You’re reading Less Is More: 4 Things to Do When You Are Overwhelmed, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Nearly everyone complains about having too much to do at work nowadays. The reasons may vary from ambitions and overcommitting to just being unable to say no to extra work. However, the result is always the same: you end up at risk of not managing to do everything you had planned.
Experts say that overworking is not sustainable in the long term for both the employer and the employee: its consequences range from simple tiredness to exhaustion and emotional burnout. So, what can be done if you feel overworked?
Easier said than done: none of us want to be considered a “no” person or “not a team player”. That’s why talking to a boss and admitting that the workload is too heavy is difficult even for the most hard-working employees.
However, if you are overwhelmed, it’s best to let your manager know: it doesn’t mean that you are lazy or uncommitted. A reasonable manager would appreciate your honesty and ability to adequately assess your personal resources. Being honest and giving a heads-up as early as possible is essential for achieving the desired changes.
A good way to let your boss know that you have too much on your plate is to come to them with actual solutions. Suggesting ways to optimize the workflow or redistribute workload shows initiative and responsibility. Speaking up when you feel you’re not handling the workload well is not about being lazy and difficult to work with. It’s about preventing your team from missing important deadlines and goals.
A thousand mile journey begins with a single step. If there’s no way to reduce the workload and you’re feeling anxious about it, it might be a good idea not to concentrate on the big picture. Instead, focus on what’s right in front of you, doing work in chunks of smaller tasks – and your anxiety will gradually fade.
When you’re not confident in your abilities, start anyway. Our negative thoughts are our worst enemy: they keep us from achieving more and contribute to our lack of confidence. Learn to ignore them and just get to work.
No matter how hard-working we think we are, taking on every task available doesn’t mean being successful. Quite the opposite, in fact. And sometimes saying no is just as vital for the long-term progress of both your team and yourself. As questionable as it may sound, doing more does not always equal working better. Go ahead and ask yourself which one makes you feel better: accomplishing fewer tasks, but doing it really well, or wading through a massive list of assignments and ending up with below average results?
Don’t be a perfectionist. Many of us tend to judge ourselves too harshly, but perfectionism and our attempts to be as good as we “should” be only served to work against us, leading to negative thoughts, low self-esteem, and disappointment. You can be good enough without the extra work and being always busy.
And sure, sometimes overworking can feel rewarding. When we have a lot to do, we feel we’re needed, irreplaceable, in demand. However, the usual result is stress and exhaustion. To prevent this, we need to learn to evaluate our capacity and know exactly how much work we can handle.
When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed often, taking a look at what takes up most of your work time can be extremely valuable. One of the most efficient ways to do that is to visualize your tasks and record the time that you spend on them. And timesheet software can help you do that. See where your time goes, analyze the big picture, and see where you can (and should) improve.
Normally, a quick glance at the results of your time-track is enough to tell what work assignments consume most of your time. Think on the ways to increase your efficiency at work. Seek support from your team: think of delegating part of your work to your colleagues or redistributing it. Optimize your work process so that routine actions take less time, and set priorities so that the most important to-dos get done first.
Saying no to extra work and delegating part of your current responsibilities to your colleagues doesn’t paint you as not committed or unproductive. Remember: more input doesn’t necessarily mean more output. And if you do have a lot of work to do and it makes you feel anxious, just start anyway. Taking that first step will help you go the entire distance.
You’ve read Less Is More: 4 Things to Do When You Are Overwhelmed, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading Less Is More: 4 Things to Do When You Are Overwhelmed, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Nearly everyone complains about having too much to do at work nowadays. The reasons may vary from ambitions and overcommitting to just being unable to say no to extra work. However, the result is always the same: you end up at risk of not managing to do everything you had planned.
Experts say that overworking is not sustainable in the long term for both the employer and the employee: its consequences range from simple tiredness to exhaustion and emotional burnout. So, what can be done if you feel overworked?
