STUFF TO THINK ABOUT

Be Nice

Today is "National Say Something Nice Day."  

As a manager of people, I learned early that everybody likes to be complimented, male or female. But only when it's not bogus.  Phony compliments are usually noticed, especially when it comes from sycophants, like certain politicians that we know about.   

Of course, there are "backhanded compliments" which are not really compliments, like:

"You sure do clean up well."

"My, you don't even look pregnant."

"You look good, have you lost weight."

And then there is the classic:

"For a fat girl, you sure don't sweat much."

Mars and Venus?

Professor Curzon thinks that women and men are not that different in their thinking.  However, I always remember this little vignette:

Lucy to Mary, "I don't know what to think about Jim.  Last night he acted real strange.

I asked him how he was feeling and he was like, '... um... oh.. o.k.'

He kept staring off into space and said very little.  I think he must have found another girlfriend. I'm very upset.  I don't know what to do!"

Actually, Jim was just trying to decide whether he should spend money on "classic" tires for his SUV or stick with the lower-priced tires.

Memory Assistance

As a young manager, I found that I had many jobs to do and many things to remember.  This was before Postit-Notes and I would fill the top of my desk with piles of slips of paper, each outlining something I needed to remember because I couldn't rely on my poor memory.

Then, suddenly a solution to my memory problem popped into my head.  

Use a checklist!  It's as simple as that.  It made my life so much easier.

However, in retirement I had my memory problem again even though I no longer had scores of things to remember.  I was using Alexa to nag me to take my evening pills, but I guess the 45 programmers who are Alexa decided just to nag me every now and then. So that didn't work.

I also realized that I had several other chores I have to do every night at midnight and very often I would pop up in bed, suddenly remembering that I had not done some of them. So, guess what? Yes, I made a checklist for my 13 nightly chores.  Now I can get a little more sleep.  I highly recommend this simple solution if you find your memory slipping.  It works.

Another Tip

I once attended a Management Conference in which a highly paid orator regaled us for two eyelid-lowering hours.  His only point for all that verbiage was: "Always have a miscellaneous category."

"Back in the day" (as they say) this was a revelation.  How come nobody had thought of that before?

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