Kevin O'Bryan

Category: Getting it Done!

  • Surviving Work from Home

    Surviving Work from Home

    It’s been just over 2 years since my employer decided to permanently make a portion of the staff work remotely on a permanent basis. And while this was prompted by the pandemic, this seemingly revolutionary act in the context of most Jamaican corporate entities has benefits that I am sure the organisation continues to enjoy.

    And even while some companies have reversed their remote work policies, for those of us who are still operating within this new paradigm, it can still take some learning and adapting to get it right.

    Discipline

    Discipline is an important factor when it comes to being productive while working remotely and keeping distractions at a minimum.

    There are a few strategies I use to stay productive and keep distractions at bay while remaining as productive and efficient as possible.

    Disclaimer
    Before I get into sharing these strategies, I should note that some of the links within this article are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

    Dedicate Space

    An enabling physical environment is important when working from home as it is where you will end up spending the majority of your time while working. Whatever your home space looks like, find a section that is dedicated just for work and where possible, aim for some separation.

    work

    There are numerous benefits to doing this including the promotion of work life balance and reduced distractions. And while a dedicated workspace is possibly a luxury for some persons just mentally preparing a space can be beneficial. In creating this space, ensure proper seating, and lighting, such as this nifty LED Desk Lamp that attaches to your desk.

    Isolate meeting times for deep work

    I block out periods on my calendar to get deep work  done. Persons tend not to schedule meetings when you are already in a meeting. High priority meetings will always happen regardless, however this is particularly useful for those inexplicable meetings that could’ve probably been a well written email.

    work

    In the hustle and bustle of getting things done we tend to forget that some of the most meaningful things we accomplish are through the time we spend doing deep work. That sweet spot where you are able to get important work done, without distraction or answering someone’s call for a brainstorm session. These periods are necessary if you are going to produce your best and it is possible to make them part of your most productive hours.

    Prioritize deliverables dependent on others

    If I have to contribute to an activity that will be executed by someone else, I give that priority so that the overall project doesn’t get side-lined. While this applies beyond just the work-from-home scenario, it comes into sharper relief when you have to determine what to do with every minute of your work time and successfully execute to achieve your goals.

    For example, I work with a number of creatives such as graphic designers and videographers and typically, I ensure that whatever guidance they need to get their deliverables done, I work to provide that for them to ensure that the project rolls on. In this way, it’s as if you are getting more done at the same time, because while they are completing their tasks, you can do much more.

    Set and defend boundaries

    Aggressively defend your boundaries to ensure that extraneous requests don’t sabotage your daily work goals. This can be extremely difficult if, similar to my own experience, you are a point person in a subject area. There are multiple calls, emails and meeting requests, every single one of them an emergency, however it is up to you to determine which needs to be treated as a priority.

    Boundaries can look like: choosing not to participate in meetings set during your designated lunch hour, streamlining how you structure your day and how other people use up your time or simply saying no to requests that fall outside of your purview.

    Some of your colleagues will not be deferential to your effort to establish and maintain boundaries in the beginning, however communicating these in a respectful way, consistently, will bear some positive fruit.

    Be conscious of prolonged isolation

    One of the best parts of working remotely is being able to work within your own space, with your own rules and at your personal comfort level. For the introverted, working from home is a dream because the talkative co-workers are absent, so less interruptions and just more productive time.

    work

    However too much of a good thing can be bad and long periods of isolation can also affect your mental health. The ease of simply working through a computer screen, hopping from meeting to meeting and communicating via whatsapp and email, makes becoming isolated very easy.

    Therefore be deliberate about getting a change of scenery every few days even if it means just changing rooms or location. And while work-from-home is convenient, consider a hybrid approach by splitting time in the office. Sometimes it feels good to be in a room full of my colleagues, while working and nowadays I’m actually able to enjoy the company sometimes.

    Make it work

    We all have different working styles that become even clearer once we are left to craft our own daily routines while working from home. Ultimately what it comes down to is finding what works best for your needs. This could mean working in sprints throughout the day and taking regular breaks, to keep your interest or maybe your style is doing long stretches of work, uninterrupted. For some persons, they prefer to work from coffee shops, in public and surprisingly, that also works. Whatever is your preference, make it work as there is no specific way to work remotely.

    These are just some of the ways I’m ensuring that remote work remains doable for me.

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Subscribe to the blog here  and share your content suggestions here.

    Kevin

  • Why People who fail are super Heroes!

    Why People who fail are super Heroes!

    We are taught to hate and fear FAILURE. It is so ingrained in our psyche to a certain degree that often times our futures and destiny are tied to our performance in major exams and other tests of skill. Just don’t fail!

    I remember the pressure placed on me when I sat the common entrance in primary school, not quite as dramatic as what followed for the next generation that sat the GSAT exam but its results were pivotal enough. This catalytic examination would help to determine if the first decade of my parent’s efforts to raise and educate me was a bust or in the event that I passed, augured well for my future.

    Sadly, on the day those results became public, many students had red eyes, weary from crying because they either didn’t hear their names announced or they were sent to schools which were considered an equivalent to failure.

    So entrenched is our ideas around failure and the avoidance of it, that the announcement of any list touting which high school in Jamaica is ‘the best’ can cause a melt down across social media, as was recently the case when this report  by the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission was released.

