How are you managing your 24 hours in a day?

Is your lifestile balanced? That is the question you should answer after reading this article. I really think that there is not just one correct option, but I do think that some our nowadays lifestyles are wrong. Deeply wrong.

I have been thinking lately about how we manage our time, one of the most scarce resources we have to deal with in our daily life. I dont have the correct answer to the question, but I think I have some thoughts that need to be heard. Let´s take a look at the 24 hours we have to spend in a day, and we will discover some interesting facts…

What I am going to expose is a personal point of view of the minimal requirements for what I consider that is a balanced life. In my opinion, that concept should mix passive activities with active ones, using as many parts of our body as we can. Isn´t it the best way to achieve the balance?

Ok, let´s start with the passive hours. I will call passive hours the time we are not actually producing anything. That does not mean we are being unproductive, it just mean that we are not generating outcomes.

8 hour sleep. That´s considered the time you need to renew the energy of your body. I use to say that it is your battery charger, if you don´t fill it 100% you will not have the appropriate energy to face up the active tasks you need to accomplish in order to feel balanced. So please, take the rest when you have to.

1 hour sport.  It is hard, I know. But it is necessary. The time you invest on doing any sport is necessary to be tired when you have to go to sleep. Pick the one you like the most, or the one you can share with others ( That always help). But I am convinced that any day without sport is an unbalanced day.

2-3 hour feeding. The time you dedicate to the act of feeding should not be below 3 hours. In the mediterranean culture, we have 4 to 5 meal times along the day (And I would suggest that 5 is the perfect number) and we have to think about them as the “break” times. Production is not a permanent task, we have peaks where we feel we give our best, but others we feel we could not accomplish any task we have to do. So please, use that time to grab some food, charge the battery again, and keep yourself active. Being relaxed while you are eating will give you time to enjoy the food, helping your digestive system to impove it´s performance, and, if you manage it with care, giving you time to stop thinking about work.

I would like to add here the time dedicated to spiritual needs. The soul also needs to be fed…

1 hour learning. This hour is the one that keeps you up to date. That can be learning any language, studying something related to your work (or not related to your work at all), but please do not forget this hour or you will get stucked before you think. The time to know what is happening in your environment is needed to be competitive and move forward. Imagine you stopped learning in the 90s, then you wouldnt know how to use the internet, and that would make you less and less competitive.

3 hour of social life. This is the time we use to call or “free time” with friends, family, couple… We have so many people we love in our lives, please enjoy the time you share with them. Have fun! Sometimes our worries at work are transferred to our private life, and that is the worst attitude we should take. To feel self confident, willing to achieve your goals and happy to go to work you need their support. And more important than that, they also need your support for their lives. Do not give your back to them. Your happinness is at stake.

And then we arrive to the Active hours, that is, the time we spend in our lifes producing something. Generating wealth.

8 hour work. It is the standard, and I am not really sure that it is perfect. I always mantain that motivation comes first, and then comes the productive outcome. Sometimes I feel that I could be working all the night, the entire weekend or the whole evening. And I do it. There is something about inspiration and work. Why dont we let ourselves work when we are more productives? Why should we still work from 9 to 5? Are we all more productives during that period of time?

The 21st century business is the one that keeps the workers productive when they are productive. Forcing them to work in uncomfortable atmospheres, stressing situations or tight rules is, in the end, damaging the balance of the people at work. If someone feels that his or her well being is not being appreciated, their perception of the employer will be negative and the performance at work will be lower. On the contrary, enterprises taking care of the employees generate an affective relationship that will make the worker much more productive even when the company has bad results. And it is because it is not yet  the company, it is their company. And It also applies for civil servants, non profits…

This article is far from trying to tell anyone how we should live. It is just a modest approach to what I think it is needed to reach a balanced lifestyle, and I am sure that if I ask you about your approach will be different but with common points. What I just wanted to tell you is that you HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF about how you would like to live to achieve your balance. If you dont ask, you won´t get the answer.

