Category Archives: Lifestyles

UBC Day 05: The Art of Procrastination

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Earlier this year, I read an article in Psychology Today called Procrastination: Oops, Where Did the Day Go? and thought it would make a great blog post. The article highlighted our proclivity to put things off, why we do it and how we can overcome this behavior.

In PR, there is no time to procrastinate. When getting a message out, time is of the essence. I strive to keep ahead of things, floating many balls in the air at any given time. I do this daily – and until now hadn’t given it much thought. Yet when it comes to getting my personal sh*t together, I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes putting things off; simple silly things such as sending an email, booking an appointment or getting my homework done. (Did I mention that I’m doing a Degree in my ‘spare’ time?)

Doing homework is a huge area of procrastination for me. Most of the courses I take are online or self study – meaning that as long as I have everything done and handed in at the end of the course, I’m good. I start with the best of intentions, telling myself that this time I will get a head start and do the course work consistently over the allotted six months. I praise myself for being so proactive in my planning.

Then here’s what really happens: I f**k around for three or four months, telling myself that I have plenty of time. Then hustle during the last few to get it done. What this tells me is that I can actually do the work in half the allotted time, but rather than starting with a bang and finishing early, I leave it to the last minute.

If there is one thing that I’ve learned about myself it’s that I work better under a deadline. The tighter the deadline, the more I produce. Ever need something to get done? Give it to a person who is busy. Busy people get more done. PR pros are busy people. Information is constantly changing and it’s our job to be ‘in the know’. There’s a great quote by Will Rogers that goes “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” But back to me procrastinating on my homework.

In the article Procrastination: Oops, Where Did the Day Go? the author suggests that we procrastinate for three main reasons:

  1. We put off things we don’t like to do or that upset us in some way.
  2. Because our intentions are anemic—vague and weak.
  3. We’re easily distracted, and some of us are highly impulsive.

Hmmm. Let’s see.

  1. I want the Degree, but I don’t like doing the homework.
  2. If I’m honest about it, my attempts to “get a jump start” are pretty weak.
  3. I have a huge case of A-DOS: Attention Deficient Ohhhhh Shiny!

To overcome procrastination, the article suggests that one of the “simplest and most effective solutions is to just get started—anywhere on a task.”  Okay, okay, I get it. Start small, but just get started. And I’m gonna do just that… tomorrow.

For Love or Money?

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A friend of mine was telling me how she was offered a job in her area of expertise what would be her “dream job” but decided to turn it down because it paid significantly less than her current position. Which got me thinking… What’s the price on happiness? Do you have one? Do I have one?

Opportunity and fate are funny things. Sometimes they come in packages that are not presented in the prettiest wrapper so we decide they are of little or no value. We call it our “gut feeling”. In the case of my friend, who shall remain nameless, she though it would be taking a step back. It was obvious that she’d be taking a financial step backwards, but was it really a step back in her career path? What about job satisfaction? How important is to love what you do? I guess this goes back to an earlier post of mine: Do you work to live or live to work? Gut feelings are tough because sometimes it’s hard to distinguish it from fear.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand where she is coming from. I’m sure we all do. We need money to live and once we’ve become accustom to a lifestyle that we like, it’s hard to let that go. I’m sure that about 80% of the people in this world are not “living their dream” because more often than not, the dream pays crapola.  I’d love to be the person who plays with the dogs all day at PetSmart’s doggie daycare… but not for minimum wage. 

Why does it have to be one or the other? What can’t we eat our cake AND have the cash to pay for it too?

Do you have a plan?

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We just finished our business planning here at work which outlines our corporate goals and priorities for 2012. This got me thinking about personal goal planning. I’m not referring to the New Years’ resolution style of promises we make to ourselves that are broken within a month – but rather real planning and goal setting. Where do I want to be in three years? Where do I want to be in a year? What do I want to achieve? And more importantly, what am I going to do to get there?

