How Do You Do It? My Secret Principle for Time Management

 I get asked this question a lot.  Was asked again today, by a young male colleague who asked to meet me before he left for a posting to another organisation. As we were chatting, he suddenly burst out and asked "I always wanted to ask you!  How do you do it?  Manage 4 kids and have a successful career?".  My best friend likes to ask me how I manage to take care of 4 kids and still have time to meet her for long dinners or brunches (once in a few months).  

I must say I always scratch my head to answer this question.  It's something I just do, a bit like asking a fish how do they breathe under water.  I find myself usually giving a combination of replies such as "Well, it builds up, cos you give birth one at a time, and learn to manage them one at a time. So it's not all at once!", or "I have good help. My mum and my maid help me, so I have peace of mind when I work" or "I am not a tiger mommy.  I just spend time with them after work and on weekends, and I monitor their progress in school.  If they seem to be doing ok, I will leave them be and focus on my work. If there are some warning signals, I will focus a bit more on them" or "I have been blessed with very understanding bosses, thank God." or "I don't! I'm going crazy".    

Frankly it is all of the above, plus, well, daily prioritisation of tasks either at work or at home.  As a result I am loving my Bullet Journal, which is basically just my rolling to-do list for both work and personal life, plus a smattering of journal entries when I find time and the mood to. Then whatever cannot be squeezed into what time I have, just have to let it slip.  And trust that you somehow got the big rocks in the tank, and what could not be fit in was the final liquid which overflowed and hopefully was the small stuff.

And actually I always fail to mention the most important time-saving ingredient, which can be summed up in this very popular verse "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you".  I have found that when I put God first, somehow my work and family life gets magically done, and magically ordered, such that it didn't require me to put in the amount of effort I imagined it would.  It is a miraculous and magical, and probably God's humorous way of teaching us a lesson.  I can just imagine God chuckling at us marvelling at how come despite us eking out the time from our packed schedule and our unruly emotions to prepare that bible study, teach cell, attend church, keep our Sabbath, when we look back at our work week, it always seems extraordinarily uneventful.  To my immense surprise, I would realise that nothing crashed or burnt, and there might even be a lack of stress.  

It is probably my biggest secret principle of time management.

The Things We Spend the Most Effort Doing

I hosted a Christmas party yesterday for some of my colleagues, as a way to thank them for working so hard this year and achieving so many deliverables. 

Never did I imagine there was so much work involved in 1) cleaning and organising the house to be in better shape to receive guests, whom I wanted to bring on a house tour, and 2) planning and ordering and buying/preparing the food of the party. It was insane and nail-biting to the last minute and I frankly did not know how the food would turn out until the food was on the table. There was a bit of a hiccup when I started heating up the ribs and turkey 20 to 30 minutes before we were supposed to eat dinner but when I opened the package, realised the ribs and turkey were quite huge and also cold and I didn't have enough rack space in the oven. Plus the quiche also needed to be heated up. One of my colleagues popped into the kitchen and asked if she could help and I said why not (I'm not one to refuse help usually and I can always put people to work).  Another wandered into the kitchen next asking if I needed help and he was very useful.

Well I eventually got all the food on the table and people started eating and chatting with one another, and all I was doing was running around back and forth getting food ready and topping up stuff that was getting low and heating up things. I only started eating when all the policy folks had eaten and the international relations folks arrived. By then the turkey was all out (it's actually kind of yummy and tastes like a tastier version of turkey I've had before) and the pork ribs were thin on the meat bit fatty and divine. My fingers were sticky sweet and fragrant with pork and BBQ juices when I was done. Yum.... 

My kids also surprisingly left us alone most of the time. I realised that when you spend a lot of effort on something, you derive a lot more satisfaction when it has gone well! A bit like Little Prince and what not. Which tells me something about spending money to buy something off the shelf Vs something you made yourself ...

Is Your Life an Endless To-Do List?

 Dear God,

Something God has been impressing upon me:

Be in the Moment

In this time of work-from-home, when work and life seem to blur altogether, there are 2 scenarios: work can be at a lull. That is when we can do things like go for a mid-day or late afternoon swim right after an intense meeting (what a luxurious feeling! To slip into that cool water!) to clear my head and wash off the grime of the whole day.  I can run errands like do some quick grocery shopping for something small I forgot to buy over the weekend, or even attend to my kids, either helping them with schoolwork or even bringing them down to play during working hours (and making up for it later).  

