Zen-Journal® ~ Task & Life Management that Fits You Perfectly

Why I Don’t Use Separate Zen-Journals for Personal and Professional Use & Why You Don’t Have to Either

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There is a common misconception among many in the analog planner user community that states “it’s not possible to use one notebook to manage both your personal and professional pursuits.”

I wrote about this once before in another post, but today I’ll explain how I use one notebook to manage both and why you don’t need to, except in some very isolated circumstances.

Why the Misconceptions Exist

On some of the online communities dedicated to other analog planning systems that I frequent, I’ve read statements that relay the concern of some users about mixing business and personal pursuits in one notebook. [Read more…]

Anti-Awareness and The Miracle of Mindfulness, Revisited

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I’ve been re-reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness on my Kindle. I’m having a beautiful experience revisiting this volume that I read so many years ago.

You’ve probably had this same experience whereby you begin reading a book you read years ago and suddenly remember how lovely it was the first time, right?

I’ve recently experienced a heavier weighted reliance on mindfulness: In part because of work pressure, in part due to personal issues, and partly because I want to cultivate more awareness on a moment-by-moment basis.

It’s too easy to slip into the lazy habit of being somewhere else. I want to be here now…and now…and now. It is a positive way for me to be in the world and it reminds me, especially in times of challenge, to remember the faithfulness of my breath and how it supports me both physiologically as well as spiritually. [Read more…]

Work as a Practice for Awakening

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I’m currently reading Zen of Business Administration: How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work and Your Life by entrepreneur, Zen monk, and former Zen Center Director, Marc Lesser.

The premise of the book is that Zen practice can lead to the dissolution of the often self-placed boundaries between work and play.

At the heart of Zen is the absence of a separate sense of self. I have to admit that this is a concept that I’ve yet to fully understand.

I’m only about one-fifth of the way into this delightful read, however, I hope that by the time I get to the end I’ll have a clearer understanding of it. [Read more…]

How To Use Mindfulness to Survive and Thrive in Today’s Open Seating Work Environments

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Open seating workspaces aren’t what they’re cracked up to be

Open seating offices are all the rage in both Silicon Valley companies and across the globe, but for many, they’re a problem.

While proponents of the concept boast about improved productivity and ease of interaction between team members, there is a growing body of evidence that sheds light on some of the more harmful aspects of the model.

In this article on Forbes, David Burkus -author of the titles, The Myths of Creativity and Under New Management– takes a look at the various studies that identified some startling negative effects on the inhabitants of open seating offices.

The findings include a 2005 study from researchers at Australia’s University of Sydney that found: [Read more…]

My Most Meaningful Work – A 40+ Year Path of Gradual Awakening

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And we dance, To a whispered voice;
Overheard by the soul, Undertook by the heart;
And you may know it, If you may know it

Neil Diamond, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Roles help us find ourselves

I’ve played many roles in my life: physician, professor, a college dean, a college president, a window washer, a retail store manager, consultant, and a guy who cleaned eyeglasses and hawked some anti-fog stuff for eyeglasses…yes, many roles and obviously not in that order.

You probably have played several, too. There is nothing wrong with playing these roles. But like we do in perfecting our golf swing or crafting the perfect cup of coffee, hopefully…eventually…we find a sweet spot. We find that one type of role within which we could stay in character for the rest of our lives.

Roles help reveal what comes easily to us. On a deeper level, we call these traits, talents, and strengths. Over time we experiment with different roles to determine our interests. I see roles as hugely important because the results of these experiences ultimately inform us about our deepest work.

The rest of this post is somewhat autobiographical. It discusses various phases in my life and the roles I played. It talks about the fractured process of discovering my strengths, talents, and ultimately, my deepest work and concludes with how you can avoid a similarly painful 40-year search for your deepest work. [Read more…]

8 Ways Regular Mindfulness Practice Can and Will Transform Your Brain

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Mindfulness practice is a transformative practice. If you engage in eating ice cream five minutes every day, do you know what would happen? Your waistline would be transformed… and probably not in the way you’d want.  🙄

You wouldn’t see it changing each day, but over the course of a few weeks, you’d notice some changes.

That’s how it is with mindfulness practice.

After five minutes on the first day you might not notice any transformation occurring, but over a few weeks you’ll notice some significant changes.

[Read more…]

Your Workday Doesn’t Have To Feel Like You’re Living a Scene from ‘The Shining’

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REDRUM, REDRUM…

OK, that’s a bit dramatic…(if you’ve seen the film or read the novel, you get it), but life working around Type-A folks can certainly evoke some really strong reactions.

Anger, feeling hurt, annoyance and other forms of upset are examples often how we choose to respond to various stimuli at work and maybe even at home, on the freeway, or around our kids.

It’s almost as if we possess a negative-reflex-thinking mode that becomes our go-to response, triggered over and over again each day.

Unfortunately, this leads to increased stress levels, a dumping of stress hormones in our bloodstream, and ultimately to disease states like hypertension and heartburn.

That’s an unhealthy way to live. [Read more…]

No, You’re Not Crazy; 3 Reasons Why Working for a Type-A Boss Feels Like You’re Losing Your Mind

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Working for a Type-A boss can be like working for a meth addict

If you’ve ever crossed paths with a meth user in full-on tweaker mode, then you may have seen some similarities with your Type-A boss. Both are driven toward a goal like a locomotive charging off a cliff.

Like a tweaker in search of his next score, your Type-A boss can exhibit some strange behavior when she’s in hot pursuit of new goal or outcome. So much so, it can seem like you’re the one who’s not focused or on board with her latest agenda. [Read more…]

How To Be So Good You Can’t Be Ignored

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I’ve been reading Cal Newport’s book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You.

(It’s also the only book with ‘Trump’ in the subtitle that I’d ever read.)

In it, Newport makes a methodical case for undermining the find your passion in order to do what you love approach to work.

I generally support his view as I’ve written on the topic of finding your most meaningful work by looking not at where your passion lies, but at what you know you do well already.

It takes a bit of explanation, but I maintain that what we do well is determined by our genetic material, namely our DNA.

Here’s how I see it:

  • We are predetermined via our DNA toward doing certain things well
  • If we engage these natural talents and abilities and nurture them via practice and training, we can learn to do these well
  • There are some abilities that come more naturally to us than others, again via our genetics
  • Those activities that place us in a sense of flow where we lose all track of time and space (for me it’s writing and teaching) can be labeled our most meaningful work

Newport doesn’t get into this level of detail, but he does agree that passion is developed over time via what he calls deliberate practice.

Newport’s books is an assault on workplace mediocrity

I applaud him for writing this book; for so meticulously setting out for anyone willing to read this important book just how to create a career that you feel passionate about.

It’s not via an inborn passion, but rather the deliberate result of working to obtain master status like champion chess players.

I think this is very important, especially now in this time of political upheaval. I’m writing about this because I think it’s important for each of us to strive daily to do what we do best better than anything or anyone else.

There is no such thing as a safe job, a lifetime employer, or even a pension plan (with rare exception). Now is the time to wake up to the fact that the state, your employer, nor your family is going to take care of you in the long-term.

If you truly want to the security of a lifetime plan, then you need to become so good they can’t ignore you.