Work | Read Write Collect

Bookmarked Home Work (Audrey Watters)

I think Americans’ homes are designed for that – they’re designed in ways that encourage you to fill up the closets and garages and spare bedrooms with stuff. There are catalogs upon catalogs with products and websites upon websites with ideas of how to buy things and build things that transform rooms to your liking.

This is an insightful look into home spaces and the way we use it.

We have worked at home (and with great frequency, it feels, worked on the road) for about a decade now. And the typical home or apartment – no matter its size or location – isn’t really designed for that.

Liked Business/busyness (Seth's Blog)

Productivity is the amount of useful output created for every hour of work we do.

Liked Reduce your costs, retain your focus (Doug Belshaw's Thought Shrapnel)

The way to ‘win’ at life and business is to still be doing what you enjoy and deem important when everyone else has crashed and burned.

Bookmarked How faking your feelings at work can be damaging by Keren Levy (bbc.com)

Remaining true to your feelings appears to be key – numerous studies show those who report regularly having to display emotions at work that conflict with their own feelings are more likely to experience emotional exhaustion. Of course, everybody needs to be professional at work and handling difficult clients and colleagues is often just part of the job. But what’s clear is that putting yourself in their shoes and trying to understand their position is ultimately of greater benefit to your own well-being than voicing sentiments that, deep down, you don’t believe.

It is an interesting dilemma balancing between the personal and private. I think that rather than everyone maintaining the ‘party line’ that it is important for people to translate the core message into their own story or explanation.

Moving Desks

A shot of my old desk, minus chair, dock and monitors.

Replied to Future of Things (FoT): In An Era of Encroachment (DCulberhouse)

The question is no longer as much about whether automation and artificial intelligence will come after my job, but whether or not I am continuously learning the skills, skillsets, and knowledge that will still make me viable and valuable whether automation or artificial intelligence comes after my job or not.

David, I am really intrigued by the comparison between flight and AI. What I feel is missing in the conversation are the consequences associated with such change. For example, we are now grappling with the challenges associated with fuel and pollution. Listen to RN Future Tense for an interesting take on where things are at.

I am not against the ‘future of things’, AI and changes in work, but I think that we need to do more work to understand and appreciate such changes. For me, this involves:

Asking questions as a part of critical reflection
Learning from and through others (as you touch on elsewhere)
Continually engaging in new challenges to disrupt habits

Listened EPISODE 12: Freelancers and Professionals from EPISODE 12: Freelancers and Professionals

The ideas covered in this episode:

Get a better boss
Entrepreneur ≠ Freelancer
Improve your tools and your skills
Find an industry that wants you
Becoming a category of one
Focus on the smallest viable audience
The confidence to say ‘yes’ and the strength to say ‘no’
The challenge of free
The discipline of prospecting
Get better clients

This is a thought-provoking episode, which raises many questions.

Liked Work-life balance is actually a circle, according to Jeff Bezos (Doug Belshaw's Thought Shrapnel)

All of the most awesome people I know have nothing like a work-life ‘balance’. Instead, they work hard, play hard, and tie that to a mission bigger than themselves.

Whether that’s true for the staff on targets in Amazon warehouses is a different matter, of course. But for knowledge workers, I think it’s spot-on.

Liked How your workplace is killing you by Jeff Pfeffer (bbc.com)

The evidence is unequivocal: job-related anxiety is a growing health crisis with repercussions for your mental and physical well-being.

People need to choose their employer not just for salary and promotion opportunities but on the basis of whether the job will be good for their psychological and physical health. Business leaders should measure the health of their workforce, not just profits.

In this presentation, Austin Kleon considers the question of “How to keep going” He answers this with ten points:

Everyday is Groundhog Day
Build a ‘bliss station’
Forget the noun, follow the verb
Make gifts
The ordinary + extra attention = extra-ordinary
Art is FOR life
You’re allow to change your mind
When in doubt, tidy up
Demon’s hate fresh air so take a walk
Spend time on something that will outlast you

I find Kleon one of those writers (and artists) who you can come back to again as a point of reflection.