But when work is at its peak, especially when we are in a crisis mode, it is all too easy to work non-stop, to check handphones incessantly, to monitor messages streaming in even when they don't concern us, to check emails during weekends, late at nights, and we don't seem to leave work behind when we leave office like we used to.  Life can seem like this endless stream of work - eat - tend to kids - sleep - repeat (especially when we are too scared to go out too far), and there is no clear distinction or break (where is my Sabbath?).  Recently, I found myself feeling guilty when I don't work during the weekends! I almost feel like I should be working nonstop because my other colleagues are working too (there is always someone working).  I now know a little bit of survivor's guilt, where you feel bad taking a break when you know others are slogging out there.  

As a working mom, there is also this never-ending list of things in your head to do, be it making meals for family/baby and all it entails, to settling kids' homework and performing administrative tasks, even good-to-do hobbies, doing my QT etc, which take away the joy of resting over the weekend (rest?  What rest?).  I guess I also bring this upon myself partially because when I want to get away from work, I like to cook.  Cooking is therapeutic to me to some extent, as it uses a whole other part of my brain and muscles that I don't use when I work.  Plus I generally don't think about work when I cook (too complicated, the process of turning raw ingredients into a decent meal on a table) and I get to eat something yummy and healthy too!  I also have a lot of hare-brained projects and ideas to do, like going to the library to return overdue books and get more books, get new stuff my kids want (if from Carousell, there is a lot more search time, coordination and travelling costs), get stuff for the hamster, make my own body washes, get and make gifts for ex-colleagues etc.  It's all very fun and good, but it's still a list of things to do, which the task-oriented me, will never be satisfied until I have crossed every item off the list.  So, this interferes with my enjoyment of my weekends, to the extent that to use today's catch-phrase, this affects my mental health. 

To be mentally healthy, I shouldn't treat life like an endless to-do list  I mean, what's the point of completing each task on my list but only to rush on to the next task, and the next task, and the next task.  And you know the tasks keep on piling up.  So you never have a moment's rest, and you never enjoy the moment of completion either.  I realised we should celebrate completion of certain bigger tasks, and have a proper rest at times.   And when we set if as a time to rest, we have to rest fully, nevermind the amount of work waiting for us tomorrow or even later.  This is very difficult as it requires us to tune our mind out of our work mode and also 'trust' that we can rest, and we can still complete the work tomorrow.  I suppose part of it is also knowing ourselves, that we do have limitations and we cannot keep working like that.  It will affect our efficiency.  Part of it is also, training of the mind, to concentrate fully on the task at hand.  If it is typing out this coherent and very lucid entry like what I am doing here, I should do it fully.  And not keep thinking about all the other tasks I haven't done.   If it is talking to our kid, we should be fully present.  When we are exercising, likewise.  Cooking, fully in the moment.  When we are spending time with God, to be fully immersed in it.  And when we know there are still a lot of stuff to do, to commit it to paper, and entrust it to God, if we decide now is not the time, and then forget about it until it is time to do it.  Easier said than done.  

I also need to prioritise, what is really important.  My husband is really good at that.  I think the lazy people know their limitations and hence deprioritise and simply do not do a lot of things.  The hardworking folks, on the other hand, are busy and industrious simply because they are capable and can do it.  I need to free up my schedule somewhat so I can slow down and listen to God sometimes, regularly.

Exciting and Satisfying Work

Now, this may sound strange, but I have recently experienced some very exhilarating times at work, and I have realised they come together with handling very difficult issues.  Yes, basically when I have a hard time or am facing a seemingly insurmountable or daunting problem, my heart starts pumping faster, my stomach clenches, my adrenaline flows, I don't feel fatigue at all even when I work long hours, and I sort of lose my appetite almost so I end up working into mealtimes without realising it.

And the feeling after a hard slog, and finally cracking the intractable complicated issue, untangling a knotty problem, or cutting through the thick fog of technical jargon to distill out the essence of the issue and present it in crystal clear, simple, correctly nuanced arguments, is immensely, deeply satisfying to me. 

Ok, so recently there have been 3 issues, which gave me that satisfying feeling.  First is an appeal, the second is a radiation-related issue, and the third is a response to a big boss on an issue of a trial.

