Thursday, November 28, 2019

3 habits that will help you be less impulsive in life

3 habits that will help you be less impulsive in life3 habits that will help you be less impulsive in lifeImpulsivity is the lack of thinking between the impulse and action. You react instead of act. Its very common. To eliminate or limit this, you need to consciously step in between the stimulus and your action.You dont, because you have no mental tools for that. 99.9% of the bevlkerung dont have them. Its easier and quicker to react instead of think.Habits are the only thing that can make a difference for you. Your habits make you who you are, so adopt new habits that support being less impulsive.Hence, I recommend three habits that will make you aware of whats going on in your head. Self-awareness is only the first step, but its a necessary one. If you are bedrngnis aware of your thinking processes, you just blurt out something without conscious processing. There is no chance to intervene between the stimuli and action.1. JournalingHands down, its the best solution. It has very si milar benefits to two others habits I talk about below, but journaling provides even more advantages.Unfortunately, you cannot do it in 1-minute chunks. You need to sit on your butt and spend those 510 minutes on writing (or more I journal 1015 minutes every morning). That way you learn to focus, which will be another benefit for your ADHD-ridden mind.Then, writing itself has this magical ability of clarifying your thoughts. They cannot run stray in your mind if they will be put on paper. Some level of focus and clarity is woven into the activity itself.What to journal about?About you. Your thoughts. Your past actions. Your future plans and dreams. Analyze yourself. You can write about your days and interactions, but always from the angle of What the heck has been going on in my mind?It may not be journaling about the past events at all. I more often write about my attitudes and states of mind than specific events.In my journaling sessions, I ask myself only one headline question an d try to answer it as comprehensively as I can in the 66% of the page I dedicate for that. Sometimes I continue the same question/answer the next day, if the scope is big enough.(Sign up to my list and Ill send you 100 questions from my journals and more)The one trouble with journaling is that its not as easy as the other two habits. 515 minute commitment is not something a person with ADHD is ready for. I can offer one hack start from gratitude journaling. Every morning, write on paper three new things that you are grateful for.It still will give you some insight into your thoughts. It will make you focus on something specific (gratitude) and will provide the clarifying benefit of writing. Plus, it will rewire your brain to positive and everything in your life will get better. No exaggeration.2. MeditationReserve a couple minutes of your time, preferably in solitude (not obligatory, but very helpful).Sit or lie and relax (not obligatory, but very helpful).Close your eyes (not oblig atory, but very helpful).Breathe deeply for two minutes, focusing on the air coming in and out of your nostrils (you can also focus on any of your body parts or sense your body in general) when a thought crosses your mind, acknowledge it and get back to your point of focus.Congratulations. Youve just meditated for the first time in your life repeat this process ten days in a row and you will develop a stable meditation habit.Thats all. There are a zillion ways you can meditate deeper and longer, but at the beginning you need to keep things simple. Try to meditate rather more often than longer. One minute here and there will be much better than 10 minutes of meditation lumped together. When you start, the frequency of your habit solidifies it, not the scope of it.The goal of meditation as I see it, is not to stop thinking its the realization that you think all the time and you cannot help it. This activity makes you aware of whats going on inside your skull.3. SilenceThe motorway fro m your mind to your tongue is wide and fast. Its very difficult to control your speech. Its much easier to simply shut completely up.Silence is weird, I know. I practiced it myself. I tried to not utter a single word for the whole day. I never succeeded.But man It gave me so much control over my reactions When you have to shut up, you must shut down the mind-tongue motorway with your conscious control. You quickly learn how to exercise this control.You may want to start slowly, from 10 or 20 minutes at a time. When people will inquire why the heck you are so quiet, you can say you made a bet with yourself to be silent for some specific time. In fact, you can verily make a bet with yourself, so you will not lie to them.Every second spent on exercising silence will benefit you with more control over your tongue, your thoughts and in the end, over the stimuli-response process.There are plenty of other habits to become less impulsive, but the three above are the most easy, efficient and nailing the issue of self-control down.There is really almost zero cost of entry for each of them. Pick one of them and start today. Better yet, start right nowThis article welches originally published on Medium.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