    Any association with it in our society and even across different cultures, basically assigns you a Scarlett letter that tells the world that you are to be avoided and rejected.

    The Results

    This rejection of failure, though noble has had some unintended consequences for an entire generation of people, some of whom have mastered the idea that they must go through life celebrating (rightfully so their wins) and behave as if they have never failed. Or worse still, act as if failure is impossible, making them infallible.

    These people are our relatives, our lovers, our co-workers, bosses and cut across every possible line of individual you interact with on a daily basis.

    I have had a difficult time dealing with colleagues who because of their rejection of the possibility that their ideas can fail or have failed, absolutely refuse to accept feedback in a meaningful and constructive way. Then there are others so gun-shy about appearing to, or actually failing, they rather cycle through ideas and concepts without doing something because they are looking for the big hit, sans failures.

    It is an impossible race to a bottomless pit dealing with individuals like this who think that failure defines them forever or worse yet, that they are perfect and beyond failure.

    Failure is an option

    We don’t usually set out to fail when we start something new or with any endeavour we undertake. Reality is, failure can cost us a lot, both in tangible and even intangible ways that over time can take a toll.

    But what if we flip the script maybe, failure should be one of the options that we pre-bake into our endeavours to sign post our journey; that jolt of reality to both re-direct and re-energise us on our journey to success.

    The famous line from Game of Thrones comes to mind: “Chaos is a Ladder” and for many of us Failure is the ladder because it often pushes beyond wherever we were, to usually better circumstances or new horizons.

    There are a number of reasons why I consider failure essential to eventual success and simply a crucial part of life, that try as we might, shouldn’t be feared.

    Failure signifies movement

    Anyone who is failing at something is also actively attempting to accomplish something and hopefully they will fail, learn, try again, maybe fail again and start over or have success based on what they have learned and applied.

    Failure is never the end

    Failures are deeply personal however they can serve such a powerful purpose for others. The cautionary tale has done so much for persons who while never experiencing them, have been able to make better decisions from the misadventures of others. Failing at something is never wasted, even if you are not the one to benefit from it.

    Your failure is as great as its inverse success

    I always take comfort in knowing that as bad as a moment of failure or rejection is, the opposite will be just as overwhelming but without the dread.

    Failure is part of the progress

    I say ‘the progress’ because there is no rule that states to have progress you must fail, though it could be argued. However within any effort that seeks to gain a state of perfection, there will be a bar of failure that must be overcome. The feeling of never being ‘just right’ has to be satisfied. Working through that feeling, toward the eventual goal will therefore encounter and overcome failures.

    fail

    Final word

    It has taken me years to work through and overcome the hold that failure has had on my psyche. Not the failure itself but the dread, embarrassment and feeling of uselessness. But interestingly enough, it was a big failure that taught me how to work through and overcome the helplessness.

    In the valley of a major failing, where my life appeared to lay in ruins before me, and I was overcome with regret and shame, I was able to begin the rebuilding process. With determination and the new found realization that I was on the other side of my worst fear, nothing could stop me.

    I entered the next phase of my life with a renewed sense of purpose and achieved my greatest success, up to that point, even surprising myself. To do that, I had to do things I had never done before and take on new habits and prove to myself that I could do it.

    Of course, other failures happened in my life, but for the most part I could sometimes predict them based on my own self-limiting behaviour. I never gave up though, and you shouldn’t either.

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Subscribe to the blog here  and share your content suggestions here.

    Kevin

  • Stay Ready so you Never have to get Ready!

    Stay Ready so you Never have to get Ready!

    This is the final in my New Year refresh series and as I continue, I’m at the point where after all the decluttering, I’m now ready for the ‘fix up’ after the ‘clean up’. It’s February so there’s still time to make those moves and get your 2021 plans underway.

    ready

    Just think, in this very moment you are sitting on a goldmine, even as all seems desperate and scarcity appears all that is in our future (probably a bit overly dramatic after the year we’ve had).

    The gold is in everything that you know, everything that you have ever experienced and everything that you take for granted about yourself. All of this knowledge and perspective is a gift that should be shared with the world.

    And now with the way the world is set up it is a bit easier for us to share that knowledge, with the pent up need so many people have to learn new things and the ease of access created by communications technology.

    But if you’re wondering about the how, I have a few insights. You have most if not all the resources you need to be able to make a significant change.

    Start with what you know

    You know something that is very valuable to someone else and you may not even know it. Whether it is something that you spent years of your life studying in school, a hobby or simply something that you have always been deeply interested in stop taking it for granted. You never know what it is that other people don’t know and there is so much.  One of the good things the pandemic has done is opened the appetites of all of us to learn something new.

    Your knowledge and insight into a particular area may be just what someone else desires to learn about right now and all that’s missing is your willingness to connect and share. Maybe it’s your interest in cooking or marketing or even crafting. Believe that there are people who want to learn what you know and will be willing to engage.

    Never stop learning

    After assessing what you actually know, is there anything else that you could brush up on? Learning never ends so there’s nothing to lose in either learning new skills or refreshing those that you already know. Internet connectivity has democratized learning for many of us, who can now simply enroll into free courses online.

