Please stop checking the news. It might be better for you to smoke pot than to interrupt yourself throughout your day to get the latest updates.

A couple of years ago, after conducting clinical trials, psychiatrist Dr Glenn Wilson of King’s College London University came to this conclusion: Being distracted by emails, text and phone messages can cause you a loss of IQ double that caused by smoking pot.

Don’t ask why, but men showed a larger drop in IQ than women.

Other research shows that when you are interrupted, it could take you as long as 25 minutes to get back in full swing. Even worse, 40 percent of the time you are likely to be distracted into doing something completely different.

It seems that the main problem is not the interruption, but what it does to your short-term memory. You simply forget what you were doing.

Now get back to work… if you can remember what you were doing.

I’m JamesMcIntosh@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2008 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio: Monday – 7:19am and Saturday – 8:19am
88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA | 89.1 FM WCNV, Heathsville VA | 90.1 FM WMVE, Chase City VA

We have been warned repeatedly that change is coming. Well, actually, for many of us, change arrived some time ago.

We have been forced to change where we work, what we drive, how we relax and when we retire. Some of us have even had to change where we sleep at night.

If we are not careful, change can turn us into angry people, stuck in the past, like the monk in this Zen story:

Two monks came upon a river where a pretty girl was trying to cross without getting her clothes wet. Without hesitating one monk picked her up, carried her across, put her down and walked on. The other monk was so shocked that he voiced his indignation step after step.

Finally his whining got through to the first monk who said, “That girl? I put her down at the river. Are you still carrying her?”

Now my question is this – which monk would you rather be?

I’m JamesMcIntosh@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2008 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio: Monday – 7:19am and Saturday – 8:19am
88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA | 89.1 FM WCNV, Heathsville VA | 90.1 FM WMVE, Chase City VA

Do you think that you were hired for your skill, your experience or your knowledge? Are you paid by the hour and so think that you are hired for your time at work?

Well, think again. You are hired for your energy. Without your energy, your experience and knowledge will remain untapped. Without your energy, your time at work will be wasted.

I find it strange that so many managers still don’t realize that your willingness to use your energy is far more important than your physical presence, your experience or your knowledge. I would rather work with someone who knows little but is willing to find out than with someone who knows a lot but is too tired to use it or to share it.

Don’t leave your energy at home. Bring it to work. You cannot change time, but you can change how you use your energy. And if you do, then your experience of time will change.

I’m JamesMcIntosh@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2008 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio: Monday – 7:19am and Saturday – 8:19am
88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA | 89.1 FM WCNV, Heathsville VA | 90.1 FM WMVE, Chase City VA