Now, on the appeal, gosh there were so many twists and turns, and it was such a long-drawn drama, it could become a case study in itself!  Yes in fact I think I will write a short story just to make it funny and to remember what went on.  But most recently, my policy department haggled back and forth with an operational department on a reply to a big boss on  this appeal, in particular on some technical issue which he asked us to sort out, and both sides edited the reply to death.  We would craft it more in our favour and they would edit it further to highlight points in their favour - after 3 to 4 rounds of this, going late into Friday night and spilling over into Saturday morning, we finally ended up with a very carefully nuanced, finely balanced reply, where every word has been argued over and agreed and is so loaded with meaning behind it... I am very proud of our reply actually - proud of the final reply and proud of actually getting the other department to agree to it!  The trick is to limit our edits to highlighting facts which they cannot dispute, but the facts are actually in our favour.  The moment we add arguments, they would disagree.

This appeal also resulted in me staying up late at night after the kids have gone to bed, booting up my computer, pen and paper in hand, and trying to check the calculations of the operational department, which involved reading some technical document and following their formulae, and plugging in various coefficients which had their own formulae.  It was like solving algebra, and it was something which I had not done in so long and which I really relished!  And another day, my officer actually came up with an excel spreadsheet which was so beautiful, and he could generate a chart which was the holy grail that we were trying to find out from the Japanese, and it was absolutely thrilling to see him talk to himself "oh, I forgot to account for acceleration and deceleration", and he would go into certain cells, update the formulae, and press enter, and the graph would update itself and he would say "ok, now it's correct".  This is a sign of a true excel whizz.

What I learnt about myself through these few weeks, handling all these tricksy issues, is that I am someone who loves a good mental challenge.  I refuse to let something which seems awfully technical deter me, and will plunge headlong into it and try to figure it out. And when I do, and can argue my case with the best of them, men who have spent years of their life on this issue, I feel a sense of deep satisfaction and achievement.  And we gain mutual respect for each other.  And I feel the issue becomes clear as day and I know what to do.  It's a great feeling really.  I hope everyone feels the same way when we face problems at work - resolving them is super satisfying!!!

The best things in life

Recently I have started Cycling to the MRT again.  It could be the December weather, making for a more pleasant, windy, less smog-ridden ride (not that Singapore is ever that smoggy), or the fact that I had been seeing/hearing/reading about the benefits of Cycling again from the most unlikely places (eg when I meet healthy-looking, vigorous, clear-skinned people from Cycling associations or interest groups, or when I read about the higher workout of Cycling compared to Basketball, burning the stress away in a Robin Cook book, or when I lay in bed a night trying to sleep but feel this 'stuck' feeling in my chest). Anyway, I finally found the time to wheel my bike to the nearest petrol station and got the tires inflated again as they got flat sitting at a bike rack for too Long, and now the ride is incredibly smooth and bouncy.

Anyway, one day I had brought my toddler girl on a ride with me in the early morning to exercise, and I decided on a whim to try another route back.  I have been rather unhappy with my route to MRT as it is all along roads which have moderate to heavy traffic, and the ride back is especially bad when I come back feeling like my nasal passages and face are covered in grime. I had been hoping to find a shortcut that would cut through HDB estates more, to bring me away from traffic, since lining the paths with man-height bushes to keep pollution at Bay seems not to be a priority amongst the government agencies involved.  This time, I decided to try another route back, going along a PCN that runs along the MRT viaduct, even though the last time I tried it, I got hopelessly lost and it took me much longer  to get back.  To my surprise, I found that it was relatively easy to cycle back on this new route, and though half the journey is still along a major road, it doesn't feel that bad (may be the weather and time of year, may be the airflow in that area due to its layout and design), and half of the route is along this very pleasant wide PCN that is next to gardens, trees and residential estates.  Dream!!!  I am much happier now using this route and last night and this morning, when I was feeling rather burdened from some happenings at work (seem to be a common occurrence nowadays), I found the wide open expanse, the clean air and the autonomy of moving swiftly on a bike and exercising my body, invigorating.  And I played Justin Bieber's Love Yourself song on my phone as I rode and calmed myself somewhat.  This is something I hope to impart to my kids in the future - the ability to swim and cycle.  