Easier said than done: none of us want to be considered a “no” person or “not a team player”. That’s why talking to a boss and admitting that the workload is too heavy is difficult even for the most hard-working employees.
However, if you are overwhelmed, it’s best to let your manager know: it doesn’t mean that you are lazy or uncommitted. A reasonable manager would appreciate your honesty and ability to adequately assess your personal resources. Being honest and giving a heads-up as early as possible is essential for achieving the desired changes.
A good way to let your boss know that you have too much on your plate is to come to them with actual solutions. Suggesting ways to optimize the workflow or redistribute workload shows initiative and responsibility. Speaking up when you feel you’re not handling the workload well is not about being lazy and difficult to work with. It’s about preventing your team from missing important deadlines and goals.
A thousand mile journey begins with a single step. If there’s no way to reduce the workload and you’re feeling anxious about it, it might be a good idea not to concentrate on the big picture. Instead, focus on what’s right in front of you, doing work in chunks of smaller tasks – and your anxiety will gradually fade.
When you’re not confident in your abilities, start anyway. Our negative thoughts are our worst enemy: they keep us from achieving more and contribute to our lack of confidence. Learn to ignore them and just get to work.
No matter how hard-working we think we are, taking on every task available doesn’t mean being successful. Quite the opposite, in fact. And sometimes saying no is just as vital for the long-term progress of both your team and yourself. As questionable as it may sound, doing more does not always equal working better. Go ahead and ask yourself which one makes you feel better: accomplishing fewer tasks, but doing it really well, or wading through a massive list of assignments and ending up with below average results?
Don’t be a perfectionist. Many of us tend to judge ourselves too harshly, but perfectionism and our attempts to be as good as we “should” be only served to work against us, leading to negative thoughts, low self-esteem, and disappointment. You can be good enough without the extra work and being always busy.
And sure, sometimes overworking can feel rewarding. When we have a lot to do, we feel we’re needed, irreplaceable, in demand. However, the usual result is stress and exhaustion. To prevent this, we need to learn to evaluate our capacity and know exactly how much work we can handle.
When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed often, taking a look at what takes up most of your work time can be extremely valuable. One of the most efficient ways to do that is to visualize your tasks and record the time that you spend on them. And timesheet software can help you do that. See where your time goes, analyze the big picture, and see where you can (and should) improve.
Normally, a quick glance at the results of your time-track is enough to tell what work assignments consume most of your time. Think on the ways to increase your efficiency at work. Seek support from your team: think of delegating part of your work to your colleagues or redistributing it. Optimize your work process so that routine actions take less time, and set priorities so that the most important to-dos get done first.
Saying no to extra work and delegating part of your current responsibilities to your colleagues doesn’t paint you as not committed or unproductive. Remember: more input doesn’t necessarily mean more output. And if you do have a lot of work to do and it makes you feel anxious, just start anyway. Taking that first step will help you go the entire distance.
You’ve read Less Is More: 4 Things to Do When You Are Overwhelmed, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading Live. Love. Explore: The Way of the Traveler, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better…The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
Theodore Roosevelt
Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, “I’m living someone else’s life”? I have. The realization came as I watched The Motorcycle Diaries, a romanticized version of Che Guevera traveling across South America relying on the kindness of strangers. The movie touched a spark in my soul. It woke me up. At the time I was a broker in the city of London, severely depressed and ready to give up on everything. Sounds melodramatic, I know. But it also happens to be true.
I would stay in my house and when I wasn’t sleeping I was self-medicating. It was a profoundly unsustainable way to live. Despite being surrounded by millions of people I felt completely alone. I had lost all form of human connection and I desperately needed it back. The pain forced me into a decision that would change my life forever.
I quit my job and decided to live by a set of ideals I now call the Way of the Traveler. A set of ideals that first germinated on a hilltop in Nepal but came to life on the rain-slicked streets of London.