How women can learn to say no to office housework

How women can learn to say no to office houseworkHow women can learn to say no to office houseworkToo often, women get volunteered to do the thankless tasks that no one else in the office wants to do. Research from the Center of WorkLife Law at the University of California defines these dead-end tasks as office housework, or work done bysomeone, but it isnt going to make that persons career. It can range from actual housework like making the coffee to operational or administrative work like organizing team off-sites and serving on low-ranking committees.Women are leidlage doing these tasks out of the goodness of their hearts. The pressure to be a good team player is not just an internal pressure women face. Managers instill this pressure. One study found that a manager is 40% more likely to ask a woman to volunteer for tasks with low promotability,regardless of whether the manager was a man or a woman. Who gets chosen to do the tasks no one else appreciates is a self-fulfilling proph ecy. Managers subconsciously think that women will be more likely to answer the call, so they end up picking on them first. Once a woman gains a reputation for being agreeable to doing these non-promotable tasks, she may get asked again and again to take them on.To give everyone more access to important work that will get them ahead in their careers, managers first need to recognize their internal biases about who they pick on to volunteer to do thankless tasks. Employers have a corporate responsibility to give employees good challenges to keep them engaged instead of saddling them with busy work.That is why employers and managers should shoulder the responsibility of distributing glamorous work assignments fairly. But on an individual level, reluctant volunteers are not helpless to say yes. They can use these proven strategies to avoid taking on thankless tasks. Heres howHow women can say no to office houseworkTo stop from getting roped into needless tasks, women first need to reco gnize why they need to say no. Agreeing to summarize meeting notes may seem like the most painless way to get a thankless task out of your way, but it is holding you back from doing the work that will actually help you learn and grow.On the Women at Work podcast, economics professor Lise Vesterlund, one of the researchers behind the non-promotable task study, advised reframing your no as a yes to something else more important. Its not just a question of saying no, no, no. Its saying no to things so that you can do the things that you really care about, she said. Recognizing your priorities can be the motivation you need to keep quiet when the call for helpful volunteers comes across your desk.But women need to be careful about how they frame their refusal to their boss. Saying no may backfire. One 2005 study found that women get rated less favorably than men in their performance review if they do not get seen as helpful.To soften the blow of a flat-out rejection, Vesterlund said tha t employees should meet in a private umgebung with their boss about the office housework request. It may help your case to avoid publicly challenging your boss.Once an employee get her boss in a room alone, the employee can then push back on an office housework request by reminding the boss that she is seeking new challenges. Employees can say, Many of my tasks have become routine. Can I get tasks that demand more where I can show my skills more? Vesterlund advises. The request tactfully nudges the boss to remember to be a good boss, because fair managers want to help their reports develop and grow.By asking for new challenges, it shows that you are trying to be a good team player by being the best professional you can be. Ultimately, doing your best work is the best help that you can give a company and you cannot do that if you are stuck doing tasks that do not push you to grow.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Transferable Skills Sample for Service Quality Management Job Description

Transferable Skills Sample for Service Quality Management Job DescriptionTransferable Skills Sample for Service Quality Management Job DescriptionFor anyone looking for a job in service quality management, here are some sample responsibilities from a job description I once helped put together for an IT client. Ill also give you some examples of transferable skills you can use to help show an employer the match.NOTE Ive edited the real version a bit since I like to protect client identities, but hopefully this will at least help give you an idea of what kinds of things might be included in an actual descriptionSample Job Description Service Quality Manager (SQM) = Responsibilities Section The Service Quality Manager, a newly-created position designed to help lead and expand the CLT Service Quality Improvement Initiative, will work with CLT management and staff, clients, vendors, and other interested parties.Responsibilities include, but are not limited togeschftsleben process improve ment for all CLT servicesFull life-cycle project management for service aspects of all CLT applications, projects, and programsRelationship building and managementMetrics development, tracking and analysisMaintaining the CLT website and helping to create service-related forms documentationKeeping other CLT departments informed of changes to CLT business processes servicesProactively seeking out and helping to initiate service improvement projectsSample transferable skills for your resume cover letter Transferable skills allow you to use things youve already done to show why you are ideally suited for the NEW job. Some possible things you could highlight in your resume and cover letter to help you make the case for a great fit for this particular job descriptionAny examples of times that you found better ways to do something, especially if it saved money or time and got good feedback. Big plus if you initiated the idea yourselfAny examples of times you led a project from beginning to end or even part of a project.Make sure you include any person-to-person or person-to-group contact that can show you are good at building and maintaining work-related relationships.Have you ever kept track of measurements that show how a project or program is going? Sales increases. Approval ratings. Anything that uses numbers and / or charts to track progress. Include thatDo you have experience writing for or maintaining online sites? Even your own blog? Mention that. (For this particular job. Not true of all SQM jobs.)Have you ever written documentation or developed forms (even simple ones)? Even if you came up with a short survey or questionnaire, you can use that to help show you have the saatkorn kinds of skills.Highlight any times you initiated or were in charge of intra-office and inter-office communication. Newsletters or even simple service change alerts are good to include.Some final thoughts We all have transferable skills. The real trick is, making sure you careful ly communicate that to a potential employer.Use your resume and cover letter to highlight your exact experience / skill matches. But also dont forget to bring your strongest transferable skills to the employers attention. Sometimes just letting them know you have the aptitude is enough to get you in the interview doorGood luckMore articles you might enjoy? What Are Transferable Job Skills and Why Do They Matter?? The Career Nook Transferable Skills Career Quiz? How to Use Transferable Skills to Make a Career Change? How to Write a Strong Resume That Gets You Real Interviews