Determined to jump out of a workplace productivity rut? Don't forget to reconnect with your Muse. Now, the hardnosed businessperson in you might view such a statement with a bit of suspicion. What, you may ask, does "a Muse" have to do with revitalizing your productivity at work? Well...everything, really. Your Muse represents, collectively, all those things that drive your creativity. While you can be productive for a while without any real inspiration, the lack can eventually wear you down into a rut where you're content to maintain no better than minimum standards. Work becomes boring and pointless...and there goes your productivity. When you feel the walls closing in, stop and think about why you work in the first place. Ultimately, what do you intend to achieve? Go back and review … [Read more...]

"Reflective thinking requires the continual evaluation of beliefs, assumptions, and hypotheses against existing data and against other plausible interpretations of the data." -- John Dewey, American educator. "Reflective thinking turns experience into insight." -- John C. Maxwell, American author and leadership guru. "By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter." -- Confucius, ancient Chinese philosopher. As a savvy SuperCompetent, I suspect you take a few moments occasionally to examine your workflow process, carefully considering what works and what doesn't so you can maximize your productivity going forward. Psychologists call this process "reflective … [Read more...]

As much as we try to structure our work time, there's no scheduling the unexpected. Emergencies and other crises overwhelm us all occasionally; unfortunately, no one has ever invented a predictive model (or crystal ball for that matter) that can actually warn us about everything that might blindside us during the average business day. In a perfect world, we would expect the unexpected, since we all know from experience how quickly things can go south. But somehow, it rarely turns out that way. Ever the optimists, most of us look forward to the workday proceeding smoothly and according to plan, so we can keep to our schedules and maximize our productivity. And sure, optimism has its good points; but sometimes, we let a positive, can-do attitude blind us to the reality that things can and … [Read more...]