What is the Way of the Traveler you may ask? Well, it means something different to each person but for me, it meant giving up on my externally successful life and trying to escape the internal pain I was hiding from others. It became a way of life. I left my house, and my life (including all the pain that came with it. I hoped). I decided I was going to travel the world trying to connect with others face to face. Human connection was going to be my fuel…
What the Way of the Traveler tries to do is to help you determine where your passion truly lies and how to take steps to achieve your dreams. It creates a jumpstart to help you find the courage to live ‘your’ life. The beautiful one waiting for each and every one of us…
Leaving your job and family isn’t the only way to take the first step toward your dreams. What I will say is taking small risks is often the only way to get started. If you want to become a writer you can’t just say, “I’m a writer” and hey presto you become Orwell overnight. You have to be willing to take that first very important step; it’s a risky one, though. It’s admitting you’re not happy with your life. For me acknowledging that I wasn’t happy didn’t change things right away. After many nights of self-pity, I found the courage needed to change.
And you can too.
I fought through the fear and I left for my travels around the world. That trip would spark what would become my life’s goal of traveling while helping others feel empowered and feel seen; Viscerally seen by another human being until we find the strength to see ourselves.
So often we try to convince ourselves that we’re not good enough to dream, let alone work toward achieving our dreams. I’m here to tell you if this is what you think you are mistaken. If no one believes in you, know that this Englishman does. He may not know who you are, but he believes in your right to live magnificently. Truly magnificently.
But there is a cost to living fully. And that cost is that people may not like your choices. They may not like your newfound magnificence that shines as brightly as the brightest star. That’s the risk you take… Are you in? Or are you going to go back to the sadness and the boredom? The beauty of this life is that ultimately you get to choose.
The Way of the Traveler asks that you allow yourself to determine what your wildest dreams are. Do you want to become a doctor, an actor, or a world traveler? Nothing starts until you take that first leap into the unknown! It sounds cliché to say this but I’ve met so many people who once they move past the mental block of negativity that’s stopping them begin to soar. Magnificently.
What are 3 things big or small you could do today to start realizing your dreams? Maybe it’s going back to school, or writing one page of your screenplay a night. Whatever it is unless you embrace your ability to chase the impossible it will never happen. And then the magnificence that is waiting patiently to shine will be lost. Maybe forever.
Although the Way of the Traveler asks a lot of each of us, there’s no way to do this alone. This means we have to take a realistic look at those around us. When you tell people your wildest dreams, do they laugh and discourage you, or are they supportive and push you? If they don’t support you it may be difficult to completely take them out of your life. But what you can do is not let them get in your way and surround your self with likeminded people who support your dreams.
I call them accidental heroes! Find them. And keep them close.
When you find your accidental heroes; it will take energy and love to keep them around. If you’re there for each other and share the pain it takes to achieve your goals nothing can stop you. Do you have people like this in your life? Who are they?
Sometimes we will hit setbacks on our way toward happiness. For me, it was ending up right back where I fought so hard to escape, behind a desk (or my slab of wood as I like to call it…). It’s important that during these times we take the time to stop and see the magic. My moment was seeing a homeless chap holding up a sign that read, “Kindness is the best medicine”. This one moment catapulted my next travel adventure of driving a vintage yellow motorbike (with a sidecar) across the globe giving life-changing gifts to unsuspecting good Samaritans. Kindness is a two-way street. It’s not just about receiving kindness it’s also about profoundly giving it away. Like its confetti.
When we find ourselves disconnected from the things and people we value most we need to take a minute to see how far we’ve come. Don’t be deterred by failure. Failing is one of the best learning lessons we can experience. It gives us an opportunity to stop and reflect. The best way to move past failure is to turn it on its head, turn it into a success.
Remember the only reason we failed was because we had the courage to try in the first place. Just ask Winston Churchill, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. about failure. Their lives were filled with roadblocks but more often than not it was their successes that shaped our world. If you can change your perception of what failure is you can face any setback thrown at you.
