6. Your co-workers won’t end meetings
on time?
This is an exasperating problem. You’re
supposed to be someplace else, but you’re
trapped in a meeting that’s going long.
Sometimes, this is inevitable, but if you find it
happening over and over, identify the problem.
Is too little time allotted to meetings that
deserve more time? Is the weekly staff meeting
60 minutes of work crammed into 20 minutes? If
you face this issue repeatedly, there’s probably
an identifiable problem — and once you identify
it, you can develop strategies to solve it — e.g.,
sticking to an agenda; circulating information
by email; not permitting discussions about
contentious philosophical questions not
relevant to the tasks at hand, etc. (This last
problem is surprisingly widespread, in my
experience.)
7. You haven't considered how your
behavior affects someone else?
A friend was chronically late dropping off her
son at sports activities until he said, “You’re
always late dropping me off because it doesn’t
affect you, but you’re always on time to pick me
up, because you’d be embarrassed to be the last
parent at pickup.” She was never late again.
8. You hate your destination so much you
want to postpone showing up for as long as
possible?
If you dread going to work that much, or
you hate school so deeply, or wherever your
destination might be, you’re giving yourself a
clear signal that you need to think about making
a change in your life.
Late or not, if you find yourself rushing around
every morning, consider waking up earlier (see
no. 1 above). Yes, it’s tough to give up those last
precious moments of sleep, and it’s even tougher
to go to bed earlier and cut into what, for many
people, is their leisure time. But it helps.
I get up at 6 a.m. so I have an hour to myself
before I have to wrestle everyone out of bed.
This has made a huge improvement in our
mornings. Because I’m organized and ready by 7
a.m., I can be focused on getting all of us out the
door.
Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-
provoking observers of happiness and human nature. She’s known
for her ability to distill and convey complex ideas with humor
and clarity, in a way that’s accessible to a wide audience.
She’s the author of many books, including the blockbuster New York Times
best-sellers The Four Tendencies, Better Than Before, and The Happiness
Project. She has an enormous readership, both in print and online, and her
books have sold almost three million copies worldwide, in more than 30
languages. (The Happiness Project spent two years on the best-seller list.)
On her top-ranking, award-winning podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin,
she discusses happiness and good habits with her sister Elizabeth Craft.
She’s been interviewed by Oprah, eaten dinner with Daniel Kahneman,
walked arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama, had her work written up in a
medical journal and been an answer on the game show Jeopardy!
Gretchen Rubin started her career in law and was clerking for Supreme
Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she realized she wanted to be a
writer. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her husband;
they have two daughters (a college freshman and a seventh-grader).
GretchenRubin.com
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