Blog: Thought trails

How to handle a racing mind?

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 07:56:00 GMT

How’s your mind right now? At peace? A little numb?
Or is it more of a racing chaos of half-finished sentences?

I have often felt that my mind was running in fast-forward mode. Always processing the past (meetings), and preparing for the future (meetings).

This was at times convenient: if my mind was focused, I could make progress quickly.
But when my thoughts were all over the place, it was just distracting and a true energy drain.

Sounds familiar?

With enough practice, you can bring more focus to your thoughts. Some simple exercises that work for me are:

1. Regularly check in with yourself: what is your state of mind right at this moment?

In case of a racing mind:

2. Calm down. Take a few deep breaths. Use your senses to explore your environment: what do you see, hear, smell, taste and feel, right now? Try to name 1-5 items for each sense.

3. Prioritize your thoughts. Make it explicit: What do you actually want/need to think about right now? What can you cover later (and when)?

4. For your priority topic: start writing things down. This forces you to finish one thought before moving on to the next one.

I’m curious about your tips and tricks for dealing with a racing mind!

How can you prevent burnout in your team?

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:40:28 GMT

Of course, individuals can increase their own resilience; but it’s key to address organizational factors as well.

What makes you and your team feel appreciated at work?

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 09:38:54 GMT

How can your body help you in setting boundaries?

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 09:24:45 GMT

Where does your time go?

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 12:38:31 GMT

So many of us are busy.

But do you know what you’re spending your precious time on?

A friend of mine took part in a “time management for upcoming parents” course. She and her husband had to visually show how they currently spend their 24 hours per day, and then try to fit in 8 hours of babycare. The result surprised them, and turned out to be a great conversation starter.

You can do this yourself as well. A quick time analysis can give you more insight into what you currently (explicitly or implicitly) prioritize in your life. So you can check whether your time allocation is in line with your true priorities.

You can go crafty with the instructions below, or just conveniently open a PowerPoint. I'm curious to hear what you get out of this exercise!

Step 1: Draw a big pie chart (how fun!), and divide it into categories. See which categories make sense to you.
For example, the image below is based on these categories:

· Sleep

· Work (actual work time, commuting, thinking about your next workday, etc)

· Basic self care (washing, getting dressed, using the restroom, etc)

· Household (cooking, doing groceries, laundry, etc)

· Caring for others (kids, parents, etc)

· Social activities (family, partner, friends)

· Hobbies and interests (sports, etc)

· Screentime (tv, phone, etc)

Step 2: Get 24 small items that each represent one hour. And start dividing these “hours” to the corresponding categories. Do things add up? (tip: check your screentime on your phone!).

Step 3: Do you like what you see? Reflect on how this time allocation matches your true priorities. Are there things you would like to spend more/less time on?

Step 4: Which (manageable and realistic) changes can you make? And how will you make these happen?

Building a better relationship with your manager

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 09:06:47 GMT

“Your boss can be your biggest ally or your biggest detractor. And, trust me, life is a lot easier if they are your biggest ally.”*

Chances are your manager plays a substantial role in your day-to-day work, as well as in your future career. So there are plenty of reasons to build a good / better relationship with your manager, as it will likely to lead to:

A better understanding of each other
(less miscommunication / wrong assumptions)

More opportunities for learning and mentorship
(rather than a quality-control check)

A more human-to-human connection
(rather than a manager-subordinate role play)

A more aligned way-of-working
(rather than ‘living apart together’)

How well do you know your manager? For example..

Do you know..

What their main objectives and key concerns are? And how your work fits into this?
What drives them in their work?
What they see as the main attributes to their success?
What their biggest learnings have been?

Which questions have helped you build better relationships with your manager?

* Quote from LinkedIn article by Paul Petrone

What are you proud of?

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 13:41:17 GMT

Sometimes we are so focused on things we’d like to change or improve,
that we forget to celebrate what is already there / going well

How do you deal with your ~4000 weeks on Earth?

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 12:47:58 GMT

The average life expectancy in developed countries is about 4000 weeks.
How can this fact help you spend your time more purposefully?

Why do you work?

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 11:01:03 GMT

...beyond enabling you to pay the bills?

It’s interesting how little time we tend to think about this question, given the number of hours we work during our lifetime.

According to this Harvard Business Review article, most people look for three things in their work :

Career: autonomy, putting their strengths to use, learning and development
Community: feeling respected, cared about and recognized
Cause: creating meaningful impact, doing good in the world

I'd like to invite you to take a moment to reflect on why you work (see how specific you can get).

How could you use this knowledge to shape your plans for 2023? Perhaps there are things you could pick up (a project, or a role) that are more in line with your “why”. Or there may be something that you would rather stop?

For me, work is about feeling meaningful, building true and sincere connections, the thrill of achieving something, feeling valued, and about learning new things.

I'm really curious: why do you work?