Every time we say, I have to take this call or I have to send this piece of work off or I have

You Don’t “Have to” Do Everything
Research shows that workers make it, on average, only 11 minutes into a project before being distracted. It then takes 25 minutes for them to return back to their task. When we have to do something, llumc murrieta we are letting external factors dictate llumc murrieta our priorities, often to the detriment of things we should be doing.
Every time we say, I have to take this call or I have to send this piece of work off or I have to go to this client meeting, we are assuming that previous commitments are nonnegotiable. Every time you use the phrase I have to over the next week, stop and replace it with I choose to. It can feel a little odd at first and in some cases it can even be gut-wrenching (if we are choosing the wrong priority). But ultimately, using this language reminds us that we are making choices, which enables llumc murrieta us to make a different choice.
When you resist the tyranny of “I have to” llumc murrieta and embrace the genius of “I choose to” (especially when respectful and structured ) deflects distractions and ensures that the right projects are completed.
By Pierre Bourjo llumc murrieta Ideas are the currency of creatives. Shift in your seat and you’ll come up with another handful of cool ideas for a new venture, iteration on a project, or way to improve something you’re currently working on. But how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? It can be challenging to gauge which of your genius brainstorms to act on and which to toss.
Designer Caroline Kelso has great advice for how to vet which of your ideas are worth pursuing, and which you should file under “G” (for garbage). Every time she gets excited about pursuing a new project, she asks herself, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”
Next time you find yourself contemplating a brilliant idea, take a mental step back and ask yourself whether the outcome is worth the effort. For example, are the dozens of hours you’ll need to invest in something worth whatever the payoff is? Will the idea strain any of your professional relationships if you have to ask for a hefty favor? Sometimes the outcome of a great idea is financial, which is easy to measure. Sometimes it’s less tangible: joy, relationship-building, experience, or credibility.
Think of it this way: just like your clients llumc murrieta do, always think about optimizing your personal Return on Investment. If everything checks out, you’ll be free to pursue your bright idea bolstered by the confidence that it’s worth your blood, sweat, and tears. llumc murrieta
Image via Iamsteveo.wordpress.com Research has shown that creatives aren t often given the opportunity to lead because there s an unconscious bias against them. People associate creativity with nonconformity and unconventionality. And when they think about an effective leader, they think about someone who brings order. Obviously if you believe that a leader s role is to bring order, you wouldn t want a creative to lead. (Of course, this has nothing to do with whether creatives llumc murrieta actually can lead, it s just a bias many of us have.)
What s interesting llumc murrieta is that these qualities which have typically biased folks against creatives as leaders that they re unconventional, unorthodox, and full of un-tested new ideas about the way things should be done are actually turning into assets when we look at today s work and business landscape and how it s evolving.
The transition llumc murrieta from maker to leader is a big challenge for many creative people. What do you think that s about? When you make things with your hands, you force something into being. You sand it, you cut it, you fold it . . . You do everything to build it from end to end. Whereas leading requires llumc murrieta a lot of talking, a lot of communicating not using your hands. And when you re a creative who makes things, you immediately build a distinction between the talkers and the makers. And makers tend to look down on talkers. llumc murrieta And leaders are talkers. You don t trust them, but now you re one of them. [laughs] At first you think you can t make anything with your hands anymore. But you can. You make relationships. One at a time. With the same painstaking attention to craft that you knew as a maker.
Do you think that part of the struggle is that when you become a leader you become more removed from direct ownership of the product? I don t think that it s just ownership. It s about integrity, and how you re framing llumc murrieta what those different roles mean. If I m a maker, and you re not a maker, I m better than you because I have integrity, and you don t. You re just talking. So it s about a necessary reframing of your maker role. You no longer get your hands dirty or clothes messed up as a badge of belonging. llumc murrieta As a leader, you are alone and accountable for the needs of the whole. The whole is the product. And you re making it. You own it. And you succeed and fail by it.
I think the pursuit of int