Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence.
Daniel Goleman dedicated this book to “The well-being of generations to come,” and his passion to see us thrive is evident throughout. He argues that “while the link between attention and excellence remains hidden most of the time, it ripples through almost everything we seek to accomplish.” His thesis is “Attention works much like a muscle—use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows.” His book is a work-out to develop and refine the muscle of our attention, and even rehab focus-starved brains.

Of the three books here, this one is the most technical as it deals in detail with some of the brain science behind what makes distraction so enjoyable, yet so destructive. However, don’t let that put you off. I found myself quickly scanning some of these denser passages and zeroing in on the more readable practical sections.

Some of the quotes were revolutionary for me. Try this one from Nobel prize-winning economist Herbert Simon: “Information consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long
Leadership Coach, David Rock, follows a fictitious couple (though all too real for many of us) as they live out their lives in the maelstrom of everyday life. The author describes and analyzes each day in the couple’s busy working lives and makes lots of practical suggestions about how to change each day for the better. As Rock’s main idea is that we can improve how we work by understanding how our brains work, he also pulls in a lot of brain science, but in a more accessible way than Focus.

You’ll never take it all in on one read, but what I’ve tried to do is take a couple of chapters at a time and then try to put some of the suggestions into practice for a few weeks before coming back to the book again. I’ve found myself thinking a lot more about just what I’ll spend my limited brain fuel on every day, in the process learning to drive more efficiently and enjoyably.

Juggling with Elephants: An Easier Way to Get Your Most Important Things Done – Now!
Of the three books, this is the easiest and quickest to read (one hour should do it). The basic insight is that life is a three ring circus (the three circles are work, family, and personal life), and if we learn to think like a ringmaster, managing the various acts can be fun and easy. Some of the main points:

• The result of trying to juggle elephants is that no one, including you, is thrilled with your performance.
• The ringmaster cannot be in all three rings at once.
• The key to the success of the circus is having quality acts in all three rings.
• Intermission is an essential part of creating a better circus performance.
• There is no shortage of acts vying for the circus.
• Every act must have a purpose.

Although the book’s central idea might seem a bit simplistic, it’s imagery has had a lasting and profound effect on me. I find it much easier now to focus on one ring at a time, and give myself wholly to it, instead of continuing the elephant-juggling act, leaving me squashed and the elephants a little frustrated!

For most of us though, the everyday reality is an ever-growing To-Do list – not just running to stand still, but running to sink further into the sand – and all the frustration, disappointment, and self-flagellation that accompanies it.

Well, I think I may have just found a way to turn this daily self-torture into a cause for praise and rejoicing.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer makes a To-Do list every day, prioritizing what’s most important each day. And instead of getting overwhelmed by the long list of items left unfinished at the end of each day, she celebrates the fact that she never finished her list.

“That would mean spending lots of time on relatively unimportant tasks,” Mayer explained. ”If I did [get to the bottom of the list] it would be a real bummer,” Mayer said. “Because think about all those things at the very bottom of your to-do list that really shouldn’t take time out of your day.”

Genius!

Now, just have to explain this new approach to the “Honey-Do list” to my wife.

See also: The Amazing History Of To-Do lists And How To Make One That Actually Works 

In this New York Times piece, Schwartz collates the scientific evidence to confirm a pattern I’ve been increasingly recognizing in my own life.

Strategic renewal — including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office and longer, more frequent vacations — boosts productivity, job performance and, of course, health.

But try persuading your boss or even yourself of this. It’s so counter-intuitive and, as Schwarz points out, at odds with the work ethic in most work places:

• More than one-third of employees eat lunch at their desks on a regular basis.
• More than 50 percent work during their vacations.
• Long hours are usually the key to raises and promotions, even though hours worked are no indicator of productivity
• Excess working hours result in sleep deprivation that is costing American companies $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity.
• Americans left an average of 9.2 vacation days unused in 2012 — up from 6.2 days in 2011.

But the scientific evidence in favor of rest and renewal is mounting:

• When male basketball players slept 10 hours a night, free-throw and three-point shooting each increased by an average of 9 percent.
• When night shift air traffic controllers were given 40 minutes to nap, they performed much better on tests that measured vigilance and reaction time.
• A 60- to 90-minute nap improved memory test results as fully as did eight hours of sleep.
• For each additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their year-end performance ratings improved by 8 percent.
• Frequent vacationers were also significantly less likely to leave the firm.

Schwartz argues that if we follow our natural daily body cycle, we will end up with a daily routine of three 90-minute cycles of intense and uninterrupted work in the morning, each followed by a break to renew and refresh. The rest of the day can then be spent on less demanding tasks.

