Be as Productive as the Pine Tree

Productivity. How can one be in a productive state? Or what’s classified as productive? I spent three years researching the subject and in manufacturing it makes perfects sense. A simple equation- output per resources. 

But what about in other situations? Can it be that simple? Maybe or maybe not ... 

I kept going home from work each day this week with a sense of accomplishment. It was a four day week and I did nothing work related on my three day weekend. 

I left work Friday afternoon with a smile on my face. I picked up my husband from work and not even ten minutes into our commute, my eyes closed. I was exhausted. 

Most people think of their weekend ahead the moment their eyes shut. Some reflect. I did the latter.

What was it that made me feel productive? 

Eliminate Clutter. 

My email is almost always full but I have dedicated about ten hours per week reviewing and organizing my inbox. I voluntarily restart my computer which forces me to review open files and save. 

So on my computer, everything was in its place. I cleaned up my cube and even wiped down my desk. 

At home, I finally folded my daughters laundry (from the previous weekend) and the kitchen island was clear. Nothing but a candle. 

Removing clutter helps remove the noise. You will constantly feel like there’s something extra weighing on your shoulder, which goes into my next topic. 

Keep a list.

I love checklists. There are many scholars and consultants around the world who will preach lists. Most recently, I have taken up a OneNotebook for all of my tasks. 

It gets it out of my head, on “paper” and gives me a clear view of what needs to be done. 

As I’m reviewing my inbox, there are items that may not be pressing but to hold my credibility, I need to complete them. So I add it to my list. 

Every Monday and Friday, I review my list and highlight completed items green. Once I’ve reached more green items then not, I clear the green ones out. This reminds me to stay focused on what needs to be done but keeping it on the list for a short time, actually helps my mood and keeps me motivated. 

But we can all get caught up in the tasks. 

Remember the End Goal. 

I’ve learned over the course of my career, that we lose a sense of productivity when we’re caught up or even drowning in tasks. Depending on your role, you step into work not knowing whether you will have to react to something or actually get your planned tasks completed. 

It is important to stop and review your goals. 

Your project goals. What phase am I in? What are my critical path inputs holding me back? 

Or even your development goals. I keep my top three or four projects on my white board. I see it every morning because it lies just above where I put my bag down. 

I’ve quoted Lewis Carroll in previous posts - “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” 

It’s important to keep the end in sight. I honestly think that focus is the root of my productivity this week. I wasn’t able to check a lot of things off my list but I did move the needle on my destination. 

We took a weekend drive up to Prescott, AZ and I found myself within endless pine trees. 

I lied back on the wooden bench and submerged in Mother Nature. Almost like the movies, all sights and sounds around me disappeared. As I zeroed in on the trees above me, I couldn’t help but think -

The pines are the tasks. 

The branches are the projects. 

The trunk was me. 

The tree must’ve been over 100 years old and must’ve been why it was able to hold thousands of pines and hundreds of branches. 

But I just entered my thirties. How much weight can we really carry on our shoulders? 

Not much. 

For now, declutter and put all those items rolling around in your head on paper. Remember the end result. 

As corny as it sounds, emulate the trees and only hold what you’re physically able to. In time, you will grow and you will learn to carry more. 
Link for photo credit 

Working Mom: For my FAMILY, not my tasks

Sunday night is when the house is the quietest. Baby sleeps on-time. No appliances are running. And even the neighbors seem to comply with the unspoken, school-night, lights out rule. 

It is usually the night I can catch up on my Facebook news feed and when I did a few weeks ago, “Gasp!” 

My dear friend (who I refer to as my sister) had posted a two sentence shout-out about what it’s like being a working mom and the expectations that comes with the role. 

And it struck me. I’m not the only one. 

She is one of my key role models growing up. Although, we live on opposite sides of the country today, I try to stay connected and at least follow her successes (her beautiful children, her many published novels). I will continue to aspire to be her. It looked as if she had it all figured out and I’m convinced she still does. 

I came to realize, however, that we all have the same joy and challenges that come with being working mothers. We all have our avenues of removing stress and our “cheat sheets” to managing through it. But what are the expectations? How do we manage them? And mostly importantly- where do they come from? 

What needs to be done

My daughter needs to be fed. And she needs to be held, still. She’s in a curious learning phase where independence is her new deal but she needs to see mommy and daddy in close proximity to her. On a typical day, I get home from work, fix her a plate of something that she’ll most likely throw on the floor and start dinner. I clean the kitchen, prepare dinner and monitor my daughter's meal, doing so in my work clothes. 

I try to do everything and usually within a short period of time. But I found that my daughter wants me. She wants me to sit with her as she eats (she actually finishes her meal). She wants me to sit on the floor to play with her toys and to be near when she is falling asleep. 

