Anxiety: Anxiety happens usually when fear has taken over, we are so overwhelmed by its effect that it impacts us physically.  Meditation can help, perhaps not immediately at the moment, but it can help us recover faster. 

A little meditation practice. 

Find your favorite chair. 

  1. Seat with your palms at your lap, and close your eyes.
  2. Begin noticing your senses, such as what you are hearing, taste, touch, seeing, and smelling. Start becoming aware of these feelings without the need to change, just take notice.
  3. Then slowly bring your focus to your breath, how it flows from your nose, through your belly, try not to change your breathing pattern, just notice its presence.
  4. Gently open your eyes

And that’s it. The magic of following those four simple steps is the first step and making monumental changes for your life.

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Management The Right Way

Leadership

In many office environments and sometimes in movies “management” is usually looked down upon. Credit never goes to the people that create the strategy and guide the teams, unless you are the actual founder or the creator. This lack of understanding is what makes a lot of people wonder. What is the actual value of management anyway? 

Well it depends –  I just read a wonderful book “ High Output Management” by Andy Grove and he answers the very essence of this question. Not only is leadership required even at a small breakfast place but essential to the success of any organization or business. A lot of the concepts I use in this article are borrowed from the book. If you want to learn in detail from this legendary CEO, I would highly recommend its purchase. 

Let us break that down, shall we?

Thinking in terms of sports

Even with the best players on a team, we know that without proper coaching, teams will not be able to succeed. Take the US all star hockey team of the 1980’s they lost to the Russian national team, however a group of amateur college players beat them at the final of the olympics to grab the gold medal.  Yes, it is true that sometimes the players are beyond capable where coaching may not make a difference but, in real life most teams do not have amazing talent laying around, and need to make a difference even with the most mediocre players. Business follows the same ideology. 

Motivation

For anything in life we need to have a direction, a goal, a destination. Once we know where we are going, there are a few things we need to take into account:

  1. How fast do we want to get there? 
  2. And what are our constraints?
    1. If time is our only concern then we need to worry about 2 other factors: cost and scope. 
    2. For example
      1. If we want to create a travel web application/
        1. Fully operational in 6 months.(TIME)
        2. We need to think about cost- how many resources do I have to reach this destination. If I say I can afford to have 5 people.
        3. The next constraint is how much work I can give those 5 people to utilize them to their full capacity.  

Given what we know we have to also make a few assumptions: In order for people to perform at their peak, do they have the skills necessary to do the job?  It is critical to understand this, since you will not be able to gain the output necessary if people do not have the skills to perform. OK so for simplicity sake, everyone knows what they are doing. Back to the question: how do you motivate them to do more, and increase their productivity? 

People motivate themselves by needs, the need to have a house, food, and security, social needs, this was first introduced by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The thing is once a need is satisfied, it is no longer a source of motivation. OK again back to the question, say my team has met all of their basic needs, how do I motivate them? Well simple by creating needs that are unsatisfied at all times. 

How can leaders accomplish this? They need to first create an environment that meets all of the basic needs- meaning if we look at Maslow’s pyramid, the needs are met up until self-actualization. Once at this stage we need to create intrinsic needs: (from within) 

  • Purpose
  • Mastery 
  • Autonomy 

These needs have been proven to outpaced the majority of external motivation, such as pay or fear. Thinking in terms of sustainability, you can motivate a team to do something fast, with external factors such as money or other rewards, but if you want productivity that is sustained and steady then you need to move to motivation 3.0 ( introduced in the book Drive by Daniel H Pink)

For you team,

The purpose is the mission you set out for your application to have, the value it will bring and the impact it will have.

For mastery will be how the individual will gain expertise in the technology and become better over time.

Lastly, for autonomy you are not controlling how the work is being done, as long as it is, you are allowing the employee the freedom to perform in the best environment they please.

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Embracing Ambiguity

When dealing with unknowns we tend to get intimidated. Psychology has taught us that our brains like predictable outcomes, if not we tend to walk away. This is the reason why so many of us don’t like math. It requires us to break major problems into parts before we can determine the solution.

How can we overcome the anxiety of ambiguity? Are there frameworks to deal with it? How can I tackle ambiguity gracefully?

What is ambiguity?

Based on the Oxford dictionary: “The quality of being open to more than one interpretation;inexactness.”

