{"id":84590,"date":"2020-09-25T08:06:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T08:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/?p=84590"},"modified":"2020-10-27T13:31:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T13:31:35","slug":"thrive-in-five-trade-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrive in Five: Trade-Offs"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ gutter_size=”3″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ width=”1\/1″][vc_single_image media=”84591″ media_width_percent=”100″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row unlock_row_content=”yes” row_height_percent=”0″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″][vc_column column_width_use_pixel=”yes” gutter_size=”3″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ column_width_pixel=”1200″][vc_empty_space empty_h=”1″][vc_custom_heading auto_text=”yes” heading_semantic=”h1″ text_font=”font-875198″ text_size=”fontsize-211028″ text_weight=”400″ text_space=”fontspace-111509″ text_color=”color-165260″]Automatic Heading Text[\/vc_custom_heading][uncode_info_box items=”Reading_time,Categories” text_size=”fontsize-154105″ text_weight=”400″ text_transform=”uppercase” separator=”bullet”][vc_column_text]Trade Offs<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am\u00a0posting this encouraged by your kind messages about my November \u201cdo less in 2020<\/a>\u201d note. Thank you so much for that. As I explore this \u201cdo less of what you don\u2019t want\/more of what you do want\u201d theme with clients and friends, I have been struck by how conscious we are of the trade-offs that we might need to make, to do less or more.<\/p>\n

So this month\u2019s Thrive in Five is about trade-offs.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If this note is TL;DR for you, but sleep is an issue in your life, the first link in the first trade-off might be worth 5 minutes of your time.<\/p>\n

Sleep v anything else
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Are you getting the amount of sleep you want\/need? Create a \u201cgo to sleep\u201d routine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lots of books were written about sleep in 2019; to my mind, most of them over-complicated the issue. There is no doubt however that the attention economy is doing a grand job at enticing us to stay up later, to scroll, to shop, to watch. The trade-off between sleep and everything else, in a world which wants us to wake up super early to be productive and stay up late to be on top of the latest TV show, latest work email, or breaking news, is one that we have to work hard to be in control of.<\/p>\n

My biggest tip on the sleep thing is to put effort into preparing to go to bed ,<\/a>\u00a0as much as we prepare to get up and get out in the morning. While we can function with less sleep in the short-term, there are longer-term trade-offs, particularly as we get older. And because of current culture and tech design, we have to be intentional about sleep because we are bombarded with triggers and cues to stay awake, otherwise.<\/p>\n

I have to admit, this trade-off is the one that I am still nowhere near as consistently intentional as I want to be.<\/p>\n

Doing v Being:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Schedule and protect time in your diary to do \u201cnothing\u201d.<\/p>\n

This trade-off is particularly affected by the narrative that doing things and taking action is always the most important, \u201cproductive\u201d thing to do. And sometimes it is\u2026..but not always.<\/p>\n

Spending a little time being\/doing nothing, gives us space to listen to what our bodies might be signalling, for listening to our senses and feeling, for reflecting and pondering. The clich\u00e9s about baths and walks are true, and I can send you details of the research on why this is\u2026.<\/p>\n

And not paying attention to our body and senses, if there are things going on for us, may mean that our body feels it needs to make more of an effort to be heard \u2013 our bad back, our sore throat, our tired eyes, our aching head\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Not making space to reflect can mean that what felt like a productive decision to take action, then has to be unravelled, or results in unintended consequences.<\/p>\n

My experience, reflected in the brilliant, successful people I have the fortune to coach, is that if we don\u2019t make the space for the space, the doing tends to win, with some of the consequences above. This means that in a calendar that would otherwise be full of doing, the only way to \u201cjust be\u201d is to schedule that too.<\/p>\n

This trade-off can be unconscious rather than deliberate.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s demands v Tomorrow\u2019s world:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When are we forcing ourselves to think months or years down the line, rather than this month end or year end?<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just a work related short term versus long term trade-off. It comes through in the decision to stay in the office rather than get to the gym, to prioritise a work event over a relationship. It is also the decision to not have a face to face conversation with someone who isn\u2019t performing well but hasn\u2019t completely messed up yet, and instead to give them the answer to their latest question via email, to do the work for them.<\/p>\n

In my consulting and coaching world, I see this trade-off most often simply classified as revenue today versus business development for revenue tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The tip on this is that there is never going to be the perfect confluence of events to make it easy to prioritise the longer term (see also doing v being above). 15 minutes today doing something on this, is better than nothing for weeks. This tends to be a trade-off that people are very aware of making.<\/p>\n

Tell v coach:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Be intentional about making time to grow relationships and people<\/p>\n

