Work with Your Rythyms

Copyright © 2004 by Don Blohowiak
Don@LeadWell.com http://www.leadwell.com/

With more than a tinge of embarrassment, I admit that some days in the office I all but shut down into a catatonic state. I shuffle papers, re-read emails without taking required action, and barely go through the motions of work.

Other days, I dance into the office, gleefully dive into the pile and attack it with joyous fury. I expedite more work in a couple of hours than what I accomplish in an average week.

Why is that?

Unlike computers and sophisticated machinery, dutiful, committed people doing knowledge work cannot operate with a consistency measurable out to the fourth decimal place. Even the best trained, most disciplined person can experience significant fluctuations in their performance owing to moods, bio rhythms, and personal energy patterns. That's called being human.

Some people (often those described as "creative types") have a less robust "executive control function." That's a capacity for self-regulation physically located in the brain's frontal cortex and its basal ganglia-thalamic connections. In essence, their physical "wiring" -- not will or character -- makes disciplined performance more challenging.

ACTION to Take

• Monitor your own personal performance rhythms. Note at what times and under what circumstances you write best, relate best to others, and handle minute details with aplomb.
  
  
• Plan your day and manage your schedule to accommodate your unique personal preferences for working effectively.
  
  
• Give yourself permission to operate at less than full throttle on those days when you just aren't in the zone. Do the best you can and commit to hitting the work hard when you are back in your groove.
  

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Don Blohowiak, a management consultant and popular conference speaker, is the author of several business books. The executive director of the Lead Well® Institute in Princeton, NJ, he may be reached at http://www.LeadWell.com/.

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Copyright © 2005, Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute

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