Uxorial Advice
As we live through a period of uncertainty and stress, it is worth recalling that in all of Winston Churchill’s long and eventful life, no period placed him under greater strain than his first weeks as Prime Minister, eighty years ago. By the end of June 1940, France had collapsed; the British army had largely been evacuated from the continent but was denuded of equipment; German invasion seemed imminent. Observing the effects these events had on her husband’s nature, Clementine Churchill wrote him what is the only known letter between them from all of 1940.
^ADJ: Great opening line: "I hope you will forgive me if I tell you something that I feel you ought to know" - we all need people in our lives that can tell us we are being 'difficult'. Links nicely into one of our favourite books at IT Partners Radical Candor, by Kim Scott.
But also raises that sometimes as a leader you do need to be direct, call out bad behaviour and you might have a few less fans as a result - and it doesn't make it wrong.
Lifehacks
^ADJ: Some challenging thinking like: "if you don’t have consistent scheduled time for your top goals, you don’t have top goals"
4 Ways to Get More Done in Less Time
Summary. Align your most important work with your chronotype. Schedule work that requires your most intense brain power with your energy peaks.
Plan your day the night before. Do it at the end of your workday so that whatever needs to be tackled tomorrow is still fresh in your head.
Develop different rituals (like where and when you work) for different types of tasks. Over time, your brain will associate those physical and temporal cues with those tasks.
Avoid blocking your calendar 100%. A fully blocked day can give you a false sense of productivity and leaves no time for moments of creativity and inspiration.
^ADJ: Recommend the author's Podcast How I work
The Importance of Genuine Enthusiasm
^ADJ: Key Messages:
"Seek more alignment with what interests and inspires you. Bring more of this into your life. Choose work or focus on the parts of your job that are more closely aligned with your true nature.
Find people who understand and support you and, importantly, in turn, support them. Enthusiasm is contagious—spread it to the people around you.
Choose exercise, movement, and music that elevate your mood.
Dorie Clark’s 10 Ways to use Long-Term Thinking to Your Advantage
Short-term thinking is not wrong, but it is wrong if it is the only thinking you do, says Dorie Clark, author of The Long Game and today’s masterclass speaker.
^ADJ: 10 great tips, I particularly like #2 Power of Scoing and #6 What are you prepared to be bad at?
Some Things I Think
I was going to delete this blog post, and then I thought, actually there are some really good takeouts and reminders such as: "I recently came across something called the rule of thirds: One-third of days you should feel amazing. One-third of days should feel OK. One-third of days should be crappy. That’s a good, balanced, realistic life." and "It’s good to have people in your life who you don’t want to disappoint.”