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
3D ALERT: This blog is being transmitted in 3D IMAX by Pixar Animation Studios. If it doesn’t appear that way, it’s because you haven’t put on your 3D glasses yet, you need a BIGGER screen, and you still believe in Peter Pan. Get with the program. Enjoy my blog.
HOW TO KILL THE WEEDS IN YOUR DEPARTMENT
So what alternative techniques can you use (and get away with) to rid your professional life of those evil weeds? I know you can’t wait to start whacking.
Before your first whack, you need something to whack.
IDENTIFY THE WEEDS quickly before they grow. They can pop up everywhere and at any time You know that little baby ugly weeds can grow like wildfire into big ugly hairy daddy weeds. Grab them quickly and wring their baby stems.
Let’s investigate the possible strategies for attacking the weeds in the aforementioned 5 categories. The remainder of this blog will address the weeds in your mind:
1. MIND: Consider an attitude transplant to respond positively and constructively to the disappointments, rejections, and failures along the academic trail. Suck it in and cut off these weeds at the stem. Don’t dwell on the weeds. Attack your manuscript or proposal revisions, class preparation, committee work, course changes, and professional adjustments from evaluations with the vigor and rigor of your initial engagement.
Adopt a shotgun approach: Make sure to have numerous “potential products” being reviewed and in progress at all times so you don’t obsess over any single manuscript or proposal rejection and maintain an optimistic perspective that something will succeed. Consciously avoid any negative self-talk when you take a hit. What counts most is how you respond or react to each weed when you see it. Whack it immediately. Don’t let it gain a foothold or a hold of your foot. And, by all means, KEEP MOVING FORWARD!
My next blogs will continue with strategies to kill the weeds in your heart, relationships, time, and environment. Happy weeding!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WEED WHACKER DISCLAIMER:
When I weed (the verb) my yard, I try the following strategies: yank the weeds out by their roots; cut them with a machete, whacker, clippers, or saw; mow over them; stomp on them; spray systemic poison on them; strangle them with my work-glove hands to not leave any fingerprints; smother them with mulch, boulders, and tar paper; shoot them with my 50-year-old B-B gun; and pummel them with a Louisville slugger baseball bat (Well, maybe, not exactly; it was a Hank Aaron aluminum bat!).
Then, guess what? Yup, you’re right: I was promptly arrested and thrown into the Slammer, the BIG House. WROOONNG! Of course not. What were you thinking? What happened is that, after the next rain, those weeds and their demonic little offspring came back with a vengeance like the botanical version of zombies from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. (SIDEBAR: I’m having so much fun with this metaphor!)
Anyway, I want to be like Jack Nicholson-A Few Good Men “crystal clear” that I am not condoning any of the preceding actions in your department. Well, maybe the baseball bat would be okay. Naaah!
No matter how bad the weeds are or what they do to you everyday of your work-life to cause you misery and pain and impede your productivity, homicide is not the answer. Yes, I know Adrian Monk and Jack Bauer are no longer available, but Horatio Caine (CSI: MIAMI) is still kickin’ and can be found on Sun. nights this fall. Murder is just not worth the consequences, because those weeds will probably come back like real zombies and invade your classes. Who needs that?
My next blog will suggest specific techniques for killing the weeds in your department. Now you can go load your weapons. See ya soon.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