    It’s now easier than ever to acquire news skills and apply them to your life immediately, even if you already believe you are an expert in a particular area. I’ve been fortunate to access a number of marketing and communications related courses over the past year that have proven to be career enhancing. They both reinforced stuff I already knew, while teaching new concepts that are benefitting me now.

    Whatever your interest, it is almost certain that there is a resource that exists to help you refine and increase our knowledge such as Coursera and Udemy.

    Find your Tribe

    Yes, there are communities of people who share your interests and now with this invention called the internet, it is easier than ever to connect with these like minds. Regardless of your interests, you can find thriving even niche, online communities that can help to nurture and help you to engage with persons from across the globe. It can be as simple as searching through hashtags on Twitter to find your tribe or discovering the perfect groups on Facebook or LinkedIn. Either way, adding your voice to ongoing conversations will not only help you to share your perspective, but learn from others.

    via GIPHY

    If the online space is not your ideal landing strip to discover your tribe, then maybe a service club or even a professional organisation such as Toastmasters would be ideal options. If all else fails then begin the process of building your own community, create meaning and purpose around what you are interested in. An immediate inspiration is my friend who decided to start a book club with other friends who wanted to work on their reading habit, a few years down the road and it is now a thriving community of earnest readers.

    Get you some headshots

    Now for the pièce de résistance, the look and feel that will add the perfect finishing touch. Get you some headshots! If you have never had any taken, now is the perfect time to have some taken, because opportunities may be coming your way and you will need to be ready.

    Over the past year, I have either organised or been part of several forums where a headshot is absolutely necessary and having one is the best way to be ready. Why you may ask?

    Well, the growing need for persons, like you, to share their expertise and knowledge in multiple virtual spaces, means that pretty soon you may be asked to share your headshot for one of those forums.

    You should never be asked for a headshot and all you have to share is a selfie from either the passenger or driver seat (no shade).

    You can follow this video for some tips on taking headshots on your own using a good cell phone but if you want, there are photographers available who will be more than happy to take them for you at a cost. They will act as a snapshot of your personality even before people are introduced to you and they can saw so much about your brand values and the overall energy that you are sending out into the world.

    Be Prepared

    The successes we will experience this year will be based on the preparations we make beginning today. Arthur Ashe  said “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” Get ready to benefit from the opportunities that will come your way this year, just because of who you are and what you already know.

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Subscribe to the blog here  and share your content suggestions here.

  • Digital Declutter: How to cleanup your email inbox for good!

    Digital Declutter: How to cleanup your email inbox for good!

     We are at the start of a new year and it’s as good a time as any to declutter different areas of our lives. For the month of January, I will be sharing a few insights on how we can all refresh our outlooks and spaces. I will begin this process with a digital decluttering exercise for email.

     

    cleanup mail

    Do you dread opening your primary email app because of the amount of unread messages that are there? Have you simply turned off your notifications because you’ve lost control of all the messages that have flooded your inbox and you never got around to checking them?

                                 

    Don’t despair there’s hope and with simple proactive steps you can get your email lives under control. It is overwhelming enough dealing with work emails, so it is understandable if your personal email inbox is a mess.

    I got smart about email management a few years ago when after having my Gmail account for just over 13 years (early adopter) I realized that I was almost out of space. This surprised me for a number of reasons as one of the primary draws for Gmail back in the day was the fact that their storage was almost infinite (jokes).

    email cleanup

    One advantage I’ve had is that every time gmail added a new feature, I did my best to understand what it was, how it worked and how it could impact how I used the service. So if I realized that it worked against my typical email behaviour, I would just ignore it.

    Disclaimer, most of my specific email decluttering tips are applicable to gmail users, which may actually not matter much seeing that when gmail entered the market in 2005, most other providers gradually started to emulate its functionalities and even layout.

    And for those of you who might ask, why not just buy additional email storage space if I run out? Well if you are a power user and that’s something you want to do, go ahead. But as for me and my house, we declutter and use what we have, for free!

     

    Check notifications

    This first tip has nothing to do with your inbox at all and is one of the more proactive steps you can take in dealing with email clutter. When you join any new social network or app, first thing you should do is check the notifications settings. Most services allow you to determine the type and frequency of correspondence they send you.

    For example, Facebook allows you to send push notifications to their app or on the website itself for most things. Otherwise you can choose to only receive emails for specific things relating to your account. This also applies to other platforms like Twitter, so you can basically set it up so that you only receive important emails from these platforms that have to do with your account security and nothing else. This is convenient and prevents some of that unnecessary email clutter to begin with.

     

    Remove Email Categories

    In 2013 google introduced the promotions tab to gmail as part of a set of automatic categories that would organise incoming email into different segments/tabs. It was their attempt to help us all make our email inboxes feel a bit lighter. The automatically generated promotions and social tabs have since become a standard part of any new gmail account created and typically siphons off emails from social networks or subscription emails from mass mailers etc.

    As soon as the feature was introduced I ditched it by going into my inbox settings and removing it. I have done the same for every other gmail account I have created since. See how to remove them here.

    Why?

    Because, if important emails come in and go into these tabs, I’ll probably not take the time to click and sort through them. Secondly, I prefer to see and know what I am getting in my email all in one place. So instead of going through, basically three different inboxes, created with the use of these tabs, I simply check one. A lot less work and a more streamlined way of dealing with message organisation.

