The CrankyMiddle Manager Show #214 Inner Productivity with Chris Edgar
Today Wayne Turmel talks to Christopher Edgar, author of “Inner Productivity: A Mindful Approach to Efficiency
and Enjoyment in Your Work”. I also try to spit out a couple of words of Mandarin, we salute a prolific writer who couldn’t pass a simple test, and quote Robert Browning. Not a bad day’s work.
Chris Edgar looking mindful.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show and a big “ni hao” to our friends in China. I have no idea how or why, but our audience has grown a lot there and it’s now our second biggest audience. Anyway today we are talking productivity and mindfulness. As a result, we dedicate this show to the prolific Feng Meng Lung who wrote productively yet couldn’t pass his civil service exams which suggests his head wasn’t really in the game. Do you procrastinate? This is the show for you because the problem is all in your mind.
3:00 The quote of the week is from Robert Browning. Do you know your search?
4:34 Welcome to Chris Edgar. This show treads some lines we don’t normally tread but as Dr Phil would say…you know what you should be doing and how’s that working for ya? What does he mean by “mindfulness” and it has an awful lot to do with procrastination because we love to get distracted and aren’t always hip to why.
7:24 Many of us know the systems and have every tool we need to get the work done, so why is procrastination such a problem? The problem is a wandering mind. He comes from the legal profession which would seem an odd path to trod for someone in this field.
11:57 This isn’t about religion, but about practice and exercise. A lot of people have a knee-jerk reaction to meditation or other “touchy feely” ideas but the benefits are real.
12:50 It’s important to understand the difference between Response and Reaction. Reaction is automatic and unconscious. Response is how we CHOOSE to respond to the stimulus. Misery (or procrastinating) is optional.The trick is to slow down and find out WHY you’re feeling like procrastinating.
15:30 A practical example of how this works….
17:00 What’s the difference between INTENTION and ATTENTION? Attention is putting our mental focus on something. Intention is taking a big-picture view of what we’re trying to achieve. You can put a lot of attention into playing Solitaire on the computer but are you achieving your Intention?
20:00 Being mindful can be as simple as askingAdd New Post ‹ TPN :: The Cranky Middle Manager Show — WordPress yourself “why am I doing what I’m doing right now?”. Physical symptoms can be a sign we ought to ask those questions. Tension, discomfort and stomach pain are all clues.
23:00 What is “breathing through” a situation? You think by now I’d know what breathing is.
25:00 Chris takes us through a couple of simple “mindfulness” exercises. When you’re thinking about NOW you can’t think about anything else.
CHRIS’ RESOURCES
November 17th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
So the secret of being productive is being aware of what you should be going, take a dep breath, and do it? May be the first CMM I have to listen over, carefully, cuz I need this.