That got me thinking - you see, life's problems at work are often about getting recognition and respect from bosses, peers, getting ahead in life, but then, I am already quite comfortable where I am (I concluded from observing my Dir that I'm not ready to be a Dir, not at least for a Long Loong time) and I am earning a good salary.  Why do I try so hard?  Why am I so bothered when I don't appear to live up to my own expectations of performance?  I should always try my best, and if it isn't enough, if I care simply about my trade and doing it well for the benefit of Singaporeans all over, and about God and winning His approval, I should know my failings, want to do better, but not feel so beat up about it, you know?  And if the things that bring me joy are things like taking a bike ride at the start or end of the day, feeling lithe and limber as I park my bike (I am aware of how sporty and girl-next-door I look in my sports cap and sports gear) and walk into Tampines Hub looking for a nice cafe for breakfast, thanking God for my healthy body, my slimness, my ability to get around... being with my kids and enjoying them... planning and cooking a nice meal for my friends, family, tidying and putting things in order in the home... watching the occasional movie in the theatre which is such a treat... curling up in bed with excitement as my Husband loads the latest TV series we are watching cos the kids are fast asleep.... laughing with my friends over some joke, well, actually a lot of these things don't cost me much.  So do I need to kill myself at work climbing further?  I don't.  I should do my job well (that seems to be in jeapordy here, but I can always say I'm still learning) and not try to do my boss' job (which I feel I am constantly trying to do, it's like a personal challenge to myself, an unconscious thing I do almost).  Sigh need to keep a rein in on my emotions. I know my weaknesses here are - not being able to articulate the benefits of what we are proposing to the bosses in a way that makes it easy for them to agree, not being able to respond to my staff disagreeing or undermining what I say in a clever and uncombative way, and also having all the history of things at my fingertips, to respond very quickly to questions fired by bosses over WhatsApp or meetings, and having a poker face when I am asked something I don't know offhand or being challenged about our previous position and I am too easily swayed by new arguments and can't remember why we did what we need.  Also need to develop some Armour to when l am being criticised and learn how to diffuse the temper of the person.  I Guess these are things I will work on this coming year.  Will see if I manage to make any improvements at the end of the year!

The Joy of Appreciation

I have finally gotten down to writing all those New Year (was meant to be Christmas but hard to do in the thick of work and kids all demanding my attention) cards for most of my colleagus. I must say for once, I did something quite fruitful and productive with my hours of insomnia (too used to sleeping at 2 plus when I was on leave so hard to sleep before 12 even when I wanted to!) and actually finished writing thoughtful, individually personalised cards to each of my 18 colleagues.

I had the inspiration because of how wonderful the note I wrote to an ex-colleague was (I was so proud of it - it was inspiring, encouraging, warm and pretty cos I decorated it with stickers) and how good it made me feel. I was sure she appreciated it. So I decided since this was something I was good at, why not extend it to all my colleagues? Share the joy so to speak. So I bought this box of pretty cards from Urban Write, and set about doing it.

I must say I surprised myself, by having something nice to say even for colleagues I did not know very well or who only started work for a while. I tried to make each note personal, conversational, light-hearted and also made sure I added a note of appreciation for their work or their personalities. I would point out little things they suggested, good ideas, which i thought were brilliant, memorable work moments (eg stroller video, AM bill) and horrible work moments (eg AMK launch), and tried to show faith in them or some enthusiasm about what 2017 would bring in terms of work (eg our work would come into fruition and hopefully touch the lives of many Singaporeans). For some colleagues, I realised didn't need much words. I just had a say I must say I really enjoy working with you, and it would have said it all. For one particular colleague whom I have this chemistry with, of whom I am rather fond of, I tried using the approach for some others where I tried to point out what I appreciated about her, her reliableness, how i could always count on her to get her work done well, but it was starting to sound like work appraisal so i deleted them.

I also reverted to my cheesy Sec school/JC days where I started giving them labels on the front of the card, eg to my ever-smiling and sunny colleague, to my calm and unflappable colleague, to my fun and fashionable colleague, and I must say I was quite pleased with my effort, even though I was pairing these precious cards with packs of cheapo Famous Amos cookies which only cost me a dollar each (some sale at 7-Eleven). But I figured - I want to give them a practical thing they would definitely use/consume, and didn't want to break my bank doing it, so what better way than to give out chocolate chip cookies? Anyway the highlight of my gift was the card. Oh, and I also would end off each card, most cards, with wishing them a marvellous 2017 that is better than 2016, not because circumstances will be better (though i wish they will be) but because our reactions to things will be better! Something I learnt from Pastor Pacer's sermon at end of 2016.