The dishes can wait. The laundry will be postponed until the weekend. And if there is anything pressing, it can be done at night- “after hours.”

Ever since my car accident in April where I was rear-ended on the freeway, my body became my natural clock of what I could and couldn’t do. It was a blessing in disguise to how I should be spending my strength and most importantly time. 

How do I manage it all

Last year I prepped my return from leave about a month in advanced. I started writing down my tasks on a piece of paper and putting different signals in place for when I needed to follow-up on something. For instance, one sleeve of diapers left in the baby's room meant to reorder a box on Amazon. 

I started using online grocery shopping services and curbside pickup options to minimize my time away from home. I continue to write things down but most importantly I’ve learned to let go. 

I was taught to never leave dishes in the sink. I was advised to do laundry when I had half the basket full. I was lectured about keeping the counters and floors organized and clear. 

But I stopped. We have 24 hours in the day. I spend on average 2 hours of that for my for commute, 8 hours at work and maybe 6 sleeping. And the baby spends about 10 sleeping at night, on a good lunar cycle.

That leaves four hours with her - assuming I get home on-time.

So the plate can wait (and the dishwasher has become my dearest friend). My daughter is already 18 months and every time I look in her crib, I think about how she will be 18 before I know it. 

Who is keeping tabs

My sister’s post was a wake up call. Every one of us is balancing expectations. And I’m confident that it doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female; parent or single; and young or wise- you have expectations of someone you are balancing. 

For the topic of working mothers, I can honestly say we set those expectations ourselves. And I believe genetically, we have it wired in us to do so. The woman’s body is designed to carry a human child and then withstand the stress conditions during child birth. Why do we want praise after the fact for running the household and running our company? 

People can ask how we (working mothers) do it. And that is okay if they’re looking to understand. But don’t be let down when working fathers don’t get asked the same question. They are, however, dealing with the expectations of their own. They want to choose the best role to provide, make the best decision when it comes to sleep versus play, and manage the same four hour window they get to see their child. 

The choice is ours to make. 

I decide what I’m going to cook on my way home from work or pickup takeout at our favorite spot next to the daycare. 

I decide to catch up on email in the evening until the dryer stops and fold the laundry before I fall asleep. 

This has become my way to shut down and allow myself to rest when I hit the pillow. I think about a full-time housekeeper from time to time but for me it won’t work. I like cooking for my family and find it to be a stress reliever. I love seeing my daughters toys in different places because it reassures me of her active curiosity and imagination. 

I have my breaking points from being tired or noticing that we have eaten take-out three days in a row. But that all means I have set the wrong expectations for myself that week or that day and I try to self-correct.

It is not easy being working parents. Regardless, we owe it ourselves to be true to ourselves and not burn-out or break down.

It is okay to stop. It is okay to say “I’m making Mac n Cheese for the third night in a row.”  It is most okay to choose your family over chores. 

We need to stay in the moment. We need to be present. We are gifted with these challenges, so embrace them. 

My Testimony: Transitioning Into Industry From College

It was a quarter to 11 this beautiful and warm Friday morning. We parked on the northwest side of campus and I was oh so proud that we were half a block from the tall glass blue building, Coor Commons. I put the baby in the stroller and had a tear in my eye that I was actually a mother. The first time I recall Mom dropping me off around this side of campus, was my first day as a freshman: some 14 years ago. 

My reminiscing had to come to stop after I was informed of being in the wrong building. 

Last month, I ran into my mentor at the WE Local event in downtown Phoenix. She asked if I would like to speak on a panel for Engineering Student Council Conference. I couldn’t refuse. Now here I am, thinking I was 30 minutes early, realizing I may be 10 minutes late. 

I jet across campus with the stroller in my arms and kept looking back at my mother trying to keep at her own pace. I was confident I knew where I was going and then wait: where am I? I found myself stopping in the center of Arizona State University. Lost. I felt like there were 100’s of young eyes just staring back at me. Who is that lady with the baby? (I’ve become a lady?! Or maybe that Mom with a baby?!) I was standing in front of the Memorial Union. The location I spent most of my “free” time has now become a place of unfamiliarity. How did that happen? When did that happen? 

I finally got to the room. I strolled my baby in and asked my mom to take her to the hall if she started talking. The young eyes again were staring back at me. 

“She brought her baby?” I’m pretty sure I heard someone say it, unless I could hear their thoughts. I sat down. The room quieted down and the host began our session. 

A nuclear engineer for APS and myself were the targets, invited here to discuss our transition from college to industry. 

So what did I have to say? 

Deadlines have huge impacts

I reminded them that grades are critical and to of course stay in school. I then started to talk about how different deliverables were in industry. You can no longer just miss an assignment or negotiate with a professor on retaking an exam. I told them the story from the Summer of 2010, during my Medtronic internship. I was asked to find a temporary location for inventory control so they could move the new line in. 