Following your passion is not easy; you will have days where you want to give-up. Many days. On these days I say reward yourself for all the hard work you’re putting in toward living your greatest life. You deserve it! When I find myself in this state I turn my favorite song on really loud and I dance. I dance and I don’t stop dancing until I feel better. I believe you can tackle anything, just keep your head up and dance.
Grab life by the arm and never stop dancing.
Ready for more?
If you’re interested in learning more about The Way of the Traveler my book Live, Love, Explore: Discover the Way of the Traveler a Roadmap to the Life You Were Meant to Live, published by Readers Digest, is available online or at your local bookstore.
The Kindness Diaries a 13 part series that documents my worldwide sidecar adventure is now streaming on Netflix: http://ift.tt/2mdjLYP
About Leon Logothetis:
Leon Logothetis is a global adventurer, motivational speaker, philanthropist, and author of the bestselling memoir The Kindness Diaries. He gave up his job as a broker and his home in London for a life on the road. Leon has now visited more than 90 countries and traveled to every continent. He is the host of the TV series Amazing Adventures Of A Nobody, which is broadcasted across the world by National Geographic. Leon has documented his travels for numerous media outlets including Good Morning America, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Outside, Good, Psychology Today, and The New York Times.
You’ve read Live. Love. Explore: The Way of the Traveler, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading How to Learn Any Language On Your Own (Step-by-Step Guide), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Learning a language on your own is not easy. But it is possible with the right strategy.
While we suggest finding a teacher or partner that can help shorten your learning curve, we also understand that not everyone has the budget or time.
Over the past few years, we’ve heard from many of our student who have tried learning a language on their own. They’ve shared from their own experience what they wish they would’ve done differently.
This is the single biggest feedback we’ve gotten from people who’ve taken the solo learning path. It turns out that some people are designed to learn new things on their own, while some of us are the contrast.
For example, some of us learn best by listening, while others retain more information when reading something (check out the 7 major learning styles). You have to reflect on your previous experience to understand how you’ve best learnt new skills in the past.
Unfortunately, most of us have been forced to learn via a limited learning style because of the traditional education system we grew up with. In short, not everyone is designed to learn new skills on their own. And by being self-aware of your shortcomings upfront, you can save yourself a lot of time, stress, and hassle.
If you have decided to learn a language on your own, the biggest obstacle for most people is persistency. In most cases, learning anything on your own will take much longer than getting professional help and guidance from someone who’s done it before.
This is why you need to have a strong inner purpose of why you’re learning a language. Maybe your family speaks another language, and you want to feel a deeper connection with them. Perhaps your spouse comes from a different culture, and you want to be able to communicate with his/her family.
Understanding why you’re learning a language is what’s going to inspire you to go through that lesson manual, attend those language exchanges, and to continue grinding it out when things inevitably gets tough.
If you’ve attended our free language masterclass, then you know we’ve discussed the cycles of the mastery curve. In case you missed it, the process of mastery is never a straight upward curve, no matter how talented you are. It’s a series of ups and downs, with many plateaus that come with it.
Once you know why you’re learning a language, you must have a firm end-goal in mind. Otherwise, you don’t have a target that aligns with your purpose.
Is your end goal to reach conversation proficiency? Or perhaps you want to become a fluent speaker.
But that’s only the first step. We also have to know in what timeframe we want to achieve our goals. If you have an overseas trip coming up in July, you may want to aim to hit your goal by May or June. If you’re learning for fun, you can be a little more lenient, but you still want to have a specific deadline.
Why do we want to do this? Because of Parkinson’s Law, which states that the amount of time that one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete the task. This means that often when we give ourselves 12 months to learn something, we’ll subconsciously spend 12 months learning it. Versus if we gave ourselves only 7 months, we’ll force ourselves to learn within that timeframe.
Now that we have our prerequisites, we’ll share our step-by-step process on how to learn a language on your own.
If you wanted to become a musician, you’ll need an instrument. If you wanted to get in better shape, you need weights and equipment. Learning a language is no different.