Understanding:

We know that ambiguity is a problem, however what makes ambiguity more difficult than a problem is that we might not know the type of problem initially.

E.g how many police officers are there in the US.? Or how many flights are active at the moment in the world? How big is the ocean? While a proper google search might give you the answer instantly, that will not be the case if you are tasked to solve what has not been solved before. If you want to feel comfortable with ambiguity this is the scope of questions you need to feel comfortable.

Techniques:

  • Narrow your scope: if the problem is to solve world hunger. First try in your town, then your county, then your state. Move up progressively until you reach your final destination, even if you are assuming. Another term used is to start small. 
  • Reframe your problem: look for the opportunity that uncertainty brings, for example during COVID a lot of people thought it was a total loss, yet virtual and online companies thrived generating profits never acquired before. 
  • Define the values: when looking at ambiguity look at the value, say you are looking at a new job, is it remote or in the office? Beyond money, what other aspects do you care about the most? Perhaps more time with family? More time doing the things that you love. 

Thoughts:

Employers nowadays love math majors, and computer scientists not because of the skills they gain during school, but because these people tend to be attracted to problem solving. Issues attract them, and solving them is joy rather than a chore.

With today’s problems, such as an ever growing traffic on top of a growing population will need new ways to look at problems that have not been tried before. We have to embrace uncertainty like our friend, welcome it and discover what it may have for us. 

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How to Overcome Procrastination

I confess I am the master of waiting until the last minute to get something done. In my defense it is really hard for me to find motivation before the due date, this is because I suffer from instant gratification.The reality is, we all do and unfortunately all of us procrastinators know that waiting until the last minute is a bad strategy, our work is rushed and never reaches its actual potential. If you are a student your papers don’t get the best grades and if you are a professional you will struggle to get promoted.

So how do you change that pattern? Are there techniques to prevent procrastination? How can they be implemented? 

Techniques:

  • The deadline effect: One of the most effective forms to get things done is to set deadlines, whether they are set by you or someone else. The book” deadline effect” by Christopher Cox details how businesses are able to meet deadlines, by using techniques such as applying a soft deadline. If a paper or a task is due in a month, set a weekly deadline, this way you can have time to review for e.g draft, review, and final. 
  • Small rewards: We normally don’t reward ourselves until we finish the big task, but this can hurt us, any small win deserves its own celebration. For example if you need to write 20 pages by the end of the month, try to complete 5-7 in one week, then reward yourself with something you don’t usually do, but really enjoy” e.g like a massage. Your mind will take notice and motivation to finish the next tasks should come naturally . 
  • Breakdown tasks into smaller chunks: The brain is an efficient machine, but can only operate on small tasks at once, that is why it is very daunting to take on task that say would require “300 pages of writing”, but if you set a small goal such as 10 pages a week, your 300 pages will be done in less than 6 months. In retrospect 6 month is minimal when we compare the average person may take years to complete. 
  • Go back to your why: The reality is that everyone wants to give their best, however due to circumstances we are unable. Every student wants to get an A, every employee wants to be appreciated, if you are having trouble getting motivated go back and think of the purpose of why you are doing what you are doing. 
  • Make a plan: “Every minute you spend in planning saves ten minutes in execution,” claims Brian Tracy. Create a plan of how you will execute your tasks and let the magic begin, our minds will look at the plan like a binding contract and will do its best to get you to follow it. 
  • Just start: Woody Allen, a famous film director, claimed that 80% of life is showing up. Sometimes you just have to sit there and begin doing your work, once you start the heavens will guide you through the rest.  

Commitment 

Based on the HBR article on procrastination by Caroline Webb, our brains are made to think of concrete work not abstract, so when the task ahead is ambiguous we tend to defer. So how can we hack our brain into thinking differently?.

  • Commit to your tasks in public – (social media is a great place, specially if you are looking to share your transformation, say you are looking to lose weight).  Research shows that when we commit in public we tend to meet our commitments, because the respect of others matters a great deal to us. 
  • Set a bet on yourself – Some people go as far as giving money away if they don’t meet their commitments, find something that you know will motivate you to start. 

Recovering from a setbacks

For details on setbacks I would recommend listening to the podcast on recovering from setbacks here. In either case here are a few tips.

