DevYou

As a fan of naps, I’m always delighted to see positive stories about napping! Here’s one from Psychology Today titled “Nap Your Way to the Top”:

The evidence is overwhelming: Napping on the job is great for you and great for your boss. A power nap of about 20 minutes has been proven to increase alertness and overall productivity in workers. Siestas also boost mood. “Remember when your mother told you to take a nap because you were cranky? She was right,” says William Anthony, who co-authored The Art of Napping at Work with his wife Camille.

Read the full article…

And happy napping!

Those of you who are following DevYou (and thank you very much for that, by the way) have noticed that my once nearly-daily posting schedule has dropped to every-once-in-a-while. Let me assure you: it’s not that I’ve lost interest. And let me assure you too that it’s not because I’ve run out of material; I have almost 100 article ideas eagerly waiting to be written and posted. The trouble is that my freelancing and consulting business is doing so well that I’m super busy. Beyond super busy. And likely to get even busier in 2008. That’s why I was particularly interested in this great article on Brazen Careerist titled “How to figure out which tasks you can ignore”

In the article, Penelope describes how her workload grew and grew and grew, and how she learned to know what to ignore. Because she was up to her eyeballs in great opportunities, she had to accept that she couldn’t take them all on, and ignored some great ones. Did the sky fall because of those choices? No. As she says:

But what I want you to know is that it was okay. Nothing terrible happened.

This article came at the right time for me, as I face simply too many great opportunities, and I know I’ll be taking Penelope’s words to heart.

How to figure out which tasks you can ignore

I have too many projects. It’s true. I have so many projects on my projects list that I couldn’t possibly get them all done in the next few years. At age 21 or even 31 that wouldn’t have bothered me quite as much as it does now at 41. I hope to live a good long while, but even then, the number of years I have left to complete projects is finite and growing smaller with every passing year.

I’ve tried tackling just one project at a time and pouring all my energy into that one focused goal, but — though that sounds logical and efficient — it has never worked out very well. On the other extreme, having too many projects doesn’t work out either. A few projects get done, but there’s a lingering unpleasantness around all the projects that are laying fallow. So, somewhere between the two extremes is the best number of projects. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know what that magic number (or more likely, the magic range of numbers), but I do know that I’m on the high side, and it’s not working well.

Today, on his blog Zen Habits, Leo has an excellent article on striking that elusive balance between too many and too few projects, based on his Haiku Productivity principles.

This application of Haiku Productivity may be one of the most useful and powerful (along with the two I mentioned above), transforming your ability to get projects done from one of juggling to one of focused completion.

How about you? Do you have too many projects? Too few? Or perhaps you’ve found the magic number of projects that works best for you. Feel free to leave a comment, and, as always, thanks for reading!

From teachers to nurses, nerds to lawyers — people in demanding careers are susceptible to burnout. Whether you’re struggling to stay passionate about your teaching job or braving the stressful corridors of corporate America, you may one day find yourself worn down, drained of energy and spirit, feeling that you’re expending copious energy yet seeing little in return.

If you’ve experienced burnout, or perhaps know someone who is wrestling with this troubling affliction, you will find Jennifer Senior’s recent feature in New York Magazine tremendously interesting: Can’t Get No Satisfaction Senior’s article is a fascinating, in-depth look at burnout, it’s causes and potential cures.

“Like in Silicon Valley,” [Maslach] says. “It used to be the case that people would say, ‘You’re burned out? You don’t like the job? So quit. I don’t run a country club,’ ” says Maslach. “But what was happening was the best and the brightest wanted to opt out. They started saying, ‘I can’t do this; this is not a life.’ They’d go to the Midwest and start a pet-food store.” Maslach adds that when she did interviews at nasa, she noticed similar problems there. “So suddenly, these places were saying, ‘Whoa, what do we need to do to get these people?’ Getting the most out of people didn’t actually mean getting the best. That’s when there was a new wave of interest in burnout.”

Link: Can’t Get No Satisfaction (New York Magazine)

Books mentioned in the article:

* A Burn-Out Case
* Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement
* Burnout: The Cost of Caring
* Changing Rhythms of American Family Life

Very few of my friends have what they would call a dream job. Some have jobs that are pretty close to dream jobs; others have jobs they actively despise. Let’s call them nightmare jobs.

Each of these friends has a scheme in mind for getting into a work situation that more close resembles a dream job, and time will tell how much success each has in that pursuit.

For those that are actively planning their dream job strategy, the Dumb Little Man blog has a great list of tips entitled 22 Secrets to Discovering Your Dream and Living It.

One of my favorites is number 20:

Set aside time each day. You will not go anywhere if you don’t devote time to your dream. Set aside an hour (or at least 30 minutes) each day for working towards your dream. If you can do more, great, but one step at a time is all it takes. Set aside time either in the morning, or in the evening, or some time when you know you will do it every day. Make it a habit, and you will succeed.