    Ditch the tabs!

    Unsubscribe from unwanted emails

    A few years ago I started to receive random emails from companies I never subscribed to. For a while it weirded me out because I honestly thought someone was deliberately adding me to different company email lists (probably). As I painstakingly unsubscribed from every new company welcoming me to their service, I also started to take a closer look at the other subscriptions that I had actually signed up for.

    When it came time to clear space I realized that while these emails may not count for much in terms of storage space, they were still clutter that added up, overtime.

    So I started looking at the pattern of company emails I was receiving to get a better sense of the volume of messages and it was shocking!

    During peak shopping seasons for example, there were companies who would send me up to two emails per day for two weeks straight.

    It was ridiculous, so those subscriptions had to go!

    I started to take an even closer look at email behaviour from companies I wanted to receive emails from and adjusted my subscriptions where possible or unsubscribed completely. Some company emails allow you to select the frequency at which you receive them such as once monthly or every now and then.

    Unsubscribe to your heart’s content and stop some of those incessant and probably unread messages. The reality is, we are constantly changing and sometimes, the need you had for subscribing to some of these services has passed and let’s be real, as much as you would want to, you are not going to go back and read through all those past emails.

    The ‘unsubscribe link’ can usually be found at the bottom of most emails you receive from companies and is a pretty standard feature. In fact, if you are regularly receiving emails from a company that does not contain an unsubscribe link, that should be cause for concern.

    Delete old messages and conversations

    This tip is a follow on to the previous about your subscriptions and also takes it a step further with how to deal with other messages.

    So you have identified emails that you want to unsubscribe from and you have gone ahead and unsubscribed, now is your chance to remove all that old stuff. A quick and easy way to get rid of these messages is to temporarily create a filter. The email filters are a neat way to choose what happens to emails when they come into your inbox and allows you to choose the specific parameters which can be either an email address, a name or specific words and/or phrases.

    Once you choose the identifier and you create the filter you then choose what happens to messages that match the criteria. Gmail provides a number of options (shown below) that you can choose which include, forwarding the messages, labelling it, sending it to categories, or deleting it.

    email cleanup

    See how to create an email filter in gmail here.

    In this case, the option would be to delete the messages. However there is an additional option that allows you to apply the filter to matching conversations that are already within your inbox. In one fell swoop, you will instantly remove years of subscription emails, instead of painstakingly going through and deleting in batches of 100 which is the maximum you would be able to manually select on the gmail desktop using search.

    When you are done, delete the filter then go into your trash and permanently remove the messages.

    An additional pro tip, make this an annual thing by routinely removing these subscription emails at the end of each year.

    Removing other Messages and Conversations

    Now using the process I just outlined you can go ahead and remove entire histories from your email inbox. So emails from those old relationships, friendships or pesky work related items that you may have sent to yourself or had sent to your email, just because? Create filters by name or email, and remove them all!

    email cleanup

    I briefly relived some very painful moments when I went through long past emails and removed entire conversations, but it was the right thing to do.

    It was also surprising the amount of space decade old chain messages took up in my mailbox.

    To get rid of these, create a filter that picks up on emails based on their size that will bring up all messages that contain attachments over a certain size and delete them instantly to free up space.

     

    Delete old sent messages

    Here’s a revelation: We are usually the ones who create the junk that we carry around. The baggage and the waste that we hang on to, was indeed, of our own making. So what can we do?

    Purge!

    Go through your sent messages and remove those emails with attachments that you sent. The sent message search box in gmail is marvelous and allows you to search emails for different periods or one set by you. In addition you can search specifically for emails with attachments and also the type of attachments.

    You would be surprised how many emails with large attachments you have sent that are clogging your inbox right now. Go through it and remove all that junk.

    Setup auto forwards

    Finally, another way to reduce and even prevent unnecessary email is by using filters to forward messages to other email accounts. I have a primary email account but I also have other email accounts that I use. There are times when based on commitments such as clubs or other activities I participate in, there’s need for large quantities of emails to be sent.

    For example, as a Toastmaster I have played various roles which often times require the use of high volumes of emails that are regularly sent. I use my main email for membership purposes but sometimes this address is also shared with local and regional Toastmasters teams.

    Instead of attempting to go through the confusion of notifying all these teams of the new email, I simply create a filter and have all emails coming from the team forwarded to a designated Toastmasters gmail account that I created separately. In addition, I also create a rule to delete all forwarded emails from my main inbox.

    Visit here to see how to automatically forward gmail messages to another account.

    Final word

    I hope this information will assist you in decluttering your email and digital life. Let me know if you find any of this useful!

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Subscribe to the blog here  and share your content suggestions here.

  • Taking Care of What Matters

    Taking Care of What Matters

    It’s taken me a while to write this blog. Since my last post in March of this year, I have drafted several others, which I never got around to publishing. The timing has just never felt right based on everything that was happening.

    And though I know that COVID and everything that the pandemic has wrought is a completely valid excuse, I’m also keeping myself accountable where it matters.

    Early on I realized that there was an underlying and unspoken anxiety that accompanied this pandemic and affected most of us, regardless of whether we actually contracted the virus or not.

