Using Your Boss Voice, Overcoming Perfectionism and More Print Pro Tips for September-October

PRODUCTIVITY Use Your Boss Voice

The ceaseless chatter in our heads is not always helpful, especially when we’re confronted with something that has the potential to be slightly unpleasant. Andy Frisella, the social media entrepreneur behind the “75 Hard” self-improvement challenge, recommends labeling negative inner monologues as your “bitch voice” and then replace it with your “boss voice” to take control. Here, “bitch voice” is the label for the voice that’s saying things like: “Not now,” “maybe tomorrow,” or “I’m not in the right mood.” Having a label like “bitch voice” makes it easier to recognize these thought patterns and turn them into more productive ones, says Frisella. “It allows me to greet them like an old friend (‘Oh hey, bitch voice’), smile, and do the exact opposite of what it’s telling me to do,” he says.

SELF-AWARENESS Better Than Perfect

Perfection isn’t just impossible, it’s counterproductive, notes Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist and author of the bestseller Think Again. “Perfectionists are more likely to burn out and less likely to embrace new challenges. Success depends on high standards, not being flawless. The target is not perfection — it’s excellence.”

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MANAGEMENT Build a Better Comment Box

Lots of businesses have an idea or comment box. That’s great, but innovation consultant Bryan Mattimore, author of 21 Days To A Big Idea, suggests you take it to the next level by adding some structure. At his company, the Growth Engine, managers post an organizational challenge on a whiteboard and invite their co-workers to submit suggestions. “After a week’s time, the manager records (and then pursues) the best ideas/suggestions on the whiteboard. He or she then posts a new weekly challenge. It’s easy to do, doesn’t really cost anything, and it has created some huge productivity improvements/wins for our clients,” says Mattimore.
 

MANAGEMENT Declare an Email Holiday

Need to hunker down to create a business or buying plan or work on some other important project? Set up an auto-responder saying you’ll be away for a couple of days, and then tackle whatever you need to get done, writes Chris Bailey in Hyper Focus. (Leave an alternate email address or even phone number for “genuine” emergencies.)
 
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COMMUNICATIONS Phone Form

When you meet with someone in person, make a point of shutting your phone completely off, says Chris Bailey, author of Hyper Focus. “(It) shows them they’re important to you, and that you’re ready to give them 100 percent of your attention,” he says, adding “absolutely nobody you meet cares (or can see) what you’re doing on your phone.”
 

PRODUCTIVITY Beans Mean Work

Want to know what white noise sounds like in 2024? Download Coffitivity, an app that creates the hum of a coffee shop to play as background music. (Choices include Morning Murmur, University Undertones and Brazil Bistro.) According to the makers, “Coffitivity recreates the ambient sounds of a cafe to boost your creativity and help you work better,” adding that the benefits are “proven and peer reviewed.”
 

FEEDBACK Learn From 3-Star Reviews

Everyone loves a 5-star reviews, but sometimes, the three-star reviews are more helpful, says podcast host Tim Ferriss, explaining that perfect reviews don’t offer much useful information while 1-star reviews are often the result of something out of your control, a one-off error, or a crank who can’t be satisfied. “But with three-star reviews, or the most critical three-star reviews, you tend to get a lot of really helpful feedback,” he notes.

GOAL-SETTING Train Your Will

It’s never been easier to track the hours you work, the days you go to the gym, even the beers you consume. But is it a bad thing to look backward rather than remain focused on your goals and the road ahead? Nope.

Success at prospective goal-setting and retrospective monitoring actually turn out to be closely connected, says time management writer Cal Newport. Writing on his blog, he notes: “Once you’re making consistent and disciplined progress on small things that reflect your larger values, your identity evolves. You begin to see yourself as someone with discipline; someone willing and able to do hard things in the moment to obtain meaningful rewards in the future. It’s on this foundation that you will find yourself better able to stick with grander forward-looking goals.” So keep notching up those Xs.