Everybody shit on your performance

“If we talk about business, my experience shows that most offices are extremely inefficient.”

Today, in my G +, this post appeared by a Spanish blogger who writes about personal efficiency and productivity - in a word, another productivity-freak, which, like me, went according to GTD, time management and other similar beautiful words. The text turned out to be written quite charismatically and, in my opinion, sensibly, and therefore there is no more strength to hide. The post is devoted to trying to cope with the incredible bathert, which sooner or later meets on the path of everyone who has learned at the very least to organize his time and now faces face-to-face with the question "what to do with the stars around"? As an IT consultant wrote, while we are all programmers here , so the text is slightly adapted to our features - without prejudice to the general meaning.
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“Forget what others think of you.
Because no one thinks about you.
Everyone thinks only of himself ... just like you are now. ”

Eight in the morning and you are already at the computer because you need to make an offer for some kind of figs (or write a piece of code - this is so that everyone here would see you more clearly - ACh), since the boss asked you to do it yesterday. Of course, you need to have time to do it - this is important not only because these are your immediate responsibilities, but also because thanks to this offer (or a piece of code) it will be possible to attract new customers (or users), which means a greater amount of orders and financing for the office which, in turn, ultimately results in the fact that you basically have a job.

In a word, you put on headphones, 4 hours of work with short breaks (Pomodoro taxis) - and now you proudly complete your offer (or your piece of code) and send it to your boss. Only then you open the mail - and there you’ve already sent a damn lot of messages there, so concentrating on something one today will not work anymore for the whole day.

Two months later, your offer did not reach the customer (and a piece of code was simply thrown out because of the methodology ). It turns out that the gadish boss was in such a hurry to make an offer simply because he had an appointment to reconcile the budget. And after this meeting, your offer stuck in there ... a long box. And the client, whom he urgently needed to get, was suddenly not needed because project cut funding. Well - what to do, it happens.

10 pm, you have a hard day behind you, nevertheless, you still need to write an article for the magazine (for some other code). For you, this is a great chance. Well, at least you think so. So you barely said hello to home and already ran to brew coffee for yourself. The next three hours you devote to creating a text of 1000 words for the chief editor (to weaken one more module for the site). Maybe this is not your best work, but you feel that you have spent your time for a reason, and in general you are well done, you know how to get together.

You sent your work in advance, so you wait. However, the agreed time is right, and you have no answer or a greeting. You worry, you ping the editor (or Eychara of the Cool Codes) a couple of times. But, as it turns out, the person you need is suddenly gone for a short time to the island of Lost.

You wait five days, worry, and eventually call them yourself. The editor thanks you for your efforts (well, at least for this!), But also hurries to inform you that the director is currently reviewing the publishing policy, in connection with which la-la poplar, in a word he has suggestions more suitable for the realization of his new vision. (well, in the case of the code, we generally found better skills for less money, so - what else is there). In short, the task is closed, the mission is completed.

Stop. For whom is it still there?

For your boss? for the publisher? - may be. But certainly not for you.

When working for someone (or just with someone), you have to take into account two key points:

If you work efficiently, this doesn’t mean that everything will be all around right away too.
When your goals will coincide with the goals of others - almost never.

And everywhere you look, everything is inefficient all around, you alone in a white coat stand beautiful:


On the one hand - work. If we talk about business, my experience shows that the majority of offices are extremely inefficient. When I say, “extreme”, I rather mean “infinite” or even “prohibitively”. The inefficiency of the office is directly proportional to its size (and proximity to the public sector, which is already there) [we are talking about Spain - ACH]

On the other hand, even our own family is also not the ideal of time and labor efficiency. They say that if a person has a mom and dad, he already has two reasons to go to a psychiatrist.

However, when it comes to personal productivity, the key word here is “personal.” Only by focusing on the personal aspect one can not survive from the mind and not fall into the deepest ... frustration, seeing how everything around is not only ineffective, but also strives to devour your time aimlessly.

If you leave from personal motives and look at the mess that is going on around - it kills any desire to do something. But if the hands are down, then everything, kaput, this can be a professional point of no return.

On this account, Martin Luther King has an excellent quote:

If a person’s vocation is to be a janitor, he should sweep the streets as inspirationally as Michelangelo painted arches or Beethoven composed music. He should sweep the street in such a way that all the spirits of Heaven and Earth would reverently say: “Here lives a great janitor who does his work flawlessly.”

Just be the best at what you do.

Forget about others. Do everything you can, and as soon as you have transferred the cases, and therefore no longer affect the further effectiveness of the process - do not spend more time on it, just forget it.

In an ideal world, your goals coincide with the goals of your leader and the goals of the company. And although it is a rarity, this situation is the most motivating for the employee, books are already writing about this. But it is still we wait for this situation with you! Therefore, the best thing you can do right now is to try to surpass yourself every day.

Sometimes I think that in order to turn around and do everything really effectively, you need to do it alone. But even my friends who work for themselves do not work alone. Yes, and I, if I think about what I could do if I left my current job - I also understand this - it will not work that way, I still have to contact others.

Then how can I improve others?

The word "improve" is already doubtful. I have no doubts about the following: others will “improve” only when they themselves want it . And though you burst.

I do not know if you heard about such a thing as a circle of concerns and a circle of influence. Imagine two circles, one inside the other. The inner is our sphere of influence, and the outer is what concerns us. The farther the distance between the circles, the higher the level of stress.

Therefore, there are only two effective ways to deal with this:

• Or expand the circle of influence
• Or reduce the range of what cares

I even write a post today in order to convince myself to forget about a number of things.

If you want to increase the circle of influence, the only way that I know, and which in my case works, is to “set an example . ” The hierarchy of few people bothers, as well as orders or attempts to teach discipline. Words are bullshit, only action works. That is, I again come back to the point where I started my thought: focus on what is important to you personally and be effective before the lawlessness - personally.

It is better to just score on trying to change the situation with complete nonsense in the office or in the world in principle, and vice versa, focus on changing yourself for the better.

Well, if you don’t take stubbornness, and for some reason you, like me, cannot get an awl from one place in an effort to make, if not the whole world, then at least at least your workplace is a little more fit for life, and To introduce at least a little order into the surrounding entropy, then, perhaps, I will allow myself one more quote - this time - this is what Mother Teresa said:

Let everyone sweep around their home - and the whole world will be clean.

A source