Is Your Work Day Filled with Empty-Calorie Activities?
Sugary snacks, chips, sodas... all satisfying, all filling, and all not good for you. Food companies spend a ton of money to find out what will appeal to consumers when it comes to junk food. For example, did you know the ideal breaking point for potato chips is four pounds per square inch (4 PSI)? Frito-Lay does.
The problem with empty-calorie junk food is that it crowds out the space needed for healthy and nutritious food. Our workday can also fall victim to empty-calorie work crowding out productive work that yields results. Consider the following 3 examples of junk-food activities that can quickly fill up our day versus the healthy alternative.
1. EMAIL
Junk Food
You open up your Inbox, where hundreds of messages wait for you. Yes, the initial reaction may be one of disgust, but deep down we all like email. Who knows what treasures lurk there? And, isn’t the number we receive commensurate with how important our job is? We may find ourselves glued to email for hours at a time or checking it every five minutes. Satisfying, but not productive.
Healthy Alternative
Set aside time for email just twice a day, not all day every day. Color code important messages from managers, customers, etc. so you know which ones to knock out first. Better yet, replace email with conversations, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings.
2. RESEARCH
Junk Food
You are tasked with researching a new direction, new venture, or new idea to determine the best path. How exciting! You start your internet searches, talk with others, and educate yourself about the subject at hand. The next day, you continue searching the internet, keep talking with others and educating yourself. Ultimately, you become lost in a rabbit hole and are doing research for the sake of research. Satisfying, but not productive.
Healthy Alternative
Set limits to the amount of research that will be done: talk to a predefined number of experts, or time-box the amount of time you will spend on the internet. Then, choose a direction and start heading that way.
3. PLANNING
Junk Food
The next empty-calorie activity pops up once we’ve decided on a direction or strategy. That strategy now needs a plan to get done. Planning can consume an inordinate amount of our time and impede results. We want everything to be just so, to have a plan in place for every contingency and refuse to move until the plan is 100% baked. Satisfying, but not productive.
Healthy Alternative
Do a good and reasonable amount of planning and then start moving. There’s no way to prepare for every contingency or anticipate every surprise. Set a general direction and then adjust, refine, and complete the plan as you come face-to-face with reality. Remember, 90% out the door is better than 100% in the drawer.
Email, Research, and Planning are necessary business activities, but have the potential of turning into “junk work” that doesn’t yield results. Choose the healthy alternative and focus on talking more, trying more, and even failing quicker (followed by learning and adjusting). And, while you’re at it, eat your vegetables.
