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New Mantras
I’m also not very big on New Year’s resolutions. I don’t have a problem with them, but I’ve found that goal setting is an ineffectual exercise for how I work.
However, a few mantras have anchored into my brain over the past couple of weeks (to add to my growing list of mottos).
Viscously Focused
As a worker, my skills and my usage of time define my output.
Now that I’ve been at the Division for more than three years, I have the necessary knowledge to do my job. Unfortunately, I can’t create infinite time, so the next frontier is managing my time better.
Time management comes in two parts – management and execution. I’m happy with my task management system (immediate capture in my physical notebook, overall task organization in Microsoft Outlook Tasks). So the final frontier is to optimize execution, squeezing as much productivity out of my time at work.
In that endeavor, I need to increase my ability to focus. Project Managers are pulled in many directions, so whenever I get that rare clean block of time, I need to exploit it to the fullest. The colorful mantra has been reminding me to stay on track whenever my brain starts to wander.
Twenty-Thirty
With another election year coming up, I’m susceptible to getting caught up with the news. I’ll do my duty and vote, but I’m not a politician, so why waste my focus on the minutia of the political entertainment complex? Same for all the other types of news.
After spending four months sucked into the vortex of an online game, I’ve finally regained my equilibrium. Through the detox, I’ve realized that it is best to be extremely focused on the present while keeping an eye out for the distant future.
This mantra reminds me to think of the distant (but not too remote) future. Eight years is far enough to avoid capture in the ephemeral but still close enough to still feel imminent.
Stillness
On a practical note, both of the previous two mottos are pushing me to address my greatest distraction – podcasts.
Growing up, I would listen to sermons on cassette tape. When I started my career, I would listen to sports talk all day, punctuated by Thursday afternoon baseball with the San Francisco Giants. Now I’ve got the entire world in my pocket. It is too much of a good thing – especially as my work requires more and more hard thought.
Just like I culled Twitter down to elected politicians in my home district and Official State Agencies, I need to clean up my audio feed. I’m paid to pay attention, so I need to give my work my full attention.
The hard part is that I need to become comfortable with silence.
If I pull that off in 2022, then this will be a pretty damn good year.
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A Question
Have you picked up any themes, resolutions, or mantras for the new year?
Hit reply and let’s chat!
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A Link
David Epstein wrote a newsletter extolling the virtues of well-timed resolutions. As with most productivity advice, it all depends on the personality quirks of the individual.
In 2018, CGP Grey went on a drastic media fast that ultimately lasted well past a year. I’m not ready to go that far, but I find his quixotic “Project Cyclops” inspiring.
We celebrated New Year’s Eve by watching the Times Square ball drop on the Roku TV while simultaneously streaming the Smithsonian Panda Cam Live Stream on the iPad. Once it was over, 9 pm Pacific was the perfect time to usher the kids to bed.
… and a photo.
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Thanks for reading the OPM letter! I’d love to have a conversation if you have any feedback. I hope you found some prompts to stretch your craft and relationships as a curious Owner PM. See you soon!
Justus Pang, RA