Like all the trade-offs, as relevant in life as a lover, parent, friend as much as in the workplace, even if the language is slightly different\u2026..We might say \u201ctell v listen\u201d\u2026.\u00a0 I am going on further Time to Think<\/a>\u00a0 courses this year, so more on listening<\/a>, and its impact on how it affects thinking, to come.<\/p>\n

Perfection v progress:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Doing something small today towards a big thing is better than doing nothing about it for days on end, despite our good intentions<\/p>\n

This can often play out as the \u201call v nothing\u201d trade off \u2013 not starting something at all because there isn\u2019t the ideal time period to do it: \u201cI need to give myself half a day to review\/write\/organise\/plan and because I don\u2019t have this time, I\u2019m not going to do anything at all\u201d. Then this big thing keeps moving to tomorrow on our to do list, for weeks on end. For anyone who has experienced this, I would hope would also recognise that when we actually take a first step to start the thing, it rarely takes as long as we actually think it was going to. Taking a first step is the trick, even if that is planning the order of events or spending 5 minutes instead of the 5 hours planned.<\/p>\n

This is another one of those trade-offs that feels more an unconscious than conscious one, we may not (want?) to recognise what we are doing.<\/p>\n

I have posted this before but it remains a favourite reference, apparently an old Polish expression. It can be too easy to get pulled into other people\u2019s Big Tops\u2026.<\/p>\n

I do hope that some of this post has connected with you today, send any thoughts about it my way (mailto:sarah@thrive.co.com)<\/p>\n

Sarah<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Do forward this on to anyone you think might be interested and they can email me<\/p>\n

If these monthly \u201cThrive in Five\u201d emails are helpful, I would really appreciate it if you could\u00a0opt in<\/a>\u00a0to my monthly Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you would like to receive these generally bi-monthly Thrive in Five newsletters, sign up here.<\/span><\/strong><\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year I wrote about why booking too far in advance can be dangerous for your business, and this concept of margin so eloquently captures what I had recognized had been my problem: I was so booked up with clients that I wasn\u2019t leaving any margin for error, growth, planning, or reflection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[73,100,87],"yoast_head":"\nThrive in Five: Trade-Offs - Thrive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thrive in Five: Trade-Offs - Thrive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last year I wrote about why booking too far in advance can be dangerous for your business, and this concept of margin so eloquently captures what I had recognized had been my problem: I was so booked up with clients that I wasn\u2019t leaving any margin for error, growth, planning, or reflection.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thrive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-25T08:06:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-27T13:31:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Thrive-in-Five-Trade-Offs.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1134\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"407\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/\",\"name\":\"Thrive in Five: Trade-Offs - Thrive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Thrive-in-Five-Trade-Offs.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-25T08:06:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-27T13:31:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35cf03a7cd1c427264cb7711ac41deb0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Thrive-in-Five-Trade-Offs.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Thrive-in-Five-Trade-Offs.jpg\",\"width\":1134,\"height\":407,\"caption\":\"Thrive in Five Trade-Offs\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thrive in Five: Trade-Offs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/\",\"name\":\"Thrive\",\"description\":\"the business consultancy that uses expertise and learning to help you find the solutions to your change challenge, and in the time available, makes the solutions stick\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35cf03a7cd1c427264cb7711ac41deb0\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45520e501293fe0a596964317909bdf3?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45520e501293fe0a596964317909bdf3?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/author\/ted_a4fw9853\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thrive in Five: Trade-Offs - Thrive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thrive in Five: Trade-Offs - Thrive","og_description":"Last year I wrote about why booking too far in advance can be dangerous for your business, and this concept of margin so eloquently captures what I had recognized had been my problem: I was so booked up with clients that I wasn\u2019t leaving any margin for error, growth, planning, or reflection.","og_url":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/","og_site_name":"Thrive","article_published_time":"2020-09-25T08:06:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-27T13:31:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1134,"height":407,"url":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Thrive-in-Five-Trade-Offs.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/","url":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/","name":"Thrive in Five: Trade-Offs - Thrive","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Thrive-in-Five-Trade-Offs.jpg","datePublished":"2020-09-25T08:06:45+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-27T13:31:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35cf03a7cd1c427264cb7711ac41deb0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Thrive-in-Five-Trade-Offs.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Thrive-in-Five-Trade-Offs.jpg","width":1134,"height":407,"caption":"Thrive in Five Trade-Offs"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/thrive-in-five-trade-offs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thrive in Five: Trade-Offs"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/","name":"Thrive","description":"the business consultancy that uses expertise and learning to help you find the solutions to your change challenge, and in the time available, makes the solutions stick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#\/schema\/person\/35cf03a7cd1c427264cb7711ac41deb0","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45520e501293fe0a596964317909bdf3?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/45520e501293fe0a596964317909bdf3?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/thrive.co.com"],"url":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/author\/ted_a4fw9853\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84593,"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84590\/revisions\/84593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}