Looking forward to the New Year is often about mammoth resolutions: I am going to l.o.s.e 15 lbs! Quit smoking! Spend 10 hours a week more with family! These grand plans can be positive if you have incredible will power, follow through, and a personal project management system. But what about all the little things you can do that will improve your life by simply eliminating them? I am working on my own list of things I really need to stop doing (I even wrote a similar post about this last night – 5 things I need to stop doing to myself). What are the things you want to stop doing in 2012 to improve the quality of your life?
Here’s an interesting article from the Harvard Business Review that lists 5:
1. Responding like a trained monkey
2. Mindless traditions
3. Reading annoying things
4. Work that’s not worth it
5. Making things more complicated than they should be
What are yours?
I like number 5 – Making things more complicated than they should be. I feel as though most of my “to stop” issues relate to that the best. Like, learn how to say no, stop being on projects that are outside of my realm, volunteering for things I don’t have time to do, etc…
I plan to stop:
Terrence: love the effort on Starbucks and bottled water. I heard there are something like 4 billion Starbucks cups thrown away each year. You should talk to Joseph Porcelli. He created something a few years ago called “The Mug Project” for this very reason.
Problem with number 5 is that if everyone stopped making things more complicated than they should be, most of us in government would be out of a job.
It depends if Congress passes a budget or not. I may stop working 🙂
I totally agree with ALL FIVE!!
But I think I need to add…
6) Stop listening to talk radio (which creates unnecessary work stress)
7) Giving everyone credit
Watching less television is a great start for me. 🙂
I can’t like this enough. Ditto to 1 – 5.
Travel less…
Putting everyone else and their needs ahead of my own