    It was just the tension around all the uncertainty that the pandemic brought with it and especially the upheaval it’s caused to the lives of so many people. Being expected to function, like normal and perform at the highest level at work and in life, is not as easy as it seems.

    Awakening

    My own eye opener came just about 7 months after the beginning of this whole thing, when I started to feel generally unwell. No, I hadn’t contracted COVID but all that pent up anxiety and the lethargy it set off within me, finally caught up.

    self care

    For some people, they have been coping by exercise and generally making an effort to be more active. That however, has not been my coping strategy and instead I simply threw myself into work and tried to be as occupied as possible.

    While I remained aware of the underlying anxiety, I never fully owned up to the ripple effects it was causing in other areas of my life which mushroomed over time.

    So when I finally decided to visit my doctor and I received a blood pressure reading that was too high for comfort, I knew that something had to give. The visit also forced me to acknowledge that I had not been sleeping as well as I should. The result of all this was a cascade of small maladies that pretty much meant that I was doing myself a disservice, the opposite of self-care.

    Getting There

    I’m already taking corrective measures which includes taking proactive steps to get better quality sleep, I’ve altered my eating habits, started an exercise routine in the gym and I now make deliberate efforts to actually relax more.

    That said, I have also started to take stock of some of the other aspects of my life that I can control. There are a few things that I have become much more intolerant of during this time.

    Protecting my Peace

    Now more than ever I am fully invested in protecting my peace from people, places, emotions and things that could possibly heighten my stress levels or otherwise make me uncomfortable.

    I’m a bit more sensitive to people in my life who selfishly try to fill my well with their issues while never considering or even seeking to find out about the load I may be carrying. I am a limited resource and therefore, I will not allow others to use me up.

    Self-care is as much about eating well and relaxing as it is about ensuring that the energy that I surround myself with is just right.

    Reading has always been escapism for me, but now even more so because my mind seems to always be ON. Slowly plodding my way through books has been a respite and though sometimes television time steals some of that time, I’m recalibrating the balance needed.

    Patience all around

    Probably the greatest lesson I’ve absorbed this year, is the importance and value of being patient and gentle with myself, more tolerant even. With the world just doing its best to survive in this very weird and troubling time, it does not work in my favour to torture myself about my perceived shortcomings.

    self care

    I did a few online courses and they were helpful but this idea that I needed to use this moment to become something else, betrayed the fact that just by doing my job and so much more, during a difficult time, is in itself an accomplishment.

    I’m happy to be on the mend but the important thing about this shift is that it feels like it’s the big one that I will actually stick with.

    Pray me up.

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

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  • Corporate work life: How to Thrive and Survive

    Corporate work life: How to Thrive and Survive

    Corporate Russian Roulette

    There are days when I go to work and before 10 am, I am fully ready to hand in my resignation and just say ‘Screw it All!’

    Yes, this is real life.

    It’s the life some of us live.

    We are not supposed to verbalise these feelings, in fact, you’re not supposed to talk about how much you hate certain aspects of corporate work life until you become one of those stories of people who have quit and hopefully able to brag that you’re ‘living your best life’

    So, what do you do instead?

    You remain, grateful, continue to do your best work, take care of your mental health and survive. There are a slew of things that we can all do to ensure that we survive and make the most of what working in a large organisation has to offer.

    After all, it’s not all doom and gloom and in fairness, the good days far outweigh the dark clouds of a bad day.

    There are some strategies that I have learned to employ to help me make the best of every moment and keep focused on being productive, accountable, alive and thriving.

    Walk with me.

     Reading is a gift that will keep on giving

                     

    If you are a reader, know that it is a gift that will serve you well in the corporate world, why? Because many people, working at whatever level of the corporate ladder, simply refuse to contend with anything that requires reading. They simply consider it bothersome and you see the results of this in email arguments that take place daily in companies everywhere. Now, with everyone else not reading, being able to spot details is something that adds value, because with less people reading, it means, more folks missing nuance and important details.

    Email follow-ups are key

    Sometime ago I wrote about email etiquette for the workplace here and it was an opportunity for me to delve into email habits that can serve us well.

    If it’s one thing James Comey’s book –  taught me, it was the importance of contemporaneous notes following meetings. What Comey did was brilliant. As a practice, he would routinely prepare memos following meetings to ensure a record of whatever the exchange was, existed. If you are familiar with his story, you know how well those memos served him, when it became necessary to sharing his story.

    In the corporate world, it’s no different, just a bit less intense. What I have found to work is preparing an email immediately following any meeting and sharing it with all participants, documenting the specific discussions and action points. I refuse to call this email meeting minutes, as I have learned that ‘meeting minutes’ – imbued with all the formality and need to record every small detail – often takes at least two days to be prepared and dispatched. This is the heights of inefficiency and is simply a time waster.

    The key thing about this practice is that it prevents others from changing the narrative of the meeting to fit what they need. Plus it keeps you and everybody else in the meeting accountable and ensures that everyone is on the same page. Reality is, some of your co-workers don’t respond well to tasks that aren’t written down, even if you’ve met about it.

    Observe patterns of behaviour

    We all have that co-worker who is so caught up doing their ‘work’ and they have no clue what is going on around them. Don’t be that guy.

    Make it your business to know how every move adds up, or not.