There are two camps on this one: the planners and the go-with-the-flow crowd. Which are you? Myself, I’m a planner. Whether it’s personal or professional, I’m a firm believer in “The Plan.” From setting a goal to learn the violin (still working on it!); planning my next vacation (helllloooo Peru!); planning my career path or even what I’ll be doing next month – I like to plan. Those who know me can attest that I’m not the type the person to sit around waiting for a scrap of opportunity to be thrown my way before I take action. In fact, the-go-with-the-flow crowd makes it easier for us planners to attain our goals faster because there’s less competition!

But don’t mistake my having a plan to mean that I’m not flexible. The best plans are always fluid, changing and evolving along the way. Much like with corporate planning, it’s good to do a check in with yourself to ensure you are still on the track you want to be on.  I often ask myself: What have I done today/this week/this month to get me closer to my goals? Are these still my goals?

The Dali Lama famously said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” He was speaking on a global scale, but this can be applied in your own life as well. Be the change in YOUR world. Make opportunity happen… Good things don’t always come to those who wait.

Are you Hip or are you Cool?

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I recently posted this on my fashionjunkee.wordpress.com blog and am interested in this audience’s take on Hip vs Cool!

Have you ever stopped and really thought about the words we use to describe what we see or how something or someone makes us feel? Take for example the use of the words hip and cool.  These two small words are used often to describe attitude, style, feelings and actions.

When asked if we’re okay with something it’s, “Are you cool with that?”, and the reply is something to the effect of “Yeah that’s cool” or “I’m cool.” If questioned about someone who we know and like, we respond “So and So? He’s cool.” People are described as being “cool as a cucumber”, being “totally cool”, “keeping their cool” or thinking their “too cool for school”. So what does it mean to “be cool”?  Cool is best described as an attitude – a personality trait that has varying degrees. And what those key traits are, change as our perceptions change. What was once cool can be looked back on as lame. Ever revisit your high school yearbook and cringed at your pictures, lamenting “but it was so cool back then!” Determining if we think someone is cool depends on whether or not we relate to their mannerisms,  interests and social interactions – because cool is in the eye of the beholder.

Okay so we know you’re cool… but are you hip? We generally use the word hip to describe someone’s sense of style, their fashion and expression of themselves. You can be “hip to the style”, “hip with the kids” or even Tragically Hip! (Gotta plug those Canadian bands!)  Hip is about being on top of the latest trend – fashion or otherwise. But it’s also about putting your individual stamp on things and keeping up with the times without looking ridiculous. Wanna always look hip? Here’s some advice: Be selective on the trends you choose to follow. If you wore a trend the first time around, ya’ might wanna skip it this round. Can we say legwarmers anyone!? If you rocked these in the 80s, skip this round. You won’t be hip, just ridiculous.

So friends… Is it better to be cool or to be hip? Can you be both? You tell me. Hip is a sense of style, and as we all know styles come and go. But cool is a state of mind.

 

Do you Live-to-Work or Work-to-Live?

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One of the things that I’ve noticed among my fellow communicators is that most of us tend to fall into the live-to-work category. That is, communications is not only a job, but rather a lifestyle. We’re passionate about what we do. It’s shown in the events attend, the organizations we participate in and the people we socialize with.

What does it mean to live-to-work? To me it means how you invest your time and energy is important to you. The eight hours or so a day spent working needs to fulfill whatever it is you are uniquely looking for. I live-to-work. This doesn’t mean that all I do is work and have no life. But communications is part of my lifestyle and it is important to me that I’m making a difference, providing value and at the end of the day, proud of what I do. I’m often described as a passionate person. Whether this is meant as a compliment or as a fault I don’t know, and frankly don’t care. Passion is what drives communicators to do what they do best. Not only do I want the world to hear my message, but I want it to be changed by it.

Work-to-live? No thanks. Spending eight hours a day converting O2 into CO2 waiting for the clock to hit 5:00pm  so you can get to your “real life” sounds pretty soul crushing. That isn’t to say the work-to-live crowd are not good at what they do or are not satisfied. But rather they are doing something that is just okay to get the money to fund their passions.  And that’s okay – for them. But I’ll stick to my guns and follow my bliss.

How about you? Do you live-to-work or work-to-live? What lights your fire?