Mind Map
Its all in the mind. We hear it most often from most seniors. Give it a careful thought and you will know that it is your mind that decides anything you do or say.
And how often do we take those decisions? Every waking moment we keep taking decisions - major or minor. It is the mind that decides to wake up early in the morning and practice an exercise routine, and the same mind that decides to let go of the thought and continue the early morning sleep for another hour.
When mind can have so much control on this simple decision of waking up early in the morning for an exercise routine or not, don't you think, it can have a better control on the way you work? In my opinion, one of the Job Descriptions of the mind, personified as a Manager here, is to take decisions.
This all-powerful mind needs a break once in a while from its train of thoughts. On a bad work day, when it comes to action, there are times when we decide to walk around the problem,mostly tend to take up the external suggestions, points that don't quite agree with us, and continue doing what we are doing, only to worsen the effect of the already worse situation - headache, out of focus, bad day...
Incorrect approach!!!! Don't wait for your mind to scream "Give me a Break" with a splitting head-ache.
I had a not-so-good work day. Here are some lessons I learnt today at work on these lines, that I thought I must write about.
When things don't go your way, you could just decide to:
*Find someone to talk to. You can think better when you talk it out.
*Sit back and do a totally unrelated work assignment that has been pending for a long time.
*Rationalize the situation in your opponent's favor for a while.
*Completely support yourself. Believe that you are right, but never say that the other person is wrong. You only have a decisive say about your side of the story.
*Walk over to a friend's cube to say 'Hello' and discuss nothing in particular.
*Eat what you like. Good food and chocolate can do wonders.
*Pick up that phone and dial a friend to say "Hi".
*Go for a quiet walk.
*Keep quiet for a while.[ Was tough for me, but I resolved to keep quiet and it did help my temper today.]
*Believe that all worst case scenarios come with an expiry date. So, you will be able to get over it in a while.
*Remember the lessons and never repeat mistakes on your side of the story.
*Just chill. It cannot be so bad after all.
If all else fails, just shut down your computer, take the rest of the day off, and sleep for an hour. I didn't have to do this, because, I could recover faster than I had expected.
Its a mind game. Play it the way you like it and in a way that works equally well for you and your people.
After thought :
Mind mapping is another recent theory that is becoming popular. I have not learnt all about it, but I am using it extensively in my job as a technical writer. Someone said, I can do my financial planning and career planning and such serious things using a Mind mapping software. I did not get to work on it yet, but if you wish, you could try to Google for the software called FreeMind to see what this might mean to you.
And how often do we take those decisions? Every waking moment we keep taking decisions - major or minor. It is the mind that decides to wake up early in the morning and practice an exercise routine, and the same mind that decides to let go of the thought and continue the early morning sleep for another hour.
When mind can have so much control on this simple decision of waking up early in the morning for an exercise routine or not, don't you think, it can have a better control on the way you work? In my opinion, one of the Job Descriptions of the mind, personified as a Manager here, is to take decisions.
This all-powerful mind needs a break once in a while from its train of thoughts. On a bad work day, when it comes to action, there are times when we decide to walk around the problem,mostly tend to take up the external suggestions, points that don't quite agree with us, and continue doing what we are doing, only to worsen the effect of the already worse situation - headache, out of focus, bad day...
Incorrect approach!!!! Don't wait for your mind to scream "Give me a Break" with a splitting head-ache.
I had a not-so-good work day. Here are some lessons I learnt today at work on these lines, that I thought I must write about.
When things don't go your way, you could just decide to:
*Find someone to talk to. You can think better when you talk it out.
*Sit back and do a totally unrelated work assignment that has been pending for a long time.
*Rationalize the situation in your opponent's favor for a while.
*Completely support yourself. Believe that you are right, but never say that the other person is wrong. You only have a decisive say about your side of the story.
*Walk over to a friend's cube to say 'Hello' and discuss nothing in particular.
*Eat what you like. Good food and chocolate can do wonders.
*Pick up that phone and dial a friend to say "Hi".
*Go for a quiet walk.
*Keep quiet for a while.[ Was tough for me, but I resolved to keep quiet and it did help my temper today.]
*Believe that all worst case scenarios come with an expiry date. So, you will be able to get over it in a while.
*Remember the lessons and never repeat mistakes on your side of the story.
*Just chill. It cannot be so bad after all.
If all else fails, just shut down your computer, take the rest of the day off, and sleep for an hour. I didn't have to do this, because, I could recover faster than I had expected.
Its a mind game. Play it the way you like it and in a way that works equally well for you and your people.
After thought :
Mind mapping is another recent theory that is becoming popular. I have not learnt all about it, but I am using it extensively in my job as a technical writer. Someone said, I can do my financial planning and career planning and such serious things using a Mind mapping software. I did not get to work on it yet, but if you wish, you could try to Google for the software called FreeMind to see what this might mean to you.
Comments
I like to use a handwritten map.
I explain it better in my weblog
http://aleisureenthusiast.blogspot.com/
The blog is not just about mind maps. I'm looking into a variety of ideas.
Take a look and let me know what you think.
If it's OK with you I'd like to add your link to my site.
Sorry to pin-point it out, but I did find few statements contradicting each other. Like the first point: *Find someone to talk to. You can think better when you talk it out.
and: *Keep quiet for a while.[ Was tough for me, but I resolved to keep quiet and it did help my temper today.]
I think, it is better to follow: Keep quiet for a while.
At the end of a bad day at work (like u might have been made out to be the victim for collective mistake...we do get upset) it is better not to talk to anyone, be alone, try to recollect some happy memories instead of talking to someone. I have experienced that when we are upset and then in that mood try to talk to someone, the anger inevitably comes out and we end up spoiling the relatioonship even with this person also.
Thank you for your comments. I agree with your observation, but trust me, talking to someone first and then keeping quiet helps better :)
My rationale for that is : When you are totally upset or irritated with something, your mind wants to say a lot of things... when you choose to stay quiet about it, the thoughts continue to remain and you will never hear yourself out. The incident or person or the instance will continue to remain in your mind more strongly every time you see the person or face the situation. When you talk it out your mind is empty... And when you keep quiet after you have expressed your thoughts, your mind is a clean slate and can work better. Check my blog for a post on Clearing the clutter in the attic... It is on a different context but attributes to this point somewhere...It works for me to talk first and then stay quiet :) When you talk you express and when you are quiet you introspect... Without expressing, if you introspect, you can only see your view point which is seemingly correct almost always :) Well, I appreciate your thoughts and I only said mine.. continue to keep your views coming on different posts.. :) it is good to know what people think.
Best,
Dew
Thank you. Please feel free to add the link to your page. Thanks for letting me know. :)
Best,
Dew