Take Green Breaks

Take “Green Breaks” to Increase Task Completion

Good time management involves not only focusing on tasks, but also scheduling breaks. Taking breaks to refresh your energy and concentration is an effective way to increase your chances of completing your task.

However, your “fifteen-minute break” may stretch far beyond its allotted time, and you may become distracted by another activity, never returning to your original task. “I’ll sit down to review my finances, need a break, stand up, walk away, and next thing I know, I am doing laundry!” says Phyllis.

Try taking green breaks instead. A green break is a way of refreshing the brain that is brief but effective. It can be done as often as needed but won’t take you far from your task.

To take a green break:

1. Stand up facing something green. (A tree, a lawn, a leafy plant on a deck, or even a poster of a green pasture will do.)
2. Focus on the greenery.
3. Breathe in slowly. Feel your chest rise.
4. Exhale slowly. Let the air escape fully.
5. Breathe in again, this time bringing your arms up over your head, then lower them as you breathe out.
6. Now, drink a glass of water.
7. Finally, rock slowly from side to side.
8. Begin working again

The color green, especially in nature, is calming. Rocking and raising your arms is relaxing, the water replenishes you, and the increased oxygen from deep breathing will make you more alert. A green break refreshes you, allowing you to benefit from a break without becoming distracted by other things.

5 Guidelines for Reducing Paper Clutter

Use the following guidelines to reduce the amount of papers you gather.

Gathering Guideline Questions

1.  Am I still interested in knowing/doing/having this? (Elliot was once keenly interested in martini bars, but this interest has waned since he married.)

2.  Do I know/understand this already? (Elliot is now a pro at using social media. He no longer needs a magazine article for beginners.)

3.  Is a better/fresher version of this likely to come into my life soon? (Elliot is tempted to keep an article on hot mutual funds, but did you know that financial information becomes obsolete eight minutes after it comes off the press?!)
 

4.  If I will use/read/do/share this, will I do it before it goes out of date? (Elliot plans to buy an SUV in a year or two, but the information he has will be out of date by then. It will make more sense for him to gather SUV information when he’s close to the purchase date.)

5.  Can I deal with any regret I might have if I throw it away? (Elliot knows that even if he makes a mistake and throws something away that he should not have discarded, he might regret it, but he’ll get over it.)

If you find these guidelines to be helpful, you may want to laminate a printed list of guidelines and post it in a visible spot in your office, where you open mail, or other places where you tend to gather papers and recycle them.

8 Principles for Successful Negotiation

When you negotiate, you buy yourself valuable time to complete your work. You need not call it a “negotiation,” but whenever you set up a compromise, you are negotiating. The following are eight principles for negotiation:

1. Always begin with a position that you expect compromise.
2. Never start where you hope to end – then there’s no room for negotiation.
3. Make the assumption that the other party expects to compromise too.
4. Expect to meet somewhere between your starting point and theirs, although not always in the middle.
5. Look for ways to meet their needs without overly compromising yours.
6. Try to avoid expressing anger or antagonizing the other party.
7. Let them know that you appreciate their situation, and communicate your position in a way that will elicit understanding.
8.  Look for ways to reframe the situation from win-lose to win-win.

Naturally, negotiations depend on the power and authority hierarchy of your business. In some cases, you won’t be able to negotiate with your boss.