Language learners today have a plethora of tools and resources that we can leverage to learn faster. From mobile apps to podcasts, your options are limitless.
Check out our list of recommended language tools to get new ideas.
The second is to design your environment around your language. The reason why this is powerful is because there’s two main ways to learn something: actively and passively. While active learning is more impactful, we only have so much time in the day to actively learn a language.
Examples of passive learning includes:
What doesn’t get measured, won’t get better. This applies to our health life, business life, and others.
The mistake that most learners make is to measure progress in large milestones that are too far to imagine or track. Instead, we should focus on weekly, if not daily goals.
Here are a few ideas we suggest:
Having the right tools and strategy is only half the battle. Staying persistent and accountable is just as important, because learning a language is a marathon. It’s easy to say now that you’ll be able to put in an hour everyday, but unexpected events and emotions will always come up unexpectedly.
Research by professors Robert Cialdini and Tim Church states that finding a buddy that keeps you accountable is one of the best ways to motivate change. It has even shown to be more effective than finding a mentor.
An accountability partner can be a friend who’s also learning a language, a teacher, or anyone that you trust and see often.
When learning anything, there are shortcuts that you can leverage, including languages. There are polyglots, linguists, and researchers that have laid out multiple language hacks that you should use.
Here are some that we recommend:
Daily immersion has been proven to be powerful. It’s much more effective to learn 15 minutes a day, than to learn for 3 hours a week. And it’s much more powerful to learn 3 hours a week than 10 hours a month.
This is because consistency trumps quality, and small achievements accumulate over time. The way to do this is to find ‘hidden’ free times in your day, and schedule learning time. It can be as little as 30 minutes or even 15 minutes.
The reality is no matter how busy we think we are, there’s always empty 15-30 minute slots in our schedule. Here’s an article we wrote on how to find more time in your schedule to learn anything.
Follow up resources we recommend:
You’ve read How to Learn Any Language On Your Own (Step-by-Step Guide), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading How to Learn Any Language On Your Own (Step-by-Step Guide), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Learning a language on your own is not easy. But it is possible with the right strategy.
While we suggest finding a teacher or partner that can help shorten your learning curve, we also understand that not everyone has the budget or time.
Over the past few years, we’ve heard from many of our student who have tried learning a language on their own. They’ve shared from their own experience what they wish they would’ve done differently.
This is the single biggest feedback we’ve gotten from people who’ve taken the solo learning path. It turns out that some people are designed to learn new things on their own, while some of us are the contrast.
For example, some of us learn best by listening, while others retain more information when reading something (check out the 7 major learning styles). You have to reflect on your previous experience to understand how you’ve best learnt new skills in the past.
Unfortunately, most of us have been forced to learn via a limited learning style because of the traditional education system we grew up with. In short, not everyone is designed to learn new skills on their own. And by being self-aware of your shortcomings upfront, you can save yourself a lot of time, stress, and hassle.
If you have decided to learn a language on your own, the biggest obstacle for most people is persistency. In most cases, learning anything on your own will take much longer than getting professional help and guidance from someone who’s done it before.
This is why you need to have a strong inner purpose of why you’re learning a language. Maybe your family speaks another language, and you want to feel a deeper connection with them. Perhaps your spouse comes from a different culture, and you want to be able to communicate with his/her family.
Understanding why you’re learning a language is what’s going to inspire you to go through that lesson manual, attend those language exchanges, and to continue grinding it out when things inevitably gets tough.
If you’ve attended our free language masterclass, then you know we’ve discussed the cycles of the mastery curve. In case you missed it, the process of mastery is never a straight upward curve, no matter how talented you are. It’s a series of ups and downs, with many plateaus that come with it.
Once you know why you’re learning a language, you must have a firm end-goal in mind. Otherwise, you don’t have a target that aligns with your purpose.
Is your end goal to reach conversation proficiency? Or perhaps you want to become a fluent speaker.