The strange thing was that the day after I gave out these cards, several of them couldnt quite look me in The Eye or took the effort to come look for me to discuss something.

I read the parable of the Mustard seed today and I prayed that these little "seeds" would germinate and grow fruit that I may or may not see. God may you bless these little seeds and make them grow! Amen.

Herd Instinct

I recently encountered two "alpha males" in my course of work, and it was an eye-opening experience. Both of them exuded zest and alacrity in their actions (as opposed to lethargy, apathy and various states of zombification), displayed a positive and 'can do' attitude towards things, that was so refreshing amidst a growing sense of negativity and complaints of people around me, a curious mind and a breezing disregard for superficial objections by people who say it cannot be done. Both were focused, driven, and absorbed in the task they were doing, and respectful of the different talents in their team (perhaps to varying degrees). They both described the end goal in such inspiring, lofty terms, that the people around them who were still mulling over the large amount of work that had to be done (and some never rise beyond that), were left feeling slightly- yes, inspired. Of course, being alpha males, there was a certain amount of one-up-manship, varying displays of (reckless) bravado and competition, of jockeying for space, but I could not help observing how the sheer power of their drive had a cascading effect of setting the people around them into motion as well, to be more "present", more engaged, in short, more alive.

I once read a book that said the way to keep one's passion was to be with passionate people, or like-minded, kindred souls. When I read it, I did not fully understand the point and even scoffed at it. How could that be a key factor in keeping one's passion? Surely a passionate person who has a clear vision could stay perfectly driven and passionate even when he or she was surrounded by people who were otherwise? But perhaps there is some truth in it after all.

The human psyche is such that we run with the herd. You know how people say it takes a long time to break one record, but once it is done, many others go on to break it? We tend to observe the people around us, and to model after them sub-consciously, in speech, in thought, in action. Knowing this, we should probably: (i) watch our speech and conduct carefully, as there is surely a knock-on effect on others, perhaps more than we realise, and (ii) we should be mindful of the people we are with, as we may be emulating them unknowingly.

Of course not everyone has the priviledge to be with people who inspire us, or who are excellent in what they do. But if we do, this certainly goes a long way in stretching our horizons, stoking our imagination, spurring us to reach further than we would have done ourselves. If we are with people who are going in the right direction, we tend to follow suite. And vice versa. Not by our sheer individual effort, but by the mere drifting along with the crowd. It is a scary thought.

Career Bucket List

Today I read an article in the papers that talked about how we could have a job, a career or a calling. The differences were quite interesting: if it's just a job, people tend to be clock-watchers, and come to work just to put intone mandatory 8 hours (or less if they can get away with it) so that they can really start living after work. If it's a career, people tend to be very driven, motivated and achieve great outcomes, but they are motivated by money, prestige, status. If it's a calling, the content of the work matters and they are driven by intrinsic factors such as wanting to serve others or improve something. They often also get the money, status and promotions as a result of their performance although they were not looking for it. The interesting thing for me is that on the surface, both people working in their careers and calling may appear equally driven, but their driving factor are so different! I Guess when the going gets tough, or when the prospects of promotion or work-to-reward ratio are not up to mark, then we may see differences in response in the two types of people.

To help people find their career or calling, the writer suggested that we write down our career bucket list - meaning what things do we want to have achieved before we die, if there were no limitations? Or to help spur the imagination, what would we want to be featured in the papers for in the future? I was quite intrigued by it and so here is my attempt at crafting one:

- Publishing a book that is enjoyed by thousands
- To have touched people whom I worked with by inspiring them towards excellence and God
- To really improve the way things are done, address inefficiencies and maximize impact, and delight people as they go about their daily lives in many ways
- I have always wanted to experience life as a waitress
- I really enjoyed coding once, perhaps to actually code something or develop a machine that works!
- To preach a series of sermons on things close to my heart

Haze!

Hello!