Read the rest of the article to find out how Schwartz’s own company puts renewal breaks at the centre of their daily work. He concludes:

Our basic idea is that the energy employees bring to their jobs is far more important in terms of the value of their work than is the number of hours they work. By managing energy more skillfully, it’s possible to get more done, in less time, more sustainably. In a decade, no one has ever chosen to leave the company. Our secret is simple — and generally applicable. When we’re renewing, we’re truly renewing, so when we’re working, we can really work.

You can read the whole article here, as long as you haven’t used up all your 20 NYT paywall credits this month!

1. Without the doing, the dreaming is useless.
2. There will always be another idea that looks better than the one you’re working on.
3. Don’t let your high expectations hold you back.
4. The answer will only arrive after we stop looking for it.
5. Grit, the stubborn refusal to quit, is the single best predictor of success.
6. Creative greatness is the result of an ensemble.
7. Find your unique superpower.
8. Create an environment where people can be their best selves.
9. Keep a work diary because you’re busy.
10. Celebrate your small wins.
11. We’re most productive when we’re doing meaningful work.
12. You need to earn every single user who visits your site.
13. Always say “Yes, and…”
14. Be positive, be real, and act confidently what you are
15. Diversity isn’t just nice – it’s necessary.
16. Don’t found “the next big thing,” found “the next big culture.”
17. Perfection is not overrated – quality matters.
18. Trust the data, even if it surprises you.
19. Forge ahead: invent your own research process.
20. Transparency and vulnerability always wins.
21. It’s not the first impression that counts. It’s the second, third, fourth, and fifth impression.
22. Listen to your customers to transform your business.
23. Hire slow, fire fast.
24. Do your “One Thing” better than anyone else.
25. At the core of any exciting project is a difficult problem.
26. You must ship (preferably within a year).
27. If you’re not having doubt, you’re not pushing hard enough.
28. Frustration is where my creativity comes from.
29. Think of your work as a gift.
30. Just ask! Ask for more time, more creativity, more money.
31. Fall in love with building the capacity of people.
32. Propose ideas without polish.
33. Don’t surrender strategy to execution.

It’s obvious why an employer’s interest in and gratitude to an employee elevates performance – the feeling that we matter, that we are valuable, and the energizing sense of security. Why then is appreciation such a rare experience for employees? Tony Schwartz answers:

The obvious answer is that we’re not fluent in the language of positive emotions in the workplace. We’re so unaccustomed to sharing them that we don’t feel comfortable doing so. Heartfelt appreciation is a muscle we’ve not spent much time building, or felt encouraged to build. Oddly, we’re often more experienced at expressing negative emotions — reactively and defensively, and often without recognizing their corrosive impact on others until much later, if we do at all.

One study showed that workers who felt unfairly criticized by a boss or felt they had a boss who didn’t listen to their concerns had a 30 percent higher rate of coronary disease than those who felt treated fairly and with care!

In high-performing teams, the expression of positive feedback outweighs that of negative feedback by a ratio of 5.6 to 1. By contrast, low-performing teams have a ratio of 0.36 to 1. And the stats are not much better in everyday life outside the workplace. On Saturday, while reading Digital Leader by Eric Qualman, two stats hit me hard between the eyes (and in the heart):

• As a baseline, the average person complains 15-30 times per day.
• Across all conversations there is a ratio of 6 to 1 in terms of criticism to encouragement.

Does that sound like your workplace? Or maybe your family? Or even your church? Schwartz’ proposes a four part prescription to remedy this ingratituditis (you can read the exposition of his points here).

1. “Above all else, do no (or much less) harm.” The costs of devaluing others are so great that we need to spend far more time thinking than we do now about how to hold people’s value
2. Practice appreciation by starting with yourself.
3. Make it a priority to notice what others are doing right.
4. The more specific you can be about what you value — and the more you notice what’s most meaningful to that person — the more positive your impact on that person is likely to be.

Qualman’s plan involves elastic bands on your wrist (you’ll need to read the book!).  I’d add:

1. Get some sleep and exercise. There’s nothing more energizing to a critical spirit than a lack of sleep and exercise.
2. Start building the muscle of heartfelt appreciation by exercising it as often as possible – may hurt a bit at first.
3. Learn the language of positive emotions – again, like all new languages, it may initially feel very awkward, embarrassing, and uncomfortable.
4. Raise awareness of this problem in your team, church, family. Why not explain the stats to your family next time you sit down for a meal and then everyone keep a count of positive to negative comments during the meal. It might surprise you.
5. Apologize for past failures, ask for forgiveness, and start over.
6. Love your neighbor as yourself. How would you like to be treated in this situation?
7. Remember he/she is handcrafted by God in the image of God.
8. Remember he/she is a sinner with a corrupt human nature (and so are you).
9. Ask yourself: “What will their impression of God be if you are the only representative of God they know?” Loving, appreciative, generous, kind? Or hard, legalistic, critical, unforgiving, etc?
10. Try energizing your family, church, and workplace with grace rather than law.

