2 min readAn Effective And Better Life
by Guy Gage | March 23, 2024 | Business, Leadership, Performance
Equip Yourself
Over the last several weeks, what have you done differently in your work approach and style that have relieved you of the stress-induced demands of your life? I ask you this because each week, we write about best practices of those who are thriving in the profession. The routines are based on solid behavioral research and applied to your work environment. The recent Messages have focused on tips and tricks that will give you an effective and better life. Of course, just hearing about them will do you no good if you aren’t weaving them into how you live.
Rate Yourself
So this week, you have an opportunity to rate yourself on how well you are doing. The following practices are taken from the Messages of the last seven weeks. Use the following rating to determine how you are doing.
1 = Not at all
2 = A little
3 = Somewhat
4 = Consistently
Be honest with yourself as you rate your practice of these validated procedures. To refresh your memory, each item is linked to the Message in which it appears.
| Item | Score |
| Know your week ahead of time and schedule it accordingly. Otherwise, you will run out of week before you’re done.
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| Block off chunks of time on your calendar for the work that requires your total concentration.
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| Be more assertive to ask questions of your manager or partner for clarification and instruction; or following up with others about their progress.
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| Demonstrate tenacity, perseverance and resilience to keep at it, especially when you aren’t feeling it.
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| Take time to interact with others casually, not just around projects. Laugh, have fun and get away from the work at hand.
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| Reduce your cortisol-induced stress by getting in control of yourself by applying these six effective techniques.
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| Take breaks throughout the day and week where you actually separate yourself from your work.
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Evaluate Yourself
How did you do? If your scores are 1s and 2s, they indicate that those practices aren’t important enough to bother with. Time to let them go and move on.
Your score of 3 indicates that you value the practice but struggle with consistency. You believe it would be helpful but haven’t figured out how to integrate the practice into your work approach. If you could do something different to be more consistent, what would it be?
4s suggest that you believe in the practice and have instituted it into your life. Congratulations!
Obviously, the more 4s you have, the more effective and better your life is, compared to your colleagues. Whatever your challenges and struggles are, your colleagues who score lower than 4s are suffering even more. You probably notice how hard life is on them.
Change Yourself
With this assessment, you know where you need to focus your attention. These aren’t the only useful practices, and if you aren’t doing these things, what are you doing? You deserve to have an effective and better life and every research-based behavior will make your life and work more enjoyable.
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