  1. Accept that you have fallen behind, and then move on.
  2. Be easy and forgiving to yourself, putting yourself down will only hurt you more. 
  3. Start small, say when you were at your height you were doing 50 push ups in a minute, perhaps start with 5 and work your way back to the top. 
  4. Don’t forget to rest and take breaks, burnout is real and I believe is one of the main causes of making people stop. 
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Delivering Value


I’ve been watching sports and inspirational movies lately. The “Miracle”, the US non professional hockey team beating the undefeated Russian team in the 1980’s, a few football inspirational stories, “Remember the Titans”,  and “We are Marshall” . They represent teams with odds stacked against them but seem to be able to accomplish the impossible, especially when it matters most. The striking similarities between business and sports pushed me to write this article of the value that is given by each team member:

What is value?

A finished product? Shipped software? The reality is that value is quantified in multiple ways and at times it can be hard to put a specific return on investment. Think of insurance we pay up to cover up in case an accident happens, while there might not be a benefit until we need to use it.  As an individual or a manager, think of a sports team, the coach (manager) provides direction and inspiration to the teams, while team members provide unique skills which combined can make the team accomplish big. 

Ways I can bring value:

Do what you were hired for: 

In a team each member is brought because of their unique capabilities, perhaps you are a developer great at APIs, while your co-worker is great at scaling infra. Before expanding to other areas make sure that you are giving your team the best that you can bring. If you join a basketball team because you’re good at rebounds, make sure you perform in that area before trying to do something else.

What does your team need?

In a sports team each role is defined, in business however some roles have to earn trust to demonstrate that they are capable, before more work can be directed their way. So how do you gain trust? First you need to have candid conversation with your stakeholders and leaders, not just your manager of what they are expecting from you? Which areas do they need help with? Especially when you are new, people will be skeptical of your skills. Make sure you outperform and teams will place trust in you to deliver more work. 

Finding the right opportunities?

I used to ask for feedback or what I can do to help someone? This is the wrong approach as people have ways they like to deal with what they know. What people like is when you bring opportunities and exciting challenges to them. So how do you do that?

  • Find the right problems 
    • Infra: Are developers spending too much time deploying software? Is your infra stable?Interview developers and try to understand their pain points. 
    • Efficiency: Are there tasks and activities that are taking people too long? Are there administrative tasks that people would rather skip? Any areas that you find to be better automated? 
      • Are there teams that are being underserved? When everyone is prioritizing aggressively there are chances some opportunities are being left behind and not being pursued? 
    • Risk mitigation: Do you see that people are too risk averse? Are there processes or systems that folks don’t like to touch or change?  This is a great opportunity to find ways to demystify or lower the risk of the system, this way the teams are enabled to take on high risk, high reward initiatives without having to worry about breaking the system. 
    • Revenue generation: Usually these belong on customer facing but perhaps if you are an internal team, you can advocate for features that can grow customer adoption.
    • Cost cutting: Perhaps the team is paying a third party vendor for a tool that can be built in house or is no longer needed. There may be old processes that can be deprecated freeing up resources, if they are consultants it can reduce cost to the company.  
    • Scaling: If engineers are having a hard time deploying at scale, perhaps there is an opportunity to explore here. Remember with any new areas try to POC and sell it to the teams that will give you the hardest adoption once your plan is rolled out.  
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Networking For Success

You can have all of the talent in the world, but if people do not know about it, it is as if you didn’t exist.  Networking should always stay on the top of your mind. In this article I will summarize the HBR article,  and share personal experiences on how  you can create your own network by properly implementing the techniques described.

Three ways of networking:

  • Operational: These are your peers within your work environment– which includes co-workers, your manager or higher ups, and your subordinates if you manage people. Your operational network is important because they allow you to do your assigned work. For individual contributors it is very important to build a strong operational network even outside of your immediate manager. The context and information you can receive, will help you navigate your own team. In terms of priorities, become aware of internal opportunities which you can pivot to, depending on the objectives you are looking to achieve.  
  • Personal: Your personal network tends to be with people outside of your company, usually people have hobbies. For example, in your free time you may choose to play softball with a community team, the people you meet in that team, can provide external context on how they solve their problems. For example if you talk to a carpenter you can learn how he deals with customers that are not happy with his work, or when there is not sufficient work coming his way, how does he navigate the situation? These are all valuable insights that you can learn and apply to your own life.  
  • Strategic: The more senior your role is, or the higher you are in an organization, strategic networking becomes more essential. At a leadership position you are paid to be able to successfully prepare your team for the future. This involves not only talking to your personal, and operational network but talking to peers in separate sectors of the market. This is to span your perspective on where the industry is moving. A lot of great leaders, and senior people tend to miss this part of the networking, because it normally carries the larger effort of the three. However in my opinion this type of networking is the most important if you are looking to grow and succeed in your career.    