Basically our brains have learned to associate certain states of mind and kinds of activity with certain places. We don’t need to command our brains to think or feel a certain way in each location; it just happens through the brain’s previous experience of what to think, feel, and do in these places.

In Setting the scene for a productive day, Elizabeth Saunders makes a good case for leveraging these normal emotional and mental responses to specific places in order to increase productivity. Although everyone’s optimal environment will be different, she lists four elements to consider in setting up a “backdrop for success.”

The right reminders
Have a different location for each different activity (e.g. answering email, reading, writing your novel, etc). “Consistent location changes will prompt you to complete the specified activity with minimal effort.” Saunders has some ideas about how to “change location” even if you are confined to one small working space.

I have a stand-up desk that I use almost exclusively for email. When I stand there now, I’m immediately “in the email zone” and can process mail maybe three times faster than I do in my “sermon prep” chair at my desk.

The right tools
Have the right tools in the right location for the specific task associated with that place so that you can transition effortlessly. If you have to pack and unpack every time you move, or if you are always having to look for things, you’re not going to move.

I used to split my sermon study time between my home office and my Seminary office. But as I kept forgetting to take all the right books or journals home with me, I eventually decided to make my Seminary office my sermon office.

The right distractions
Saunders makes the point that some people function best in monastic silence (me), while others do best with music pounding in their ears (I will never, ever understand that). She then suggests questions to help us determine what distractions to have/not have in each location.

• How do I function when I’m connected or disconnected to the Internet?
• Does having certain devices turned on affect my mental state?
• What kind of activities do I do best when I’m around people?
• How does my mind respond when I’m completely alone?
• Can background music or a movie help me focus?
• Do days at home lead to higher or lower productivity?

I now have a “Do not disturb” sign on my door, and even a blind for the window on my office door. Now, when I slide the sign across and pull down the blind, my brain is immediately “up” for 3-4 hours of solid uninterrupted time in study of the Word.

The right surroundings
Saunders says: “For your most important creative work, having an environment that you relish spending time in makes starting on hard mental work much easier.”

I recently added three comfortable and relaxing chairs to my office study, and it’s transformed the quantity and quality of student interactions and counseling times.

The right time
Saunders doesn’t mention this, but I’ve certainly found that by regularly doing certain things at certain time, my brain finds it much easier to click into gear.

For example, my brain has got into the habit of writing a blog post first thing each day. If I try to do it at any other time, it’s like thinking through treacle; but it sort of flows in the early morning.

Now, where’s that fishing rod?

“Oh, yes, Daddy. When?”

“This week sometime.”

“But when this week?”

“OK, how about Thursday?”

“But when on Thursday?”

“Eh, 4pm?”

“Great! Thanks Daddy.”

We’ve all had similar conversations, haven’t we. Kids sure know how to schedule their “to-do’s.”

When Peter Bregman’s wife told him a similar story, it transformed the way he managed his to-do list. Every evening, he would go through the same Q&A with his wife:

“O, Hi honey! How did your day go?”

“Well, I got a lot done, I suppose, but not as much as I would have liked.” [Sound familiar?]

One day she gently suggested that maybe, just maybe, he was being unrealistic in his expectations.

She was right, of course. His to-do list had become so long that it had become more like an I’m-never-going-to-get-to-it list.

The solution?

A child’s question: “When tomorrow?”

In it, Bregman found a formula for turning an intention into an action. He calls it “the power of when and where.” He says: “Decide when and where you will do something, and the likelihood that you’ll follow through increases dramatically.” He expounds further:

“When tomorrow” turns “I’m-never-going-to-get-to-it” lists into “to-done” lists.

(I’m hoping).

In an age of over-sharing, it’s sobering to find out that telling someone your goals makes them less likely to happen. In this short TEDS video, Derek Sivers explains how people who talk about their goals frequently have a lower rate of follow through and success than those who keep their goals to themselves. Lifehacker reports: “Apparently, the simple act of sharing what you intend to do can activate pleasure centers in the brain and create a sense of accomplishment—when all you’ve really done is talked about doing something!”

That explains some Christians’ lives and some ministries! Including, sometimes, my own.