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The Key to Avoiding Procrastination If you have a task you've been putting off, dividing it into small chunks is a good idea. But the real key to overcoming procrastination is just getting started. Once you begin, you’ve built momentum and are likely to keep going, doing a little more until you’ve made good progress—and maybe even completed the job. |
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The 5 Levels of Listening: Which Does Your Team Practice? The ways we listen—and not listen—are detailed in the Five Levels of Listening model, which goes from most distracted to most focused. Ideally, we’d all practice the fifth level: empathic listening, where we try to understand what matters to the person who is speaking, delaying our problem-solving and responsiveness. |
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The Spectrum of Negotiation: Using the Right Skills for the Context Negotiation occurs on a spectrum, and different tactics apply in different situations. For instance, you’d treat a one-time transaction differently from an ongoing client relationship you want to nurture. Have you developed effective negotiating skills? Are you applying negotiating skills appropriate for the context? |
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Recognizing and Reversing a Culture of Blame A culture of blame is one in which people are reluctant to accept responsibility for things that go wrong. Finger-pointing becomes an automatic response. It's nearly impossible for one person to reverse a culture of blame alone, but it is possible to demonstrate on a small scale what appropriate behavior looks like. |
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The Benefits of Thinking on Your Feet—Literally Most articles and research about avoiding prolonged sitting and doing more work while standing have focused on the physical health benefits of periodic standing, particularly if you have a desk job. But there are also mental benefits. Standing and walking improve attention, memory, and other cognitive skills, too. |
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Why Smart People Sometimes Do Dumb Things Smart people sometimes do things that are not so smart. In fact, smarter people are actually more vulnerable to thinking errors than those who are less smart, causing them to make unwise decisions. If you’re a smart person, the smartest thing you can do may be to recognize the ways in which you are not so smart. |
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Preventing Workplace Miscommunication When one person says something that the other one misinterprets—a very common type of workplace miscommunication—the conversation often moves on with neither party realizing what happened. Being able to discover a misinterpretation and straighten it out before it escalates into a serious tangle is an important skill. |
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Let the Outdoors Help You Reduce Work Stress Studies have found that natural environments can promote positive emotions and heighten physical and mental energy. If you're feeling stressed in the office, try to go outside briefly, take a short walk, commune with the trees if you’re able, and get back to work. You just might feel reinvigorated. |
