At last, we can all Marie Kondo our work life! Marie has teamed up with organisational psychologist, Scott Sonenshein, to help us apply the famous KonMari method at work. Read on for our book club review of Joy at Work by Marie Kondo.
What is Joy at Work all about?
Some might consider launching ‘Joy at work’ during a pandemic as awkward timing. But when our work and home lives have become quite chaotic, we think this a very well-timed book to read. It’s a collection of stories and methods to eliminate clutter from both the tangible things like your desk and environment to less tangible things like your time and team. It’s certainly not a book of revolutionary ideas, more of a helpful reminder of easy fixes to make space for the work that really matters.
Who is it for?
Any Marie Kondo fans, and anyone who could do with some practical advice on tidying their professional life and find a bit more joy at work.
The best bits
For us, the most useful tips were focused on tidying the less tangible things:
1. Time
To be more productive, less is more. Create free space or block out some downtime. Time without any distractions helps to do some deep thinking and helps us to be more creative.
2. Decisions
We make thousands of decisions every day – many of them made without even knowing. Think about decisions as low-stakes, medium-stakes and high-stakes.
When you need to make lots of decisions, list them out and concentrate on the high-stakes decisions first. Then decide which medium-stakes decisions are worth the time and energy. Delegate any that aren’t.
“If making the decision is critical for the work you do, if it will help advance your world-life vision or if it sparks joy – keep it”.
3. Meetings
Hands up if your diary is FULL of meetings? How many do you find are a very good use of your time? Running a tidy meeting can help make the most of your time.
- Know what you want to accomplish. If you can’t explain this, don’t do it.
- Have the right people in the room. That is those who have unique information to contribute or authority to take action or make a decision
- Set meeting goals and include them in the invitation. That will help people decide if they are needed. If they aren’t, give them permission to skip it.
- Share an agenda, with enough details that people can prepare.
- Encourage participation. Shape your agenda accordingly. They’re not there to listen to you speak.
Set the right amount of time. Too much time can lead to less focus. Shorter meetings, with a little time pressure can spark creativity. Avoid overly long meetings and replace them with more, shorter meetings.
Would you like to read this book?
Once we’ve finished reading a book, we share the headlines and then pass it on to anyone who wants to read it – just send us a message and we’ll pop it in the post. Once you’re done with it, you can either let it live forever on your shelf or share it with someone new.
If you’d like to read this book, email nikki@wearethecultureclub.co.uk. We’ll pop it in the post to the first person who asks.