I spent hours drawing up spaghetti maps and interviewing team members. Each tile in the clean room added up to four square feet. So on any given day, you would see me tap dancing and counting with my fingers across the tiles.

My manager called me and asked “where is the new location?” And I regret my answer. 

“I need until Monday.” He chuckled and said, “you have until tomorrow morning or it’s all going out into the hallway.” 

The line was for a new product launch. There were clinical deadlines that all led up to FDA submission. Had I missed that deliverable, who knows where I’d be today. 

Make friends fast so you don’t make enemies faster 

It’s all about who you know. When entering a company for the first time, especially out of college, it helps to have people to turn to. They can help get you up to speed on the culture, the tricks of the system, who to go to when and who to stay away from. 

Also, things can get rough. We all have bad days and you can’t just go home and tell your family the details. Besides the fact you have non-disclosure agreements you signed on day one, they won’t understand or even care. Having a support structure can help you navigate those bumpy roads and remind you that everything is a phase. 

Step outside your comfort zone. Sit with "strangers" at lunch or purposely schedule lunch meetings with people. Trust me, the day you need to tug on them, they will pull you forward.

Then someone asked about life balance. 

“What’s a typical day like?” 

My mentor leaned into my should and said “Tima why don’t you share that time you worked a 20 hour day?”

Let’s not scare them. 

But what I did say is that life balance is in your hands. Eight years ago, I was fresh out of undergrad and taking 2-3 classes for my masters. Work was my life. It was easy to do 60 hour work weeks and still have time to go to the gym and hang out with friends. 

I made an impression on the organization. And I got rewarded for it. When I was promoted into New Product Introduction, I set new boundaries for myself. I left at 4. It felt like I was doing a half day! I still stayed over when they needed me since we are a 24/7 manufacturing site but the point was I set a new expectation. 

Now that I have my baby, I’ve been fortunate to be in a more global position, where I could leave at three when I need to and pick up where I left off at 8 or 9 at night. It also comes in handy when I need to make calls to our supplier partners in Asia. 

The point is you figure out what makes you happy. You need to figure out what “balance” means. It could be as simple as going to the gym for 40 minutes after work, regardless of the outcome of your day. 

The years go by quickly. The night before this talk I sat down, grabbed a piece of paper and asked myself “what was it like transitioning?” 

Being human, I remembered the struggles. I remembered the negative comments from people who were intimidated by me and the new vision of the company that I was a walking example of. I remembered the blunt and brutal conversations from one of my toughest managers.

But then I remember the patients: the people we serve day in and day out. Decisions can be hard to make, especially when no one is around on a holiday weekend. I never hesitated though because it all came back to the patient safety and product quality. 

There is no easy answer to transitioning out of college. It will be different based on your degree, the culture of the company you’re hired with and your definition of balance. 

The critical point is to recognize it is a transition. Don’t underestimate what the world has to offer because opportunities are truly endless once you walk through that door. You just need to open your eyes to see them, open your mind to embrace them and raise your arms to navigate through them. 

(Photo credit: https://asuevents.asu.edu/content/mu-takeover)

Journaling: For better or for worse

It will be six years since I started my leadership blog. I had often read blog posts online and wondered if I would ever / could ever start one of my own. And here I am, I feel successful, mostly because I jotted down key life lessons. 

The pace of our work moves quite rapidly. You get up at 5 and immediately start your morning routine. You say to yourself "Hey - I might actually leave for work by 6" and the next thing you know it's 6:30. Then at work it's churn churn churn until the clock strikes 4. You rush home. Dinner on the table, baby fed, toys splattered across the floor. Then 10PM rolls around and you sit in your office saying "what happened today? Or better yet - what's happened in the last year?" 

Often times, we lose sight of the day. We fail to jot down lessons or reflect on what we did. We fail to make time for "whitespace" where we can just strategically stop to breath and innovate. So when I stopped tonight to read my first post from July 2012, I thanked myself for writing it down. And I appreciate you writing it down as well. 

People come to me for advice and if you're one of those people, you would have heard me say "just write it down." So here it is again - Write it down. 

Just Start Writing

I couldn't sleep tonight. I spent over an hour on Facebook catching up on my news feed, which I rarely do and asked myself - what's on my mind? I'm told it's difficult to journal but all you have to do is write. Whether it's in your notebook (on paper or on your electronic device), writing out words helps you internalize all that you have encountered throughout the day. 

It doesn't need to be Shakespearean. Just write words. The words will turn into sentences and the sentences will turn into stories. 

You will be amazed what you come up with. 

Be Purposeful When You Need To Be

I learned through various development training sessions some techniques to get me through rough patches. If it's a life change or I feel "stuck" I tend to turn to more purposeful writing sessions. Most of these you won't see on my blog but it's a tool that helps me overcome a challenge. 