Implementing the techniques:

How do you reach out to someone you don’t know? How can you make that initial connection without being awkward or sound interested, for e.g everyone wants to talk and be friends with the people that have power and resources, what we fail to realize is that you also need to have a value proposition for those contacts to be interested in you as well. Here are some ideas on how to break the ice.

  • Join a local community sport/cause/class:  e.g Yoga, Softball, Volunteer to services such as your school alumni association, or any other affiliation you may have etc…
  • Find what you have in common with people you are looking to connect with. Is your passion magic or a particular music genre? People feel most comfortable when they have something in common. They can share experiences and enjoy the same interest. 
  • When connecting with someone, be interested in them, leave your ego behind. A lot of us want to play a salesman type, we want to show people that we are worthy and have success of our own. The reality is that most people only care about them and in order for them to become interested in you, you have to become interested in them.
  • Using social network sites, I read this blog which talks about a couple moving to a new city. She used LinkedIn to meet with people that were already employed in the field that she wanted to join.  She was successful by having over 40+ coffee meet ups where she found her new job, and met new people.“ Ask and you shall receive.  

Refreshing and keeping up with your networks: 

It is not enough just to meet once, or make a request to someone when you are in need. To build relationships that last, you must work on them and feed them like a plant.  Here are some tips to get that done.

  • Do regular check-ins, through text or calls. 
  • Keep your circle small, work on quality rather than quantity
  • Make time to be with your friends.
  • Be honest, compassionate and a good listener.
  • Do your best to be there when they need you the most.

Wrapping up

Creating and maintaining a network of friends is hard work, but in the end that hard work pays off. Whether that is a referral, a new opportunity or simple feedback on your endeavors. Having a strong network pays off, both in the long term and short term. Humans are social beings and people around us provide intrinsic motivation. Go out, create your network and maintain close relationships.

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Mental Health

In life as we get older, there are many things we wished we knew when we were younger, that thing for me was mental health. It was always something I thought that was for people that either didn’t have friends or just did not know how to keep their minds occupied. I was wrong and the reality is that we all suffer from mental health whether we realize it or not.

We are faced with multiple emotional challenges at work and at home that we have to deal with in order to live a better life. The fact is, you can be the smartest, most productive person, but if you are unable to control your emotions, emotions will control you and your life. 

Becoming aware of your feelings:

The first step in learning how to control your feelings is understanding, why and what is causing your emotions to occur.  Here is a list of feelings and how to become aware that you are  currently experiencing it. 

  • Anger: according to the American Psychology association “Anger is a negative feeling state that is typically associated with hostile thoughts, physiological arousal, and maladaptive behaviors”.
  • Fear: is when we are scared, while anger is the fight response, fear is the flight response. Based on the meridian dictionary it is an anticipation of danger.
  • Anxious: This is when our minds are constantly worrying or thinking about a situation. 
  • Stressed: When our minds are overwhelmed we feel exhausted, we are not able to process much or do much when we are in this state.   
  • Sad: Usually when we lose something of value to us. It can be as little as not being able to find our favorite sunglasses. 
  • Jealousy: There are three types:
    • Jealousy towards a partner, perhaps doubts that the person might cheat
    • Jealousy towards a family member or siblings 

Becoming aware, It is difficult to become aware that you are angry or are fearful  because all of your blood has left your brain to your muscles, but this is a good time to try and think about why that interaction has triggered the emotion? You may not be able to get it right the first time, but as soon as you are able to determine the triggers you will be able to recognize the feeling.

There are many more, such as happiness, or pride but I took a shortcut and pointed out these because, if we don’t properly identify them, they can quickly ruin our days if not our lives in some situations:

How to deal with your feelings?

There are multiple ways to deal with your feelings once you have identified them. 

