Here are strategies for the final two categories of weeds:
4. TIME: Tackle each time-management weed and make the necessary adjustments in your schedule. Think carefully before scheduling or attending meetings that aren’t mandatory. Minimize social networking on the job, except where necessary for class. Identify the time-eaters that contaminate your “to-do list” and eliminate them.
5. ENVIRONMENT: Everyone knows the old adage, “People who live in glass houses are transparent!” OOPS! Wrong adage! That has nothing to do with this category. I meant the adage, “The grass is always greener.” Well, when you’re using a weed metaphor, this adage works. If you can’t take out the major weeds in your department, take yourself out of the weeds and consider greener pastures and a more fertile environment to nurture your professional gifts. MOVE!
I hope you’ve been able to whack a few weeds over the past week that will add zip to your professional productivity. Let me know if anything worked and if you used techniques that I didn’t suggest. Please share what you’ve learned about whacking.
HAPPY WEED WHACKING!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
If you don’t have enough weeds in your mental list yet, here are a few more in the last two categories:
4. WEEDS IN YOUR TIME: Any activities that derail you from accomplishing your mission and daily tasks and steal time away from those tasks are weeds. Meetings that are irrelevant to your tasks are a prime example. Distractions, such as excessively long close encounters of the social kind, e-mail and social media responses, long lunches with too much food, football and basketball games with lousy teams, and similar time gobblers, are weeds. You need to significantly reduce or kill them.
5. WEEDS IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT: You all know about toxic environments. What is it in your department that has a negative effect on your productivity? Could it be the faculty, administration, staff, students, IT support, policies and procedures, institutional rules and regs, resources, or physical conditions? What is it in your workplace that bothers you the most or drives you bonkers? Can any of these weeds in your environment be ripped out or killed? OR, is it easier for you to change your environment and move to a nontoxic, or, at least, less weed-infested, department?
Do any of these weeds in these 2 categories grow in your life or, Pavlov-wise, ring a bell? Add these weeds to the previous list you didn’t make. At least, think about that imaginary list in your head. Have those weeds truly affected your productivity? Which weeds can be killed quickly and easily? Which ones require a longer, slow, agonizing, torturous death? If you don’t dispose of your weeds, your "same ‘ole--same ‘ole" counterproductive or regressive behaviors will continue.
My next blog will proffer some suggestions for killing your weeds. In the mean time, Google “poisons” to research your options and sharpen your weapons.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHAT’S WRONG WITH WEEDS?
Why are WEEDS such a problem? They are insidious, covert, stealth-like, creeping behaviors, habits, attitudes, activities, and relationships that are difficult to identify. They look like the real thing, but, instead, come along side and slowly suck the breath out of the real thing and destroy it. They can pop up everywhere you turn.
Consider your level of involvement and intensity in your daily tasks, such a teaching classes, writing grant proposals, journal manuscripts, and e-mail responses, and attending a bazillion meetings. It’s really difficult to step back and gain perspective to see the weeds interfering with those tasks. You’re too busy spinning your professorial wheels and expending great effort and energy to complete the tasks at hand to even notice:
“What’s wrong with this picture?” “Why isn’t this working?” “Why can I make any headway?” “Why do I feel so discouraged?”
WHAT ARE THE WEEDS IN YOUR LIFE?
What are the elements in your professional life that are negatively affecting your productivity? There are at least 5 categories of weeds that can kill your productive spirit: (1) mind, (2) heart, (3) relationships, (4) time, and (5) environment. This blog will start with your mind.
1. WEEDS IN YOUR MIND: Although most of you are not Wide World of Sports professional athletes, do you ever experience the “Agony of Defeat”? Does the constant barrage of disappointments, rejection, and failures get to you? How do you respond to these sources of discouragement? What are your “HIT RATES” with the following?
• grant proposals
• journal submissions
• conference proposals
• book prospectuses
• teaching load
• committee work
• student evaluations
• peer evaluations
• department chair evaluations
• reviews for promotion and tenure
Do any of these or a combination bring you to your knees and discourage you from pursuing your goals? Are you on the verge or have you reached your Quitting Quotient (QQ)?
These feelings are weeds growing in your mind that can prevent you from achieving your goals. They yield negative self-talk and counter-productive attitudes that can arrest your development and progress. Every hit seems to get bigger and bigger.
Do you have any of the preceding weeds? Jot them down so you can plan an attack. My next blogs will examine the weeds in your heart, relationships, time, and environment. Weeds just keep growing in us and around us everywhere.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHAT’S YOUR PRODUCTIVITY LEVEL?
Are you satisfied with your current level of productivity? Are you on a roll to attaining all of your professional goals? OR, are there things that are holding you back—negative attitudes, toxic relationships, departmental requirements, lack of IT support, too many meetings, relentless time eaters—that are stifling your growth?
I’m sure you have both the capacity and potential to produce in your current position. You wouldn’t be in that position if that weren’t true. The problem is that there may be weeds in your professional garden that can hinder, strangle, and totally destroy your productivity, fruitfulness, and any success you hope to enjoy. They can arrest your growth and development as a teacher, researcher, clinician or whatever you do. Furthermore, these metaphors can be annoying.
ARE THERE WEEDS IN YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE?
The goal of a weed is to move into your grass and plants, destroy them, and take over your lawn and garden—WORLD GARDEN DOMINATION. Real weeds in a garden are like a cancer in your body that metastasizes to destroy your mind and body. (“WAIT! That’s too many metaphors in one paragraph. I can’t handle that.” Okay, back to weeds.)
Weeds thrive in spring and summer around my house and grow extremely well, regardless of the weather conditions. However, in your professional world, they grow 24/7, 365 days. They are a significant threat to your effective performance and career. They want CAREER DOMINATION to prevent you from functioning effectively and producing to your potential.
My future blogs in this series will help you identify your weeds and then suggest techniques to destroy them. You might start cleaning your weapons so you’re ready to blow them to smithereens.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
