|
|
A Uniting Culture for the New Multicultural Workplace
Never has it been more important in your organization to have a common language, and never has it been more elusive. Today’s office typically contains individuals from many different cultures, not just within the US, but from all over the world....
Back to the Basics: How to Successfully Start an Online Business
As someone who has been running a full-time Internet business for years, I often have to remind myself that there are thousands of business "newbies" who are just starting out. As I get farther and farther into the realm of online business, I...
How to Determine Good Online Business
Many people would like to start an online business, but sometimes get confused by so many offering letter which contained with hoax and seemed like scam things.
If you like to determine whether an online business is reputable one and do will...
PR: Here's All You Need to Know
Above all, you need to know that the right PR can alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors.
Especially when you create external stakeholder behavior change, the kind that leads directly to achieving your managerial...
Success And Communication
Everything we do in life requires communication. Personal and business success often hinges on how well we understand others and how well they can understand us. If one of the objectives of communication is achieving a shared understanding, what can...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tension Stress or Creative Tension? New Breakthroughs in Personal Productivity
Tension Stress or Creative Tension? New Breakthroughs in Personal Productivity
Many executives and futurists are saying that the world is experiencing another paradigm shift. A paradigm is a mental model of how we see the world and view reality. A paradigm shift occurs when our basic view of our world’s perspective changes to a new, wider perspective, much like when the inhabitants of the earth realized that the earth rotates around the sun and is not the center of the universe or when masses of people comprehended that the world is round, not flat. Einstein proved all matter is energy and another paradigm was changed and expanded bringing breakthroughs in technology that otherwise would have been impossible.
New breakthroughs in personal productivity can come if a simple paradigm shift is made, a shift from thinking the workday is full of tension stress to realizing that the workday is also crammed with the stress of creative tension…a good kind of stress.
Tension can be defined as mental, emotional and nervous strain or stress.
Try this paradigm shift and observe its effect on your workday: Consciously change your paradigm of stress tension, which is negative, to a positive stretching condition. This positive stretching, this creative tension is pulling you forward and permitting tension to be a compelling force to move your work forward.
What would happen to your workday if you changed and used this paradigm of tension on even just a few tasks? Workers who have tried this shift say they feel more relaxed and creative. In this frame of mind, they get more done.
By analyzing your work day and noting the times you felt stressed by the stock market, the financial report, the attitude of the Director of Marketing, a global competitor, or the new intern and then contrast that to the times you felt stressed at writing the brief, describing the new product line, explaining the new benefits package, or defining your vision of the future, you will see the two kinds of stress are very different.
The first stress is the normal stress we have felt for centuries and is often described in caveman terms: Harry Caveman meets Lenny, the Saber-toothed tiger and must fight or flee. This stress has you reaching for the Rolaids and needing a vacation.
The second kind of stress is the pulling, stretching, compelling tension felt at creating…the stress of looking for the right word, finding the right metaphor, using the right motivational language. This is an elating stress. It becomes a defining moment that makes the workday worthwhile and makes you feel self-actualized.
The problem with creative tension from a time management perspective is that it always takes more time then you probably have allotted in your schedule. If you see the extra time it takes to create a thought
of excellence as a time waster, something that threw your schedule off, then you will feel tension stress. If however, you allow time in your schedule to let your mind create, you will feel creative tension…the stress of moving forward and reaching a higher level of performance.
The predictable stages in the creative process as summarized by S. Starker are:
1.Preparation. This involves identification of the problem, project, what you want to write, or achieve. 2.Concentrated effort. This includes attempting all the alternative solutions, using your resources, experiencing trial and error. 3.Frustration. If no solution is found in the previous phase, this is the inevitable result of an expenditure of time and effort with no resolution. 4.Withdrawal. This includes putting it aside, removing it from the focus of attention. This often helps the unconscious processing. 5.Insight. The “aha!” moment that seems spontaneous. 6.Follow through. The implementation phase or translating the idea into action.
Creative tension craves resolution, just like hunger and it often wins over hunger. That’s why you stay through lunch to “finish up” and feel a sense of calm and satisfaction when you dot the last “i” or put the last line on the engineering drawing.
The essence of increased productivity in your life is to learn how to generate and sustain creative tension in your workday, not tension stress.
