Just say No

Good Morning. For the next 5 minutes, your career is the most important thing.

In today’s email:

• Wide learning for fun and profit

• Five ways to make your emails punchy

• Care less, less stress

• Just say No

• Warren Buffett as life coach

ON YOUR CAREER

Wide learning for fun and profit

Learning is a deeply motivating state. Dopamine, a rewarding chemical, is elevated in the learning process. Learning meets our desire for novelty and escaping boredom. It advances our need for goal progression. Lifelong, domain-specific, deep learning gives us expertise to stay relevant and compete in the jobs market. Wide learning also has great purpose.

David Epstein, in his book Range, studied world-leading athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters, and scientists. He found that wide learning, and broad skill acquisition, primed people for success. Wide learning helps us make mental connections that siloed, specialized learning cannot. It helps us be agile and creative when solving complex and novel problems.

Bill Gates, a fan of Epstein’s Range, attributes a large part of Microsoft’s success to ‘we thought more broadly than other startups of that era. We hired not just brilliant coders but people who had real breadth within their field and across domains. I discovered that these team members were the most curious and had the deepest mental models.’

Investing in wide learning helps future proof our careers. Learning about design thinking from engineering can help an HR leader design a cultural change program. Learning about neuroscience can help a salesperson better understand how customers are persuaded. Combining disciplines leads to innovation.

Click here for a deeper dive on Bill Gates’ thoughts on wide learning.

COMMUNICATION

Five ways to make your emails punchy

We don’t want to punish colleagues and customers with waffling, stream of consciousness emails. We owe them punchy communication - emails that quickly further understanding and drive action. You can make your emails punchy by using:

1. a relevant subject heading

2. dot points

3. italics, bold, and highlight on key words and sentences

4. attachments and links for detailed information

5. recommendations or requests for specific action(s)

Your readers will thank you.

PRODUCTIVITY

Just say No

Conscientiousness is the personality trait that is the best predictor of high performance in a job. Highly conscientious people often say ‘yes’ to too many work requests. They want to help. The downside to taking on too much includes: not remaining focused on highest value tasks, potential burnout, and under-utilising colleagues who could be working harder. An important career skill is knowing how to say No.

1 MINUTE TO LOWER STRESS

Care Less

Highly conscientious people often care too much about the outcome of their work. This can lead to perfectionism and stress. Caring less doesn’t mean being uncaring, it means caring the optimal amount. Caring a little less can help us embrace smart failures and get things done faster. It also frees us to enjoy the the non-work things we care about.

GET SMARTER

Warren Buffett as a life coach

Warren Buffett is known as the Oracle of Omaha because of his eight decades of success in business and investments. Buffett is also renowned for his common sense and life wisdom. Here are three of his life tips:

If you have specific feedback or anything interesting you’d like to share, please let us know by replying to this email.

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