Richard Maun

Author: moderncareers

  • The Joy Of…

    Amazing what you can achieve after a couple of hours of weeding...
    Amazing what you can achieve after a couple of hours of weeding…

    …Small things. I was weeding over the weekend, which is something I rarely do, as I am to gardening what Katie Price is to self-effacing modesty. However, a patch of gravel next to what we laughingly call ‘the lawn’ needed a good tidy up and all the little weeds tugged out. At first I was cursing at the mind numbing repetition and then, to my surprise, I was smiling at the mind numbing repetition.

    Each little plant pulled free and parked in the bag was a tiny step towards a tidier garden and I found myself enjoying the absolute simplicity of the task. No tools, no thinking and no skill was required and for a happy couple of hours I sat quietly (on a squashy old rugby ball) and happily weeded away.

    It’s tempting to find joy only in the expensive or complicated things in life, such as buying an iPad, dining in a restaurant, or booking a holiday to a tropical island. Whilst these things are undoubtedly nice they are only small fragments of our life and so if we want a rich existence it really pays to find joy in the everyday, the mundane and the stress-free.

    What small things can you find joy in this week?

    And who wouldn’t swap weeding for a week in Bali?

    Ok, don’t answer that, but you get my point. Finding joy in little things lifts our hearts and helps to power us through the busy working week.

    And of course, small things all add up!

  • How To Keep Your Job (2)

    Is yours as palatial as mine? Ikea on steroids...
    Is yours as palatial as mine? Ikea on steroids…

    One way to keep your job is to improve your performance, which is underpinned, not by cleverness, but by having the energy to continually work to a high standard. And this is underpinned by biscuits. Well, to be more precise, by taking a break and having tea and biscuits. Sleep is good too, but harder to squeeze in to a tea break at work. Power napping in your car is becoming evermore popular though, particularly if you’re on a long journey and are feeling drowsy. I’ve power napped and a quick 15mins has really increased my alertness.

    Energy requires input and converting biscuits into energy is a good plan. As we all know in Einstein’s famous equation E = TC2 (where T is tea and C is custard creams) the amount of energy you get is proportional to the number of dunks you make in a really good cup of tea.

    Interestingly, archaeologists have recently discovered that 10,000 years ago ancient Britons discovered fire on Monday, brewed nettle tea on Tuesday and then baked primitive custard creams on Wednesday. No wonder homo sapiens became the dominant species of its kind…

    And when the energy from biscuits is exhausted my recommendation is that you go to sleep.

    Reputable surveys show that we need 7 to 9 hours a night and I’ve noticed, when coaching busy exec types, that people often try to manage on less.

    This is counter-productive.

    Sleep allows our bodies to repair and our brains to sift and sort the day’s activities before filing memories away. If we don’t get enough sleep we run the risk of overload, followed by meltdown. So, there’s no long term honour in being a sleep deprived ‘hero’ or ‘heroine’.

    In the new book How To Keep Your Job I offer plenty of tips to help people increase their energy and here I would suggest one of my favourites: Turn the middle of the week into Sleep Wednesday.

    It’s not always easy to get to bed in good time when life works hard to keep us up, so the trick for more success is take back just a bit of control and every Wednesday make a point of going to bed 2 hours earlier than you would usually. That’s all…just 2 hours.

    Over the course of a year that adds up to nearly 15 extra nights of sleep and will go a long way to clawing back your sleep deficit.

    Imagine how much energy you’d have if you snoozed for a fortnight! And of course if you under-perform and lose your job, you’ll have between 6 and 12 months of lie-ins before getting your next job.

    Help yourself to keep your job. Take a break and dunk a biscuit, have a Sleep Wednesday and buy the book. It’s based on real life successes and is there to get you ahead of the herd.

    I’m off for a snooze now! Catch you later!