Sorry I've been missing in action for a while - blame it on the haze.  I was minding my own business at work, when I suddenly got called into a haze meeting and was suddenly involved in haze issues for a whirlwind one and a half weeks, where I attended three or four meetings a day, prepared slides or papers in between, skipped meals, ate at strange times, and otherwise just lived, breathed and ate haze-related information and updates.  That was when I realised that I am not a person really suited to wartimes.  Because I felt I was falling sick after about 4 or 5 days of not having regular, proper meals, working over a weekend flat out (we came back both days and had meetings almost all day!) and being slightly stressed out all the time. Perhaps it's because my blood group is A+ .  Apparently I am the blood type that does not take stress well.  On the contrary, this other girl who is my counterpart from another department, who was roped in one day earlier, worked longer hours and is even busier than me with haze issues, was perfectly fine, health-wise.

I must say when the 3-hour PSI (Pollutant Standard Index) hit a high of 400, I got really worried about Singapore, in particular, Singaporeans.  And I despaired of ever seeing clear skies again for months, as information from the authorities on how long the haze was going to last was not forthcoming (I believe they can only project one day in advance, and the dry season is supposed to last until the monsoon rains come in Nov-Dec!).  Thankfully, the rains came, the wind blew (in our favour), and the haze lifted, after a horrible, choking few days.  And I realised how much worse haze is than the SARS outbreak in Singapore years ago.  For SARS, it affects some people, and you feel like you can take precautions against catching it (practice good personal hygiene, avoid people with coughs or colds), but haze - it affects everyone, and you can't really get away from it when you're at home, unless you are fully air-conditioned.  Even then, some air seeps in.  My office floor had a slightly hazy look on the week when the haze was particularly bad.  And the complete lack of air purifiers in the market just added to everyone's (and in particular my) sense of despair.  I just hope someone comes up with a cheap and good technological solution that can help us clean up our indoor air during haze periods (and perhaps even during non-haze periods) sometime in the near future!

The Value of Rest

Ahh... I am amazed at what half a day off from work can do for me. Yesterday morning I woke up with a mysterious large lump of phlegm in my throat that I managed to get out with a loud hack. It really surprised me, as I had been feeling perfectly fine until then. Then as the rest of the day progressed, and as the pace of work picked up, I started blowing my nose more and more, and sniffling miserably as I worked.

Today I seriously contemplated taking a day off from work, but there was too much to be done, so I went to office anyway. Miraculously, I managed to finish most of the urgent things on my to-do list, and left at about 1pm to go to see a clinic near my house. But the strange thing was, the further and further I got away from office, I found myself calming down and looking forward to half a day off from work! Then i decided to pop into Tampines Library to look for a book... which resulted in my trotting around Tampines 1 bookstore and buying that Sophie Kinsella book that has been eluding me for so long :) Then I settled with a happy sigh into a restaurant called "Say Cheeze" and started reading the book, and before long, I was chuckling aloud to myself as I flipped the pages. She manages to be so funny :) If I were to ever write any fiction, I want to write funny fiction!

Anyway, as I finished with the minestrone soup and baked rice and moved on to the nice cup of coffee, I felt myself feeling better and better, and I noticed I had not blown my nose nor felt groggy and stuffy in my head in a long time. I feel perfectly fine! In fact, I feel so well, I think I'm not going to see a doctor.

And on my way home, I popped into that posh-looking Urban Write stationary store I have been so curious about and never had the time to get there before closing time, and buy a blue scrungee to replace the one I lost... And as I let myself into my home at 4 plus, I still had time to pack up the mess of clothes on the sofa, and send off a few quick emails to cell that have been outstanding (never managed to find the strength to log on after work)... Ahh.... The luxury of some time off from work :) It's magical.

A Virtuous Cycle of Work

There is something I have been reflecting a lot about these past two weeks - and it is is excellence. I feel truly inspired when I encounter people who are excellent in their areas of work – be it a singer, an actor, a speaker, a writer, a civil servant, a cook, a waiter etc etc. It makes me realise the best that area was meant to be (music, policymaking, managing, influencing). These are usually people who do not treat their work as a drudgery, but treat each piece of work as if it were the last piece of work they will do and give it their all. I felt this keenly when I had the privilege and pleasure of meeting several such people a few weeks ago, one after another. I met a team of worship leaders who composed such beautiful songs I truly thought they were Hillsongs songs (snippets found at http://www.lighthouse.org.sg/light_the_way.asp), I met someone who manages his time so well and yet pushes the envelope constantly in terms in his work. I met an energy efficiency expert from USA who was extremely jet lagged (he worked on slides from 230 – 430am the night before) and yet appeared fresh and enthusiastic as a puppy when he delivered his talk. He must be pretty old, he has a head of white hair! I was truly amazed. I must have stared at him with my mouth agape for a good part of his talk because I could not believe my eyes – here was an elderly man, who not only must be dead tired and delivering this talk for the umpteenth time (he is also adviser to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s team and sits on many other committees), but he is as crisp and clear and engaging and fervent as ever. I told myself, when I am old, I want to be like that. Not something I get to tell myself often, mind you J When we meet such “work” mentors in our lives, treasure them.

