Organize IT

Last week I talked about trying to find the right balance with whatever you do, whether it be with your work and home life, or your productivity and leisure time. Because balance is such an integral part of how we live our lives I believe it deserved a greater look so I began writing this post. However, in researching the issue I came across an interesting correlation between my balance and why I occasionally fall off the bandwagon…

A few months ago I wrote a piece about riding the waves of life. It discussed how our energy levels (and our productivity, happiness and motivation levels) fluctuate on a regular basis. Whether it is monthly, weekly or even daily, these fluctuations can have a very considerable influence on the way we live our lives. At the end of that post I declared I was going to experiment with ways of trying to influence energy levels so that I would have less dips, more peaks and greater balance. It took several months but here, finally, are my suggestions:

This Thurday at 9PM House finally returns to TV in the UK for the fourth series. If you are a regular reader of this blog you will no doubt know that I am a big fan of the show and have waited a long time for the new series, resisting all urges to watch cheap copies of it online. With this in mind it seems fitting that I take a look at the ever intriguing Gregory House and wonder whether – despite being a vicodin popping, bitterly sarcastic, rule breaking doctor – we can learn a thing or two from him.

Last month I looked at how to develop your conversational skills by adopting a simple trick for asking open questions (thanks to Chrissy and her guest post for inspiring this mini series). In this post I want to take this topic further and look at what the main areas of conversation actually are.

Last week I published a guest post from Chrissy of Executive Assistant’s Toolbox about the art of conversation. One point that stood out for me was asking “questions about what people think and what they’ve experienced” This is typically achieved with open ended questions, which encourage the person you are talking with to say and reveal more, rather than giving “yes” or “no” answers. Ironically, last week I also had a training session at work that discussed the importance of using such questions. The problem is, in the heat of conversation – especially with a new person or a customer – it’s hardly realistic to stop and pause while you analyze what open question to ask.