For example, if I'm struggling with something but I cannot pin point what it is, I write out all the good and not so good things going on. I smile at the good and feel blessed and then do some more work on the not so good. I start by categorizing what I can and cannot control. 

For the items I can control, I write out short term and long term objectives. For the things I can't, I write them on a separate piece of paper and say "Good Riddance." I don't throw it out but rather tuck it away. They are real issues but they are not issues I can do something about, so why focus my time and efforts on them? 

Other purposeful writing sessions tend to be around career growth. When choosing my path, I learned to not only write out what you want to do but rather what you don't ever want to do. It's okay to map out where you don't want to go and why, so when the opportunity comes knocking, you can be true to yourself. 

Share Your Learnings

In 2012, I was selected to be in a leadership program for approximately a year. They handed out these really nice executive notebooks and said "Great leaders journal." I went home that night and wrote that down. And that was the only thing I wrote down. So, I found my own style to fulfill that task. During the day or after a long week, I would box out a space in my notebook to write out some thoughts. Good learnings or not so good responses. I also had a personal notebook stashed in the back corner of my closet for my emotions or other non-work related things. 

Then one day, I logged onto Blogger and wrote about "It's Just Noise." Not only did I publish my learning, but it stuck with me. Since that day, if something falls off my desk or someone coughs during my presentation, I keep going. It was an odd learning but one I felt I needed  to share. And I did. 

Sometimes we think we need to write as if someone is going to read it. But that's not always the case. Journaling has gotten me through different speed bumps on this road called life. 

I share this with you because I had a story to tell. A story about a girl who just wanted to write about her day but wanted others to benefit from it. Hopefully for the better. 

Photo credit: http://www.masscommunicationtalk.com/news-writing-editorial-writing-column-writing-and-feature-writing.html

Create A Bright Legacy

"John Herschel: Father, do you believe in ghosts?
William Herschel: Why, yes, my son.
John Herschel: You do? I would not have thought so.
William Herschel: Oh, no, not in the human kind of ghost. No, not at all. But look up, my boy, and see a sky full of them!"

Last week all eyes were up, looking at history. Having a total solar eclipse span across the United States will make it in the textbooks. But any scientist will say "Yes you are looking at history-8 minutes ago in the past."

Given The Sun's distance to the Earth, the rays that reach our planet were emitted roughly 8 minutes before.

At first I referred to events like this as history but what about our history? In one second I can look into the mirror and the first look I saw was already in history to the one I was looking at now.

Or how about one hour I'm twirling on the dance floor in a Barbie doll gown and then lying motionless on highway pavement waiting for my maker to take to me home?

How will our legacy be then?

Your Words 

The course of events in our daily lives causes us to make comments at the most frivolous things. How many times were you in a meeting or on the phone with a friend, and immediately put someone down?

We think we have an unlimited supply of time and people around us have unlimited supply of patience. But that's not the case.
Next time you're about to say something you wouldn't say to your six month old or your grandma, stop and swallow your words.

Your Actions

Actions speak louder than words. Right now, our country is dealing with the vast undertaking of Hurricane Harvey. Sweeping lives literally out of their homes and land. Reaching your arm to pull someone up from drowning, can go without saying, the most someone can ask of you.

These people don't need to talk. They don't need to explain themselves. They just do, with hopes it is the right action that leads to good.

Some of us are visual learners, therefore we remember an action or a gesture rather than what was spoken. When you demonstrate positive actions, people will speak more of you.

Your Presence 

How do you want to be remembered? How do you get your followers to walk by your side and even take over the baton of leadership? Your presence. I can confidently say I deliver results. As important as that is, what I consistently hear from team members and leaders is my passion.

Your character shapes who you are and is contagious at times. I've asked people why do you think I'm a good leader and they say "I just love how you present yourself. You make me want to work with you; for you."

Presentation can brighten the room and setting that particular tone is critical when starting new roles or projects. People can feel your energy and follow in your footsteps no matter how much the feat.

Your presence can leave a mark no matter how much time has passed.

Hind, you brightened this world. Your presence lit up the hearts of many souls. You were kind, charming, funny, smart and humble. As the amazing heartfelt girl you were, you stood straight up with pride looking for how to support. How to help. This world will be a shade dimmer before. Or it may be brighter for all of us who want to emulate your personality and to live on your behalf. I hate to question fate or say you were taken too soon but your legacy will remain. And what people are saying about you proves that your words were carefully selected, your actions were prioritized and your presence was worthy. We love you so much and always will. You will be missed. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=total+eclipse+2017&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS640US640&hl=en-US&prmd=mniv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiW95_aqILWAhUV24MKHXlGBN0Q_AUIEygD&biw=375&bih=589#imgrc=mN32hCPlZEYo-M: