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Nuggets of wisdom re jobs, careers and business

Yesterday, in between other meetings, I attended some sessions at the CIPD Festival of Work Conference – online of course, and focusing very much on the current situation, Covid-related.

The keynote address contained some real nuggets that have stuck with me since then – with regard to:

Today is World Introvert Day

This is from an internet search I did yesterday:

It’s my experience that the (Western) world has been shaped mostly by extraverts and that, consequently, those of us who identify more with the traits of introversion, or are on the cusp between the two (ambiverts), can find it a tough place to navigate at times.

In her book ‘Quiet‘ (which I love), Susan Cain talks about the different levels of stimulation required, and able to be tolerated, by introverts and extraverts and the ‘extrovert ideal’. She quotes William White:

“Society is itself an education in the extrovert values,

and rarely has there been a society that has preached them so hard.

No man is an island, but how John Donne would writhe to hear how often, 

and for what reasons,

the thought is so tiresomely repeated.” Continue reading “Today is World Introvert Day” →

“A few years ago I would have been admiring the view – now I’m on my phone…”

smartphonesThis was a quote from a member of the public broadcast on BBC Breakfast this morning in a report about our seemingly ever-increasing addiction to smartphones in the UK.

Another interviewee said that she thought smartphones had: “made my life better but children’s lives worse.”

According to the latest report from telecoms regulator Ofcom, and about which there’s a good article at bbc.co.uk:

  • 78% of all adults in the UK now own a smartphone
  • 40% of us look at them within five minutes of waking
  • the average Brit checks their phone every 12 minutes while awake and uses it for about 2½ hours each day
  • a third of us check them just before falling asleep

This last one isn’t a great habit if we want to sleep well, by the way – see my blog last month re our use of apps and the effects of blue light.

How we use our phones may also have changed – the report says the total volume of calls fell in 2017.

But maybe that’s not quite the whole story – what the report didn’t track were the calls made using apps such as Skype, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger instead.

So where are we headed? Continue reading ““A few years ago I would have been admiring the view – now I’m on my phone…”” →

“Just do it!”

Why is it

I came across this Henry Ford quote again recently and it made me smile.

It reminds me of the times I’ve asked or paid someone else to do a specific job for me and then been really annoyed (rather than grateful) when they pointed out something I hadn’t noticed or suggested it might be done differently for a better result. Continue reading ““Just do it!”” →

Techno Tactics

children-learning-888892_640A recent survey revealed that British holidaymakers spend more time sorting out their digital entertainment for a trip than they do on packing the rest of their suitcase. internet-1026472_640

Many of us check work emails and messages whilst away on holiday, too.

By contrast, an Ofcom report out last month about our obsession with being online found that more than a third of UK internet users felt the need to take a “digital detox” in the last year – ranging from just a few hours offline to taking an entirely web-free holiday.

Continue reading “Techno Tactics” →

Outliers

I’m a fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s books – having previously really enjoyed ‘The Tipping Point’ and ‘Blink’.

In our pursuit of excellence and our ‘self-help’ culture we place a lot of emphasis on  personal effort and perseverance as the keys to success and often attribute lack of success to lack of effort and someone giving up too easily. Continue reading “Outliers” →

Why We Work – and What Motivates Us?

office-594132_640Two TED talks I’ve watched lately have some interesting views on why we work and what motivates us and to what extent our approach to this is based on outdated (and even disproven) ideas. Continue reading “Why We Work – and What Motivates Us?” →

The Psychology of Unwritten Rules

I enjoyed the episode entitled ‘Morals and Norms’ from the BBC Radio 4 series ‘The Human Zoo’. It’s about ‘the way we do things round here’, how we learn this, and the consequences of breaking those rules.

The process starts early – even at school there are ‘rules’ about where we hang our coats, put our shoes, how we talk to our teachers, how we play a particular game. Continue reading “The Psychology of Unwritten Rules” →

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