Principles, Philosophy, and Mindset - DBR 052

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

Do Busy Right – philosophy and some basic mindsets I'll start out with a client story. Her name's Kelly, and we were talking about attention compass. “Well”, she said, “I don't know anything about all that. But I admire the Larry Zen”. I loved it. But, I didn’t know what “Larry Zen” meant. So, I asked. And she said, “nothing seems to bother you, nothing seems to get under your skin. You don't get ruffled easily. You're able to take things on and accomplish things without getting too wrapped up in the drama of situations.” I will say, I consider that a high compliment. I am actually a very emotional person. I'm not terribly demonstrative about that, and it doesn't apply to everything. I'm a football fan, but you seldom see me screaming at the TV. I have thoughts about what happened. I am a Monday morning quarterback, just like everybody else. I'm very interested in coaching and performance, and so I like to study really good coaches, because they get results through other people, which is the essence and the art of management. I just don’t do much drama. I think that our feelings often get in the way of our thinking. Back to the story, Kellie said, “Okay, well, how do you do that?” And I said, “Well a big part of it is my Attention Compass. I don't have stress over the things I have to do.” I developed the system because I needed it to live the kind of life I want to live. Along the way, I developed 'Larry Zen' through:

• I’m a Christian - Easy yoke and light burden
• LP Jacks – “the master of the art of living…”
• A very good mental picture of the life that I desire for myself and for people around me

Minimalism and stoicism

• I don't think of myself as a minimalist in any hard-core sense. I'm more, if you will, a stoic philosopher.
• I have minimalist tendencies - simplicity
• I do think that that the culture pushes us away from minimalism and stoicism
• I think most people are, by and large, as happy as they decide to be, but good tools help

I think we should work to do busy right.

• I use the phrase “calm and focused productivity”.
• Kipling in “If” – you know, “you'll be a man my son”.
• Ride the roller coaster
• “Mind like water” - knock those things out and move on, go eat dinner.
• Culture – “Why does it matter how I feel about a task?”
• “I hate doing expense reports”

Terms I like and use

• WorkPlay
• I choose peace and calm, for doing work because we love it
• We're created to be workers - to change the physical nature of our environment.
• I like to be lighthearted, relaxed and playful
• WorkLife
• It doesn’t count as work because you enjoy it?
• We have deadlines, some are easy and some are not
• Calm, focused productivity, work play and work life

I choose the contentment perspective on minimalism

• House pet example - Stuff breeds responsibility
• I'm in favor of good stewardship.
• we are in many ways accountable for the gifts that we've been given and that we use them well and properly. That's my definition of stewardship. can we afford to be content? Is the wrong question.
• Charles Dickens's character Wilkins Micawber warned us: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”

I think we can improve the lives of knowledge workers, and I think it's important,

• I'm worried about our productivity as knowledge workers
• We've gotten a lot faster, but I'm not sure that we've gotten any better.
• We get faster and faster and faster with the things that we can do, and we're required to to get faster and faster stay ahead of that.

I’m against a few things,

• we weren't meant to be overclocked
• the hustle culture, I'm very much against that.
• I'm against it's close cousin, which I refer to as hyper reactivity So I'm against that consumerism
• I think that that the most powerful economic forces in our culture today live and thrive and profit off of our discontent.
• I'm definitely against multitasking

Group class launching 10/29/2024. I've got a few seats available and won't have another class until after the first of the year. You can take care of it now and start 2025 with a better level of productivity. Linked In or [email protected]. I wanted you to understand where I'm going and to pick up some motivation. Build a community…