This epiphany of sorts also came at a time when work was becoming a bit of a drudgery for me. I found myself lamenting to people around me the seeming lack of correlation between hard work and rewards at my workplace, and how many of colleagues were already taking the easy way out and deciding to ‘slack’ as much as they could get away with. After all, we all get the same pay anyway and the boss is too busy to notice us. And as I went along this trajectory, I started to see my work as just something to get done during the office hours, like a robot of sorts, and my life really starts after work. However I realised how this sort of thinking ironically made me value my work even less, and as I put in minimal effort, and cared less if I submitted things which were lackadaisical, I took less pride in work and work seemed even more of a drudgery!

As I was attending a worship service, images of such people excelling in every field kept flitting through my mind. I don’t know why. But I realized what makes me happy is excellent work. And I believe that deep down, everyone does. There is that sense of satisfaction when we have done a good job of something, whether it is something as simple as cleaning the house, to creating a piece of prose, to creating a set of powerpoint slides (yes we all know the “just throw the text up on bullet points” sort of slides, which is really the last resort and is really not that inspiring to look at). I realized there is a vicious cycle, and a virtuous cycle at work in work :P. When I put in my 100% to anything I am doing, and I tell myself to do a good job of it, cos it is something worthwhile, it brings a sort of positive energy and time flies, and my mind is engaged (instead of ‘switched off’), and work becomes what it was always meant to be. Of course, we should beware the other extreme (which I have also experienced) of caring so much about work that it consumes our every thought and it squeezed out other important things in life. That is not healthy as well. But I am talking about putting in that effort, to do a good job, and that immense satisfaction when we produce that good piece of work we are proud of. I call it “the virtuous cycle of excellence”. Just put in 100% to something you don’t really like, and strangely, I believe we will start liking it!

Running with the Swift

I recently encountered two "alpha males" in my course of work, and it was an eye-opening experience. Both of them exuded zest and alacrity in their actions (as opposed to lethargy, apathy and various states of zombification), displayed a positive and 'can do' attitude towards things, that was so refreshing amidst a growing sense of negativity and complaints of people around me, a curious mind and a breezing disregard for superficial objections by people who say it cannot be done. Both were focused, driven, and absorbed in the task they were doing, and respectful of the different talents in their team (perhaps to varying degrees). They both described the end goal in such inspiring, lofty terms, that the people around them who were still mulling over the large amount of work that had to be done (and some never rise beyond that), were left feeling slightly- yes, inspired. Of course, being alpha males, there was a certain amount of one-up-manship, varying displays of (reckless) bravado and competition, of jockeying for space, but I could not help observing how the sheer power of their drive had a cascading effect of setting the people around them into motion as well, to be more "present", more engaged, in short, more alive.

I once read a book that said the way to keep one's passion was to be with passionate people, or like-minded, kindred souls. When I read it, I did not fully understand the point and even scoffed at it. How could that be a key factor in keeping one's passion? Surely a passionate person who has a clear vision could stay perfectly driven and passionate even when he or she was surrounded by people who were otherwise? But perhaps there is some truth in it after all.

The human psyche is such that we run with the herd. You know how people say it takes a long time to break one record, but once it is done, many others go on to break it? We tend to observe the people around us, and to model after them sub-consciously, in speech, in thought, in action. Knowing this, we should probably: (i) watch our speech and conduct carefully, as there is surely a knock-on effect on others, perhaps more than we realise, and (ii) we should be mindful of the people we are with, as we may be emulating them unknowingly.

Of course not everyone has the priviledge to be with people who inspire us, or who are excellent in what they do. But if we do, this certainly goes a long way in stretching our horizons, stoking our imagination, spurring us to reach further than we would have done ourselves. If we are with people who are going in the right direction, we tend to follow suite. And vice versa. Not by our sheer individual effort, but by the mere drifting along with the crowd. It is a scary thought.