Author: Michelle Jones (Page 3 of 47)

Staying relevant in your career requires continuous learning, but when you’re already feeling drained, finding the energy to improve your skills can feel overwhelming. So how can you keep learning when you’re exhausted?

Start by challenging your belief that you can’t learn when you’re tired. When you’re feeling depleted, you may start to identify so much with the fatigue that you forget your agency over your thoughts and beliefs. In this condition, every exclamation of “I’m so tired,” teaches your mind to believe that it’s probably impossible to learn anything when you’re exhausted. Instead try observing your fatigue without judgment or a desire to get rid of it and get curious about what’s possible even with such constraints. Making space for the fatigue enables a more mindful response and one from which you can creatively challenge unhelpful beliefs you’ve been holding onto while in that state.

Next, focus on learning topics that solve urgent problems in your work. Instead of laboring through subjects that don’t feel urgent or pertinent to you, begin with topics that relate to existing challenges and expand on your current knowledge to gather momentum fast. This will create momentum and make the process feel more rewarding

Don’t limit yourself to formal programs. Mentorship, peer-to-peer learning, or even quick tutorials can be more effective and easier to fit into your schedule. Seek out learning opportunities that align with your personal values and goals so they feel meaningful rather than like another obligation. When you emotionally connect with what you’re learning, it’s more likely to become part of your routine.

Finally, work with your brain, not against it. Use techniques like spaced repetition (reviewing information at increasing intervals over time) and self-testing (quizzing yourself to reinforce what you’ve learned) to retain information more effectively. Break learning into small, manageable chunks and revisit them regularly to build long-term retention.

In today’s fast-paced world, continuous learning is the key to having lasting influence in your career, yet already feeling overwhelmed by your daily workload makes it hard to stay consistent. By using these strategies, you can develop a lifelong learning journey that not only elevates your skills but lifts you out of exhaustion by moving closer to your highest potential.

Reference:
Harvard Business Review (2024, September 24) Nihar Chhaya: How to Keep Learning at Work – Even When You Feel Fried

The amount of work we need to get done seems to grow daily. To avoid becoming overwhelmed, we have to become more productive than ever. Being busy doesn’t automatically equate to doing important work. Instead of filling your calendar with busywork that will burn you out or stunt your career growth, be more intentional with your time.

Working smarter, not harder, means finding ways to use your energy and time at work more efficiently. To do this, you can use various strategies to help you prioritize your work, helping you identify the most important tasks. Besides increasing productivity, here are some other benefits of learning to work smarter: 

• Saving energy: Working in short bursts, for example, allows you to accomplish challenging tasks with more energy and produce better results.
• Increasing motivation: It can create feelings of positivity about your job, colleagues and yourself.
• Making you more valuable: Organizations often look for ways to get more accomplished with less effort, and being able to do this can allow you to become a more important employee.
• Increasing self-esteem: Working smarter allows you to create a better-quality product with less effort, which can boost your self-esteem.

Here are some ways high-achieving workers can build a smarter schedule.

Don’t overcommit. When your calendar is packed with back-to-back meetings, it’s a sign that you have too many priorities. You should intentionally leave space in your schedule to decompress and process your work. Aim to commit to only 80% of the opportunities and responsibilities presented to you. This also forces you to consider and name your priorities.

Be intentional about your time. You control your schedule; your schedule doesn’t control you—or at least it shouldn’t. For example, if you decide you’ll work all afternoon because you have meetings all morning—despite the afternoon being the time of day when you typically hit a creative wall—then you’re letting your schedule guide you. Instead of accepting this, make a change, and let the people in your professional and personal life know what you need to be at your best.

Measure your results, not your time. Keep an ongoing list of everything you accomplish during the day. This can help you feel motivated and accomplished. This list makes it easy to celebrate your accomplishments and better anticipate how long similar tasks may take in the future.

Set short deadlines. Setting deadlines for your work can help you focus and increase your efficiency. This can leave you with more time during your day to focus on other tasks or allow you to clean your office space before leaving for the day.

Use productivity tools. Many programs or applications can help you automate tasks and better track your work productivity. Letting a program track this data for you saves you time from doing it yourself, which can allow you to focus on more priority items.

Working smarter, not harder, can improve your productivity and performance while increasing your overall job satisfaction. It also can make you a valuable asset to your organization, increasing job security and potentially helping you earn a higher salary. Learning about some strategies to work smarter can help you be more successful throughout your career.

References:
Harvard Business Review: HBR IdeaCast (2024, April 2) Curt Nickisch and Laura Mae Martin: Treat Email Like Laundry – and Other Tips from Google’s Productivity Expert
Indeed (2023, October 13) Jamie Birt: 17 Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder (With Benefits)

The practice of observation and the discipline to be a more observant leader (defined as the ability to effectively interpret the world around us), is an overlooked skill. Observation is a skill that is especially important for understanding and operating in the highly connected and ever-changing world in which we operate.

Too often, executive leaders focus on “doing” their jobs through the lens of task and execution. Making the conscious choice and actively seeking to understand the many facets of our world by being present, and engaging “in person” without a filter, bias, or assumption, takes effort. Observation reveals itself through intentional action and behavior, and a leader’s ability to be present and connected during in-depth conversation.

Being a more observant leader can make a meaningful difference in the following ways:

A heightened sense of awareness. By paying close attention to dynamic connections in your environment, and the behaviors, attitudes, and needs of various stakeholder groups, you are better able to identify trends and anticipate challenges. You will also develop a greater sense of and foster empathy and understanding.

Improved decision-making and problem-solving skills. By carefully observing situations, you gather relevant data in the moment, identifying patterns, and recognizing underlying causes. You are more apt to consider multiple perspectives before making critical choices.

Continuous learning and innovation. By encouraging your team to be curious, observe, question, and explore, you unlock or discover how the gifts of others, as new perspectives or creative insights, are raised.

Stronger relationships. By keenly observing individual styles and behaviors, you can provide targeted guidance that supports growth. Combined with the power to listen attentively, you foster trust and open lines of communication.

Now that you know the benefits of being a more observant leader, how do you groom your skills?

1. Cultivate a mindset of curiosity and openness.
2. Practice active listening and non-verbal observation.
3. Develop situational awareness.
4. Encourage feedback.

As an executive leader, honing your observation skills to better support and serve the stakeholders you lead and partner with is an essential trait for your ever evolving leadership toolkit.

References:
Medium (2023, June 28) Steve Schloss: Observation: An Often-Overlooked Leadership Trait