#PositiveVibes - Chair Glue
John R. Nocero PhD, CCRP
Director of Quality and Compliance | All Gas, No Brakes
By John R. Nocero
There is no hack, iPhone app or device that can change your life like this simple guidance:
According to Livni (2018), the secret to achieving excellence is disarmingly simple. You might not like it, though. Asked about how to help creative types excel, Entertainment executive Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC, told Fast Company, “Put them to work … It’s process. It’s one [foot] in front of the other.”
In other words, you’re the lifehack you’ve been waiting for. Or you could be, if you accept the fact that the best, most effective route to success is also a bit boring. In our distracted and acquisitive culture, we’re encouraged to believe that if we read yet another article (ahem), we’ll discover there’s a perfect app or system, method or guru, the right morning routine that will keep us on track and make us more effective. But there’s no magic bullet. There’s just beginning and putting in the work, as Diller advises.
As Livni tells it, it's the "chair glue" - how long can you sit in your chair and get things done. That's the hack. Don't get up, don't distract yourself, just sit there and put in the work and watch the magic happen. To get things done, you have to do. There is nothing else that is the secret.
If you do each task single-mindedly, you’ll get better and faster with practice. Doing one thing at a time is “magic” for productivity, according to Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project and author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working. He explains in the Harvard Business Review that multi-tasking leads to burnout and produces poor quality work. It drains energy, perpetually drawing us away from the activity at hand, which we have to get back to.
The solution is simplicity, Schwartz suggests. Start something and do it until you finish, which can mean different things depending on the activity. Stick to it.
For more info, read the complete piece here: