Back to School – Seven Virtues for Purpose, Performance, and Productivity
Seven virtues for purpose, performance, and productivity are basic practices we can now implement after our summer holiday. Are you one of the people who comes home from holidays and feels depressed about returning to work? I also had this feeling a few years back, and I would like to know what you can do about it.
Rose petals sprinkled over my neglected Zen Garden, sunflower fields turned brown, and we started to turn on the lights in the morning again. When you get home from work, you don’t want to sit outside anymore as it is dark, but you might vaguely remember this feeling you had as a kid when you were playing hide and seek at this time of the year, and it was just a notch better because it got dark at dinner time.
August is a bit like the “Summer of ‘69”.
We were finally out again, listening to “Rock’n’Roll Music” or “Jailhouse Rock.”
Still, my dear, fall is here.
We can still have a glass of “Summer Wine,”
but the days are as short as the “Itzy Bitzy Teeny Weeny Honolulu Strand Bikini.”
Apples are ripe for harvest, and the smell of onion pie and early wine hangs in the air. How do you remember the early fall, back when we were in high school? I remember a particular moment going down the stairs from our horrible gray concrete school building of the 70s, thinking, “This is great! I love being back at school!” I swung my newly acquired pepita jacket across my shoulders and closed my leather school bag with a sense of accomplishment.
Do you miss those times when you felt like the world was in order and had all the opportunities ahead of you?
Do you know when you feel like a “Rockstar” sipping champagne in a limo, with your Bono hat on, driving through “New York” with a bass drum pounding, similar to the headache you will have the following day?
Is this the life you want to have, without limits, without regrets, and certainly without the need to have a “Boss” tell you what to do, as you know best how to do your job, how to build your contribution to the world and how to achieve your goals in work and life?
You can start by building weekly practices and adding them to our RockMeApp to reach this focused and productive life level.
1 – Start Your Week with Monday Wishes
Starting your Week with Monday Wishes is a powerful way to start your week. Use your Have-Done-Diary (journal) to write your wishes for the week without limiting yourself. Even if you rewrite your to-do list, just brain-dump everything you wish for the week. The list should include fun stuff like “a bunch of flowers,” too.
2 – Craft Your New Morning Routine
We should all have a morning ritual, and you can design yours around your needs, lifestyle, family, and pets. For example, which order do you ideally follow in the morning for a happy and productive day ahead? Pro tip: Don’t check your mobile phone during this time of the day.
The Optimal Morning Routine – Andrew Huberman
3 – Finish with Friday Reflection
If your workweek closes on Thursday or Friday, use the last hour of your day to clean up your desk, sort paper or emails, write a task list for the week ahead, and then go through our four reflection questions on the RockMeApp. Here’s a helpful virtue of separating the workweek from the weekend. I’ve talked about taking 90 minutes on Saturday to finalize open tasks instead of working late with a few of you. Test this; for me, it works well.
4 – Plan a Digital Detox Day
Taking a real break from social media and hilarious videos on Instagram is easy if you have a plan for where you can hide your phone for 24 hours. You might be a parent and need to be reachable for your children. My uncle’s strategy to have an elementary mobile phone remain reachable over the weekend for essential clients and family can pay off. Alternatively, you can apply willpower (just kidding). Turn on the “Radio GaGa” and listen to unexpected songs, hear the news without images, and enjoy that wonderful feeling.
5 – Weekly Practices You Can Do Anywhere
Weekly practices are a vital element of our programs. They help with sanity maintenance and make you a happier person to be around (as opposed to your inner Mr. Hyde, who is also a corporate zombie.)
If you are struggling to define what practices are helpful or haven’t even started, I encourage you to define weekly goals you can achieve no matter where you are. Examples could be a daily walking target and relaxation exercises.
6 – Consider my Productivity Hacks
If you feel you have maxed out your productivity already, please test this: If you can implement one of these seven productivity hacks (1- Have-Done Diary, 2 – Pomodoro Method, 3 – Eisenhower Matrix, 4 – Pareto-Principle, 5 – Peace Island, 6 – Repetition Checklists, 7 – Outsourcing Housework) and you notice any changes you might still have potential to improve, and there’s always space to learn and get better at tools. Also, to let you in on a secret, I spent much time on mundane tasks such as looking for the correct passwords or ensuring I had the right document version.
I often needed to follow up on team tasks and could only sometimes rely on them. We now use password managers, master spreadsheets, and SLACK for team communication. This has increased our productivity. Also, my stress level is lower as now everything is well organized and accessible from anywhere, including all team members.
7 – Revisit Your Weekly Planner
When you started working with the weekly planner (we usually hand this out at the end of all programs), you noticed increased productivity immediately. With more practice, you could make optimizations or change your meal or exercise plan for the fall. Keep the general structure and only optimize what needs improvement.
Template_238_Your Ideal Week Planner
Take one Baby Step Today
How about you practice one virtue for eight weeks and tell me what happens? I would love to hear from you. If you wish to work on your purpose, performance, and productivity further, work with me 1:1. We will rock you!” so that no stone will be left unturned once you start on this journey of self-discovery with Coach “Angie.”
Talk to me about the “Global Rockstars” program.
I promise that we will rock you!” so that no stone will be left unturned.
Overcoming Depression One Page at a Time: The Impact of Journaling on Mood
The Global Rockstar Album
Weinberger, A. (2023): The Global Rockstar Album – 21 Verses to Find Your Tact as an Inclusive Leader, Global People Transitions Ltd., Zurich, Switzerland.