    While this is not a call for you to become the village voice for your place of work, it does you no good if you are unaware of what is happening in your company. Observing the corporate culture is key to helping you order your own steps.

    Then there is the just being aware of how your fellow employees relate to you and each other. It helps if you are able to mentally profile your team members in order to better navigate the working relationship. Not only does it prevent crossed wires, but in general it allows you to focus on being productive and getting the job done.

    This is why unpredictability upsets the apple cart so much. When people either take things personally or people get too personal with what they say and how they say it, it throws the workplace into chaos.

    The more you know.

    Choose your Battles

    It takes a certain level of mental fortitude to withstand the temptation of email warriors in the workplace who are always ready to tempt you into a back and forth. Worse still, are the potentially messy phone calls that can devolve into an argument.

    I remember the first and last time I got angry enough to shout at and hang up the phone on a colleague, primarily because I felt that the person in question was being extremely rude and disrespectful. The fact that I had to apologise, wholeheartedly afterwards, annoyed me to the core. It was a waste of time getting into a tiff, over work, in the first place. I vowed to never again get so that angry that I felt the need to lose my cool and behave like that.

    Restraint is the name of the game and I have learned that the long game is the best game when it comes to certain work relationships.

    It may be cute to recount your behaviour on Twitter, but in real life, it isn’t cute or quite as fulfilling.

    Smile, wave, breath, vent as needed and carry on, because you never know who wants you to lose your cool and jump off a cliff.

    When you do have to fight, use all the tools the corporate world provides: Well worded emails and no BS telephone conversations that can call out colleagues while still keeping it 100% respectful.

    Never share your childhood nickname with your co workers

    Learn from my mistake.

    A term of endearment needn’t be scandalized by people you work with.

    So caught up was in a moment of vulnerability (read food… I was eating food) during one of those team building gatherings, to get us to open up to each other.

    I was relaxed, enjoying my meal and ready to endear myself to my team members by sharing something they didn’t know. Never occurred to me that, them not knowing was the gift, but alas.

    I revealed my childhood nickname.

    Who would’ve thought that the revelation would come back to haunt me? I felt a dread previously unknown, when co-workers started parroting this name as if it was appropriate or their place.

    How dare you so casually throw a name about that was my dearly beloved, Great Grandma’s favourite name to call me by?

    You don’t know the history, you don’t know what it means? But you think it’s cool?

    Ha.

    It get’s worse

    To add insult to injury, a particular individual, who I wasn’t fond of decided that it was their prerogative to drop my nickname in at the most inappropriate and unnecessary times, At WORK.

    A term of endearment needn’t be scandalized by people you work with. It’s one thing if my co-worker, who I’m close with, uses it. I’m good with that. What pisses me is the assumed kinship some people have by referring to me by a name that’s not for their use.

    So, aside from my own sensitivity to being called by anything but my given name, it is clear that some ‘co-workers’ have no boundaries.

    Take my advice and don’t give them a chance to ‘Run wid it’.

    What are some of things that you are doing to make it in this Corporate Life? Let me know in the comments.

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Kevin

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  • How to add more time to your days

    How to add more time to your days

    Musician and actor, Henry Rollins famously sang the following lyrics, in his song Shine:

    “No such thing as spare time, no such thing as free time, no such thing as down time. All you got is life time… Go!”

    The past couple of months have brought time and how I value it into much sharper focus and in every aspect of my life I see the role it plays.

    Case in point, I recently started intermittent fasting as a means of controlling my weight and to overhaul the way I eat.

    For the uninitiated, intermittent fasting is NOT a diet, more than anything it is a way of managing how much time you spend consuming, digesting and converting food to energy.

    There are different ratios that can be used when doing this type of fast, with the most popular being the 8 to 16 hour ratio. This means that you spend 16 hours fasting, and 8 eating. I generally follow a more strict eating window, with a ratio of 6 to 18 hours, which I have found manageable and effective.

    Reclaiming my time

    Due to the fasting, I have become so much more conscious of the amount of time I spend eating, and exactly what I am eating during that time. In fact one of the biggest benefits of intermittent fasting has been the amount of time I’ve been able to save as part of the process.

    Because I don’t break my fast at the normal ‘breakfast time’ that I used to, I no longer have to bother myself with making breakfast. Once I make a healthy lunch, I’m not stumped at lunch time, trying to figure out what to eat.

    Do you realize how much time you spend trying to choose your food?

    This renewed consciousness of ‘my time’ has actually helped me to become a bit more productive at work as well. Now more than ever, I am deeply interested in ensuring that every hour of my day is spent efficiently and doing what I said I planned to.

    How much do you have?

    time

    Sometimes my ambition for personal improvement seems to outpace the amount of time I have in each day. Let’s consider it all: the gym takes time, reading takes time, the personal project takes time, work seems to be all over the place with its time, watching Netflix is time being used… everything uses up our time, but we are trying to do it all, guilt free.

    There’s no secret way to add hours to the days but if you look closely there are valuable pockets of time in each of our days that can help us to get more done.

    For example, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make time to read for pleasure. The solution that works so far, is allotting two hours before bed to reading and/or when necessary, a few hours before getting ready for work in the mornings.