But that’s only the first step. We also have to know in what timeframe we want to achieve our goals. If you have an overseas trip coming up in July, you may want to aim to hit your goal by May or June. If you’re learning for fun, you can be a little more lenient, but you still want to have a specific deadline.
Why do we want to do this? Because of Parkinson’s Law, which states that the amount of time that one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete the task. This means that often when we give ourselves 12 months to learn something, we’ll subconsciously spend 12 months learning it. Versus if we gave ourselves only 7 months, we’ll force ourselves to learn within that timeframe.
Now that we have our prerequisites, we’ll share our step-by-step process on how to learn a language on your own.
If you wanted to become a musician, you’ll need an instrument. If you wanted to get in better shape, you need weights and equipment. Learning a language is no different.
Language learners today have a plethora of tools and resources that we can leverage to learn faster. From mobile apps to podcasts, your options are limitless.
Check out our list of recommended language tools to get new ideas.
The second is to design your environment around your language. The reason why this is powerful is because there’s two main ways to learn something: actively and passively. While active learning is more impactful, we only have so much time in the day to actively learn a language.
Examples of passive learning includes:
What doesn’t get measured, won’t get better. This applies to our health life, business life, and others.
The mistake that most learners make is to measure progress in large milestones that are too far to imagine or track. Instead, we should focus on weekly, if not daily goals.
Here are a few ideas we suggest:
Having the right tools and strategy is only half the battle. Staying persistent and accountable is just as important, because learning a language is a marathon. It’s easy to say now that you’ll be able to put in an hour everyday, but unexpected events and emotions will always come up unexpectedly.
Research by professors Robert Cialdini and Tim Church states that finding a buddy that keeps you accountable is one of the best ways to motivate change. It has even shown to be more effective than finding a mentor.
An accountability partner can be a friend who’s also learning a language, a teacher, or anyone that you trust and see often.
When learning anything, there are shortcuts that you can leverage, including languages. There are polyglots, linguists, and researchers that have laid out multiple language hacks that you should use.
Here are some that we recommend:
Daily immersion has been proven to be powerful. It’s much more effective to learn 15 minutes a day, than to learn for 3 hours a week. And it’s much more powerful to learn 3 hours a week than 10 hours a month.
This is because consistency trumps quality, and small achievements accumulate over time. The way to do this is to find ‘hidden’ free times in your day, and schedule learning time. It can be as little as 30 minutes or even 15 minutes.
The reality is no matter how busy we think we are, there’s always empty 15-30 minute slots in our schedule. Here’s an article we wrote on how to find more time in your schedule to learn anything.
Follow up resources we recommend:
You’ve read How to Learn Any Language On Your Own (Step-by-Step Guide), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading The 5 Best Podcasts on Love, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
There are many different types of love, self-love, romantic love, obsessive love, unconditional love, enduring love or selfless love, among others. As a society we tend to focus mostly on romantic love, and in doing so, we may disregard the other types which can prove more fulfilling. The love of friendship can be founded on the virtues of reliability and camaraderie, which in turn helps us have a higher understanding of the self, others and the world around us. Familial love is one of dependability that is not anchored by our personal qualities. Selfless love can be defined as a type of altruism, a love that transcends our inner circle and is about a broader scope of nature and good will. Insight into love can be illuminating as one continues on their journey to self awareness. Here are 5 podcasts that provide some food for thought on this topic:
All facets of love touch our lives in every way, knowing how to accept love in your life and give love to others can help lead to a more satisfying existence. Love is our most intimate self reflected back to us, helping us evolve and as compassionate people striving to affect positive change in the world around us.
Do you read a great blog about love that’s not on the list? Leave a comment on FB!
Larissa Gomes is a breast cancer survivor and single mom to her spirited baby boy! Originally from Toronto turned Angeleno, she has worked in roles from writer, actor and producer for well over a decade. In that time, she’s developed concepts, film and television screenplays, short stories, along with freelance articles, blogging and editing work.
You’ve read The 5 Best Podcasts on Love, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Sig Nordal 