As you work through your day, take mental notes of tension stress and creative tension. Work to expand creative tension and decrease tension stress. Be persistent when withdrawal comes. Follow through on the creative ideas. As you do, you’ll experience the quality of your work improving and you’ll find yourself doing your life’s work and not just doing time.
Tips to find time for creative tension:
1. Set aside a time each day for your hardest project. 2. Don’t schedule a non-discretionary item after the allotted time, such as a meeting. Why? If that breakthrough idea comes at the exact moment you have to leave for the meeting you are either late to the meeting or you lose the creative thought. 3. Permit your thoughts to be chaotic and to drift into Never Never land. This is the time for creative discovery. 4. When ideas are not coming or not working, take a break, then come back and work through the frustration. 5. Implement the ideas that come. If you don’t, you’ve lost forever the time you spent creating.
For more information and newsletters, go to www.timeforresults.com.
About the Author
Karla Brandau is President of Time For Results. She speaks and writes on topics that increase organizational and personal effectiveness. Karla is an expert in time management and Microsoft Outlook and can be reached at 1-770-923-0883 or www.timeforresults.com.
|
|
|
|
|
Language Tools |
Translation of text and web pages between English and several European languages. |
www.google.com |
  |
Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Gestures are a part of human language too. Some invented human languages have ... In human languages, the symbols are sometimes known as lexemes and the ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
English language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Estimates about second language speakers of English vary greatly between 150 million ... Distribution of first-language native English speakers by country ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL ... |
SDL International is the world's number 1 provider of free and professional language translation services for websites and documents. |
www.freetranslation.com |
  |
AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation |
Select from and to languages, Chinese-simp to English, Chinese-trad to English, English to Chinese-simp, English to Chinese-trad, English to Dutch ... |
babelfish.altavista.com |
  |
yourDictionary.com • Comprehensive and Authoritative Language Portal |
Comprehensive index of on-line dictionaries in more than 200 different languages. Includes an index of on-line grammars, word of the day by email, ... |
www.yourdictionary.com |
  |
iLoveLanguages - Your Guide to Languages on the Web |
The Human-Languages Page is a comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources. The over 1900 links in the HLP database have been hand-reviewed ... |
www.ilovelanguages.com |
  |
AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation |
AltaVista Babel Fish provides the online text and web page language translation! ... Select from and to languages, Chinese-simp to English, Chinese-trad to ... |
world.altavista.com |
  |
BBC - Languages - Homepage |
Learn French, Spanish, German, Italian and other languages with the BBC. Start up with our courses or brush up with our audio magazines. |
www.bbc.co.uk |
  |
Online Dictionaries and Translators |
online dictionaries that assist in the conversion from one language to ... If the dictionary only translates from one language to another you will see this ... |
www.word2word.com |
  |
The Klingon Language Institute |
Nonprofit organization offers language tutorials, related merchandise, mailing list and membership information. |
www.kli.org |
  |
MARC Code List for Languages |
MARC Code List for Languages prepared by the Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office. |
www.loc.gov |
  |
Python Programming Language -- Official Website |
Home page for Python, an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, extensible programming language. It provides an extraordinary combination of clarity and ... |
www.python.org |
  |
SYSTRAN Language Translation Technology |
Machine translation products. Free online translation available (the engine used by Altavista's Web translator) - English to French, German, Italian, ... |
www.systransoft.com |
  |
Project MUSE - Language |
Language, the official journal for the Linguistic Society of America, ... Edited by Brian Joseph , Language serves a readership of over 7000 and has been ... |
muse.jhu.edu |
  |
Learn a Language :: English, Spanish, German, Italian, French ... |
English language courses online: e-learning, learn English online, ... English language learning events,news, conferences, workshops and seminars ... |
www.edufind.com |
  |
Parlo - Welcome to Parlo - learn to speak a new language. |
Parlo helps you learn English, French, Spanish and other languages with free online courses, music, a magazine, flash cards, chat rooms, message boards and ... |
www.parlo.com |
  |
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor |
PHP is a server-side HTML embedded scripting language. It provides web developers with a full suite of tools for building dynamic websites: native APIs to ... |
www.php.net |
  |
Ethnologue, Languages of the World |
Home page of ethnologue.com, a searchable database of language resources. |
www.ethnologue.com |
  |
Language Log |
Weblog run by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman, with multiple guest linguists. |
itre.cis.upenn.edu |
  |
|