Take a look to this video of Tim Ferris, the author of the book “4 Hour workweek” and you will understand that we should start thinking differently about work. Enjoy!

Why Top-to-down business is not working anymore?

Is it me or it feels like something is wrong when you buy a book in a physical bookstore? Why should I watch that horrible programs broadcasted on the TV for mediocre minds when I can  watch whatever I want on Youtube? If you have not asked that questions yet, maybe it´s time to do it. Because all these questions that deal with the Internet world as a substitute to some traditional products and services are changing behaviors, then societies and, after all, economies.

I am not the first saying that everything has changed. Don Tapscott said it in his brilliant book called “wikinomics” in 2006, where he anticipated the breakdown of the traditional companies if they don´t adapt their business strategies to the new economic scenario. Why should I watch TV news when all I need is to have a look in twitter to know what is happening?  Inmediate networked services are winning the battle of the audiences, and why is that? Is the same reason as always: when you can have it now, cheap an easy. Then you´ve got a winner.

And who is suffering all that change? The companies who still keep approaching their business in a Top to down approach (WE design a product, WE protect it from our competitors, WE send our message to the targeted people, WE sell it in a propietary way, WE dont have to ask the client if he is satisfied, WE are leaders, big and…dead). And, on the other hand, businesses, public institutions and organizations that change their mind and start working FOR their prosumers (producers & consumers) are experiencing higher growth rates than ever. It is as easy as finding the community you want to talk with, giving them the conversation they need to have, and finally, produce for them the products that nobody is giving them because they are not being heard.

The times when big companies enforced clients to buy their products ” in their way” finished long time ago. Now you have to adapt your business to the people. You have to listen to them, talk to them, study what are their needs, and build a product specifically designed to satisfy them at this moment. It has to be fast, it has to be smart (because if you don´t do it now, tomorrow you will have a competitor somewhere over the world), and it has to be sincere. Now doing business is the nearest thing to have a relationship: if you cheat your customer, there is not a second chance. The magic is gone.

If you want to think about that issues, please have a look to the following video:

We are too greater nation to limit ourselves to small dreams

It´s time to think big. When everything around seems to be falling apart, it´s time to believe. To believe in ourselves as a nation, as a community. This video just want you to think that we have been in tough times before, and as we did then, we will solve our problems and will take the place in the world we deserve. Leading is about make people believe that they can, and that is what I feel when I watch this video.

The major problem I see when I look to my loved country, Spain, is that I do not see that leadership. I do not see commitment, I do not see big dreams. If you have the same impression, it´s time to react. Complain about the situation will not lead us to a better future, but start doing things that change that present will (maybe) make our people believe that they can, that it is possible. Crisis are just times to change, and I believe that we can change.  Please do not limit ourselves to small dreams…

Managers, motivation and inspiration

It´s been a long time since I reached the conclusion that motivation is everything. Managers should not be people with power to fire but with power to inspire. Why do I say that? Well, teams are a really difficult issue to deal with (For me, the most difficult and challenging one) and the task of managing  people should be in charge of managers with the ability to motivate them, to inspire individuals to believe in what they are doing.

The job of the manager consists on creating a smiling face image each morning when his team wake up. My work rocks! is what the team has to believe, and the first person that has to beleive it is the manager. When you think that, everything that you do for the common purpose worths it, and then you become the most productive guy of the whole earth. Happy people creates successful companies, and the work of a good manager is to make people feel comfortable and happy in their workplace.

Motivate is difficult to achieve, but the excellence is being able to inspire. There is no work as demanding as that. Inspire people is give them an example of behavior every single day, every morning, in every decision. The values you want to see in your colleages are the values that you have to show, and that is the way you have to act. Every detail is a must, every reaction has to be clear and secure. You have to become the “Example man”, and your challenge is to create as many “Example men” as you can in your team,  so the day you have to go, the guy in charge will be, at least, as good as the guy that is gone.