Seeking Coastal Utopia

Wait, wait. This is all wrong. It is supposed to be ”…all work and no play…” and in the reality of life, I would agree with you. I would much rather spend my day mountain biking, running, swimming, climbing, playing sports, SCUBA diving, you name it — if I could be outside, sweating bullets, that is where I would rather be.  Yet unfortunately, it is a choice. I can choose to do those things I just described without receiving income, or I can choose to work and earn money to afford those things I want to do. The balance struggle begins. But I digress…. “why are you all swimming in circles? get to work!” photo by Pascal van de Vendel on  Unsplash We work because most of us need to. When we work, we are expected to carry out tasks and activities to be remunerated for our efforts through cash, stocks, bonds, or horse trading. So how do we complete those activities? Good old-fashioned labor. Nose to the grindstone . Get. Stuff. Done. Humans are social be...

When our boss* comes to us to ask you to do something, do you ever say no? It is probably depending on which boss that it is, but most of us probably say “yes” and do the work.  We say "yes" even though we already have a plateful of work in front of us, and falling behind on the similar work. It is rare that a person says “no” to the boss and we need to figure out how that balance can be beneficial for both relationships. For those of you that say “no” outright, this is for you, too. “You are the best and I need you to get this done” by rawpixel on  Unsplash Most people realize that work is necessary. It provides us with the currency to purchase stuff. Important stuff like food, shelter, and clothing . It allows us to purchase things we want too, the toys like a medium format digital camera or a tranquility pod . We do not want to lose that opportunity to earn that paycheck. We do what we can to provide the right answer to keep us in good graces with th...

Parkinson’s Law simply states that work will expand to fill the time available to it.  In a recent personal effort with the altMBA, the opposite is also true — work will compress to fill the time available. If you have less time to get the work done, you will figure out a way to get it completed. This is all about productivity and it is amazing how we all follow this “law.” The same truism can be applied to money. The more money you make, the more money you spend. Having been in and around manufacturing environments for more than 25 years, it is easy to see how Parkinson’s Law comes into play. I have fallen into the trap of allowing work to expand significantly because there was nothing needing done next, but I also used this to my advantage through artificial constraints to get work completed within a period of time that was more compressed. Learning to say “good enough” and not allowing the hunt for perfect cause any more delay is imperative in the business world. However ...