    It’s a deliberate effort of course, but once you’ve identified that time, you just have to do whatever it takes to get it done.

    Time Sucks Are Everywhere!

    One of the more important things any of us can do is to identify the things that waste our time. What are those ‘time-sucks’ in your life?

    Prime suspect numero uno in my life is my smart phone!

    The typical scenario is: I am doing something, or about to do something, but decide to check my notifications or look at posts on Instagram. The next thing I know, I look up and realize that I had descended down a rabbit hole and got lost for two hours… all that time wasted!

    This can happen with any social media network and the simple, uncomplicated solution is to put your phone down and out of reach. Even better, some social media platforms, namely Instagram, now have activity trackers that allow you to track how much time you spend on average using the app.

    Additionally it helps you to manage your time by setting a daily reminder once you have spent a preset amount of time of your choosing on the app. So I’ve currently set the app to notify me once I have completed an hour of use of instagram for the day.

    There are so many things we can do to save, and take more control of our time. But probably the most important thing we can do is be more aware of the time we do have and fill it with moments that bring us joy.

    What are some of the ways you are saving time? Let me know in the comments.

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Subscribe to the blog here  and share your content suggestions here.

    Kevin

  • Pushing Through

    Pushing Through

    The first two months of 2018 have been quite interesting for me as I’ve been hit with a case of fatigue and lethargy which are both exacerbated by a bad case of insomnia.

    Two very important things have become critical to ensuring that I don’t self-sabotage and just say – SCREW IT to all the goals I’ve set for 2018.

    I’ve sought out small victories to help propel me onward to try and achieve the other larger goals that I have. For example, 2018 is my declared year of Reading, but imagine my quandary with the fact that it’s almost the end of February and I’ve completed only one book so far. Finishing that book was such a vindication, and prevented me from otherwise beating myself up. I’m in the middle of two others though, so that counts as progress. I press on.

    The other saving grace has been the recognition that the difficult moments are no time to slack off. There have been days I feel like just can’t bother to do anything but the mundane – work, home, sleep – repeat. But then I realize that pushing through is what it’s all about.

    I usually begin a 5k or 10k race wondering “what have I gotten myself into?” and I often ask myself the question “Can I finish this race?” Not only do I usually finish, but I feel good while doing so, proving to myself time and time again that the joy is in the journey, trials and all.

    Now that I’ve set the stage and you have a better idea of where I am, let’s talk a bit about Lent.

    Things we Give Up

    I never pay the custom any mind, because the point of making a sacrifice never quite made sense to me. However from a purely self-serving point-of-view I could see how making a deliberate effort to form a new habit, or destroy a bad one, can work in my favour.

    Well, this year, I took a few moments on Ash Wednesday and decided to give up something for Lent – Online Shopping!

    I hate to think that I am addicted to anything, but in reality my mind is always convinced that everything that I ever purchase online, I absolutely need. No matter how small or inconsequential, I need(ed) it. And the thing is I abhor hoarding so always buying stuff, that I probably don’t need is just not something I can cope with.

    I have forty days to free myself of online shopping and all the triggers that get me to do it. For example, I recall being in line at a restaurant waiting for my food and I just happened to be on my phone, browsing the amazon app. While browsing I came upon a shoe that I had been watching for a quick minute and decided to buy it, because – great price.

    It’s literally that easy, takes not time and is right at the click of a button.

    The only exception is the payment for road races that I may choose to run over the period, and that will only be if I can’t pay for them in another way.

    This is my confession and this is how I’m handling it. It’s been just over two weeks and I haven’t cracked though temptations abound.  I follow blogs and retailers that constantly send me emails reminding that sales are on, or open my eyes to new products, but I must resist, resist, resist.  Online shopping isn’t a bad thing but the disconnect that it causes between want, need and cost is.

    Every day I overcome the temptation to buy something online, is yet another victory for me to feel that much better about myself, and keeps me pushing on to the next goal.

    What’s helping you to push through? Let me know in the comments.

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Kevin

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  • My Year of Reading

    My Year of Reading

    After the rush of Christmas and all things festive to ring out 2017, I took the first two weeks of 2018 as a time to reflect, observe and feel out the pace of this very momentous year.

    I am being patient with myself and also mindful of the excitement that these first weeks bring.

    After all they are loaded with so much care, so much anticipation and hope. But I am aware that we have 12 months so I need to make my steps strategic

    That said, during this time, I made some very interesting observations, some new and others, necessary reminders.

    Here they are:

    1. Keep a “To-Don’t” List
    2. Don’t fight over things that are behind you
    3. Perfection a.k.a. procrastination is the enemy of progress
    4. Life comes at you quick
    5. Life is fragile
    6. You’re only a single decision away from changing your life forever, at any given moment

    While doing all this ‘observing’, I realized that with all the excitement of 2017, I hadn’t taken a proper vacation!

    It was an exciting year for me: got a mini promotion, then a mega promotion all while starting this blog, being voted my club’s Toastmaster of the year and becoming an adjunct lecturer at my alma mater.

    But all that means nothing if I’m not taking enough time for self-care. Therefore I am making an effort to schedule and take my hold-over vacation days. This means more time for one of my favourite things to do, reading!

    Reading Maketh the Man

    I’m declaring this the year of reading because I really will be reading a lot more than usual. I currently have a bevy of books on my list and I plan to read as many as I can.

