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Rev Up for the Week

Productivity and Kindness at work

Hi there. I'm Graham Allcott. Every Sunday, I send out an upbeat idea for the week ahead, directly to your inbox.

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Featured Post

Cringing at Club Tropicana

Hi Reader, I was at a networking event this week (my first in many years!), when someone asked me what I did. I said I was the author of How to be a Productivity Ninja. "Wow", she said, "I've read your book!". We had a brief chat about what I was working on now, including the new book coming soon (October - and you'll hear about it here first!), and I mentioned how proud I am of what I'm about to share with the new book, and that when I occasionally read back snippets from 'Productivity...

6 days ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, It’s often said that time is our most precious resource. I don’t think that’s true. I think attention is our most precious resource. Attention is a more limited resource than your time. Your productivity and indeed your mental wellbeing depends heavily on how you choose to ‘spend’ your attention. In an average day, you will have 3 different levels of attention: 1. Proactive attention: This is where you are fully focused, alert, in the zone, and ready to make your most important...

20 days ago • 3 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this week’s Rev Up for the Week, where each Sunday I deliver you an idea to help supercharge your work week. I moved house recently. It was my first house move in nearly a decade. I’d forgotten how much there is do, and how it disrupts little habits that you didn’t even know you had. For example, in the new house, I no longer eat bagels, I sit down and just relax more, I've stopped playing chess or looking at my iPad, I’ve taken some pleasure and even joy in tidying up...

27 days ago • 3 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to Rev Up for the Week. I'm writing this on the plane to New York, where I'm spending a few days flitting between leisure mode and work mode. America is a country with great confidence — anything is possible, and it's OK to dream big. It's an infectious way of thinking that, a lot of the time, we Brits could do with adopting a little more. But there's also a downside to confidence and bravado. Have you ever had one of those moments when you realised that almost everyone is...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to Rev Up for the Week, where every Sunday I deliver you a simple idea to help power your Monday. This week I've been moving house. I've spent the week going back and forth between the new place and the old place, shifting furniture and boxes, all while managing the roofers fixing the roof and getting ready for the sparkies and plumbers and plasterers, so they can all get to work. Oh, and all while managing an autistic son's aversion to change. It's been a lot. My todoist...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader, It's Easter weekend. Happy Easter, especially if you celebrate it with more than just chocolate bunnies. I'm here again, doing my 'Rev Up for the Week' thing, but also knowing that you might not be in work mode for some of the days to come. So I thought I'd take a little step back this week... Overrated: Fancy job titles Awards Command Talking Making them listen Underrated: How you made them feel Going the extra mile Hard work in the background Team work Kindness Listening Making...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader, Welcome to this week’s Rev Up for the Week, where each Sunday at 4.05pm I deliver you a productive or positive idea for the week ahead. Last week I was coaching some folks on ‘inbox zero’ and some of the ‘Ninja Email’ principles from How to be a Productivity Ninja. As well as being what I coach, it’s what I’ve practiced myself for the last 15 years or so. There are huge benefits to the approach: when you’re not keeping hundreds of emails in your inbox like they’re your pets, you’re...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader, Kind people at work succeed. Kindness creates longer and more trusting working relationships where both sides are able to eliminate some of the 'due diligence'. It's a shortcut. It creates leeway. It makes things happen. But lots of people get confused about kindness. Kindness is often seen as being weak, when to be truly kind in some of those difficult moments - to act with a commitment to both truth and grace - takes guts, strength and a great deal of skill. And people confuse...

2 months ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader, What if it all goes well? What if they love me? What if the idea is great? What if it's really successful? What if no one minds? What if it ends up beyond my wildest dreams? What if I'm accepted? What if they all agree? What if it turned out I'm just as good as they are? What if it enhances my reputation? What if they see the funny side? What if we bond over it? What if it has to get worse so that it can get better? What if I did know what to do (and just did it)? What if it all...

2 months ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader, I went to see a play this week. It was by a theatre company run by people with disabilities, and it poked fun at the attitudes we have towards a range of 'isms' - racism, sexism, ableism and more. It asked tough questions like "is there a hierarchy of these 'isms'?" Is being racist worse than being sexist, and is being sexist worse than being ableist? Part of it focused on the character of a well-meaning HR director, who was trying incredibly carefully to ensure everyone felt...

3 months ago • 2 min read
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