Do You Even Know What Roses Smell Like?

by | Feb 4, 2016

roses_web

We’ve all done it. You drag yourself out of bed and quickly move through your morning routine, your task list already running through your head. Your morning commute consists of listening to your favorite tunes and yelling at the idiots cutting you off in traffic. You arrive at work flustered, refill your coffee, take a quick look at your email, and are off to back to back meetings until lunch. Rather than taking a lunch break, you use the time to catch up on email. As you return from your after-lunch meeting, you get stopped in the hall and diverted into an emergency discussion about staffing that lasts half the afternoon. This leaves you with an hour to finish a proposal before you have to speed from work to make it in time for your daughter’s play. As you walk out the door, you realize that, although you were crazy busy all day, you did little work that you would actually call meaningful. On top of that, you are leaving work even more stressed out and behind than when you came in that morning.

It doesn’t have to be like this! My daily cycle once consisted of much of the same frantic juggling of tasks and emails, and work and personal responsibilities. But in the last year, I’ve made some minor changes that have really improved my level of stress and effectiveness at work. Here’s what my typical day looks like now: I get up before the sun and spend 5 – 10 minutes meditating. Then I hit an early-morning yoga class, take a quick shower, and begin my day armed with a strong cup of coffee and a relaxed attitude. Because I reviewed my calendar and prepared for any meetings the previous afternoon, I can catch up on email and then begin real, thoughtful work. Throughout the day, I take short mental breaks to let my brain rest. I try to allow time in the mornings and right after lunch, when I’m mentally at my best, to focus on my most important or challenging work. When I get stumped on something, I let it sit for a bit and turn my attention to simpler tasks until I feel refreshed and ready to return to the challenge. And when I’m on the road, I try to listen to educational podcasts and to exercise patience with the other idiots on the road. I carve out 15 minutes or so at the end of each day to reflect on what I need to do in order to make tomorrow a success, update my task list, and review my upcoming meetings to ensure I’m prepared for them. I often leave work feeling mentally tired but also refreshed from a productive day.

It’s so easy to see, and even appreciate, the difference between these two types of days. The second version gets the same amount of, or even more, work done, but with less stress and the work is more thoughtful. So, what have I traded for these gains? As it turns out, not much. I probably go to bed earlier than my grandma to allow plenty of time for sleep before getting up early for my lengthy morning routine. And I don’t feel the instant gratification that comes with crossing off a million to-dos throughout the day. But I have much more pride in my work and ease in my day than I did before I mindfully took time out for quiet reflection.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t occasionally get stumped or side-tracked. I deal with a variety of distractions during the day, from the UPS man knocking on the door to my puppy vying for my attention. When this happens, I take a deep breath and prioritize the interruption. I can probably ignore the UPS man, who will just leave my package at the door, but if I don’t get up and let the dog out, I might have a mess to clean up later. As soon as I’ve dealt with the distraction, I take a moment to clear my mind and re-approach work. This often means returning from the task I was working on before the interruption, but it can also mean focusing on a quick and easy task to let my mind settle before digging back in to something more complex.

You don’t have to become an expert yogi or master meditator to receive many of the same benefits. It really just comes down to finding what works for you. A good friend of mine takes long walks. My brother prefers running. And for my husband, it’s practicing guitar. But above all, it’s taking the time to do something that’s mindless for you and allows you to quietly (or in the case of my husband, harmoniously) reflect and refresh. And when the stress of the day gets to you, take a moment to give your brain a rest. You’ll find that once you practice your refreshing activity regularly, you can channel what you feel while doing that activity into the way you approach life.

So I challenge you to shake up your routine a little to allow more time for reflection and thought. And when you walk past that rose garden, actually take a moment to stop and remember what flowers smell like. It might be different from what you remember!

 

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more