    My love of historic and contemporary literature, means that I am trying to balance between the works of Marlon James and Yaa Gyasi as well as historical non-fiction, and some notable self help books.

    Reading is important to me because I believe that being able to get lost in a book is always a good thing. I don’t discriminate either.

    Many people feel that reading self empowerment books are all we need to make our lives better. Who doesn’t want to learn how to win Friends and influence people or the Power of Intention?

    I too would love the benefits of these deep, thought provoking meditations on how to live a better life and be a fully self actualized person. But I also think it’s beneficial to enjoy the stories, real or imagined, that fill our lives and allows us all to think.

    One of the most interesting books I read in 2017 came quite by surprise (Thank you Amazon). I happened upon this book while scrolling through twitter, via an article.

    The article chronicled the story of Gail Lukasik who discovered that her mother was actually part black but chose to pass for white and abandoned her African-American origins.

    She wrote about her experience and her journey to discovering a whole new family in a book titled White Like Her: My Family’s Story of Race and Racial Passing.

    I learned so much reading that book and it was an immense pleasure, because it touched on topics I am very fond of – history, family and race, especially the idea of passing.

    Equally interesting was Kei Miller’s August Town, which was such a rich story set in Jamaica and filled with history.

    Balance.

    2018 is exciting! I have some interesting things planned for the blog in terms of content.

    I’m ready!

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Kevin

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  • Make it Count: 2018

    Make it Count: 2018

    As 2016 drew to a close, I made a promise to myself that I was going to make 2017 memorable.

    I was going to make myself so proud!

    At that point, in December last year, it wasn’t fully clear to me what my mission was but I knew that I had to fill the year with moments I could be proud of.

    With just a few days  left in the 2017, I am pumped! There is so much I was able to tick off and accomplish during this year. Even more important, was the foundation I was able to lay for things to come.

    I’m at a place in 2017 where I have already started to assemble some of the pieces that I hope will help me to make the most of 2018 and the opportunities that will arise.

    Let me share some of the strategies that I have developed to make my new year planning strategic and with achievable goals.

    Personal Retreat

    Companies, large and small, as well as business units all have one thing in common. They usually host a strategic annual retreat to figure out their plans for the new year. This retreat also gives the organisation the opportunity to look back at the year that was, to review what worked, what didn’t and how to improve in the future.

    I’ve been to a number of different types of retreats in my professional life and it’s always interesting how ideas and insights flow when participants are able to take a break from the mundanity of everyday ‘work’ and just do something different.

    So, why not stage a retreat for your personal life?

    2018 is ahead of you, and you have plans and goals, therefore, why not hold your own retreat and make strategic plans? After all you are the CEO of your life and the most important shareholder, bar none.

    I thought about this in 2016 and decided to do it.

    I took a day, went to a convenient place, with my laptop and strategised how I was going to make 2017 my year. During my own personal retreat I was conducting research, finding out costs, looking at different goals, setting deadlines and most importantly putting it all in writing.

    Throughout the year, I would occasionally go back into that document to keep track of my goals and identify things I’d achieved as opposed to things I hadn’t yet accomplished.

    You can enhance this by creating a vision board, based on the results of your personal retreat (if that works for you). Not only is this a deliberate approach to identifying and achieving your goals, but it helps to keep you accountable.

    Be Flexible

    In outlining the desires of your heart for the new year, be flexible, especially with your route to achieving those goals you have set. Note flexible is not a byword for lackluster or stagnant, instead consider it permission to be gentle with yourself.

    Acknowledge and count every move that gets you closer to the final goal. Every bit counts and preparing your mind to be flexible throughout the process, will be important.

    Be Realistic

    While being flexible, be realistic about your goals. Are all the elements in place to enable you to achieve them? What are you doing now or have done that will bring you a step closer to making that goal possible?

    Sometimes the route to the goal may not be immediately clear, but that doesn’t mean the goal is unrealistic. For example, if you plan to start selling baked goods on the side to make extra money during 2018, some of the realistic questions you need to ask are:

    1.      Do I have enough baking equipment?

    2.      Have I factored in the cost for ingredients?

    These are specific questions that are at the heart of a realistic plan to achieve that goal.

    Speak it into being

    You may hear self-help gurus say “Declare it!” as they encourage you to speak into the being the dreams and goals you want to accomplish.

    Guess what? It actually works!

    The simple act of vocalising the dream, the vision, the end goal is not only a powerful inducement to get it done, but also allows you to put it out their into the universe.

    I never realized how rewarding this was until earlier in 2017, when I was in the development stages of this blog.  I had given myself a deadline, one that I had to meet. While having a conversation with my older brother, Pete and discussing it, I felt so much more confident and ready to achieve the goal.

    Putting it in very simple terms, saying it out loud, made the whole thing REAL!

    Get Excited

    What are plans if you are not excited about them!

    Get over-the-top excited about everything you have coming in 2018. Be they small or large goals, they are yours!

    Let your excitement and enthusiasm be the propellant that pushes you forward, even during those dull moments when the effort seems pointless.

    Share some of the things you are doing to make the new year a go from the jump!

     

    Be inspired, Be informed, Be Glorious!

    Kevin

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