  • Go on Vacation: if you are experiencing a lot of feelings it is likely that you are hitting a burnout period and your body is on overdrive. A vacation will clear your thoughts and allow you to look beyond your current situation.
  • Take a sick day: We need to make mental days normal, there are personal or work events that can impact our mind, we need to have the ability to detach even if it is for a day.
  • See a therapist: it is never too late to seek help, a coach or a therapist can guide you and provide more context to your situation. For me, hiring a therapist was what allowed me to get through some of the most difficult times in my career. 
  • Create an exercise routine: The mind is a muscle just like any other. Just like in order to lift higher weights we do lots of rep, the same concept applies to the mind. The more you challenge it, the more information it will take.
  • Call or visit a friend: it is nice to have a friend to share the good moments, but there is nothing more therapeutic than talking to a friend. It doesn’t have to be about problems, it can just be about how they are doing and what plans they have in mind.

Learning to accept 

There is a great prayer called Serenity that goes” God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference” . It is a very powerful quote to deal with time. We cannot change the past, only learn from it, and we can only change our future by the actions we take today. 

If we can learn to accept our boundaries, our minds work better and are less distracted by things we cannot control. 

Maintaining mental sanity

I really like this one saying from the famous motivational speaker Zig Ziglar used to say “people often say that motivation doesn’t last, well neither does bathing and that is why it is recommended daily”. Our moods go up and down based on situations life throws at us and we need to be ready when that rainy day comes by with the proper tools to combat it. 

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Effective Meetings & Note Taking

I really don’t like meetings that waste people’s time. In today’s competitive environment we have to prioritize our time aggressively. We don’t have the time or the energy to participate in meetings that do not generate value. Now the question becomes, how can we make meetings effective? How can they remain ontrack? How do we keep everyone engaged?

In researching this topic I found that best meeting practices tend to be neglected, because running a meeting is something that comes by with experience. The second part is capturing the outcome of the meeting with notes, to assure people are held accountable and subsequent follow up can be done to any assigned action. 

There are many meeting types, but I will focus on meetings of groups of 7-10 people ( this format falls in line with the HBR article on how to run a meeting.

Meeting Operations:

  • Before the meeting:
    • Why do you need this meeting? Think about the information you are trying to convey or the information you are trying to collect, do you really need a meeting? Can you obtain the same output through an e-mail or a ping? How urgent is your request?
    • If you do decide to move forward with a meeting, the most important task you can do is create an agenda and distribute it at least 2-3 days before your meeting.. To go even further not only an agenda with a topic, but a detailed agenda in which you explain what are the outcomes you are looking to achieve. 
    • Here are some links of great agenda templates to follow:
    • Prepare to anticipate the questions of the audience and make sure that any information that is presented is accurate and can be supported.
    • Know your audience? What interests them? What do they care about? What are they looking to get from your meeting? What value are you providing to them? What are you looking to get from them?Are you presenting to a group of leaders? Or are you just looking to extract information from a group? 
  • During the meeting:
    • Proper preparation will set you for success, however people’s reactions are unexpected and you know how to use proper tools based on people’s reaction. 
    • You have two task, manage the people and manage the information you are trying to convey
      • Managing the people
        • Is your audience engaged with the information you are presenting?
        • Are you allowing time for people to ask questions?
        • Is the conversation being overpowered by a few individuals?
        • Are people distracted?
      • Managing the task 
        • Are you keeping to the schedule? Are the items in your agenda being discussed?
        • Are you getting the answers or decisions you were planning or expecting? 
  • Meeting Closure:
    • 1-2 minutes before the meeting, summarize key points and decisions to finalized agreements.
    • Provide a quick timeline when meetings minutes will be distributed 

Note Taking:

  • Before the meeting:
    • Create a template with your agenda items this will 
      • 1. Keep you focus on what you are trying to accomplish, 
      • 2. Keep your notes organized and allow you to capture the key decisions of the conversation.   
  • During the meeting
    • Using your template jog down the discussion points, not verbatim of the outcome of a conversation: Say you are showing that “we need to add 200 more subscribers to an app to meet revenue goals”: Your notes should capture if discussed:
      • Running promotions
      • Email campaigns 
      • Ads in the areas where your future subscribers hang out etc…  
  • Distribution
    • Should be no later than 12hrs from the meeting time, unfortunately the longer you wait to distribute, the further it will disappear from participants minds. The only exceptions are of course Friday evenings, and late meetings which can wait until the morning for the notes to be distributed.