Making Connections

... and my three main takeaways about stress and time-management

This past week, I guest-hosted five episodes of the WXXI talk show, Connections (usually hosted by the indomitable Evan Dawson).

The topics:

• Why did the American Medical Association redefine the role of BMI?

• Is ditching plastic actually possible?

• What will we be eating in 2040? (Spoiler alert: cultivated meat!)

• Can native gardening change the world for the better?

• How can we be better at time management?

First of all, if any of these topics interest you, please take a listen (either via those links or on your favorite podcatcher). BTW, if I know my readers, I think you’d be very interested in the cultivated meat episode.

But today, I want to discuss the time management episode. Yes, I definitely pitched this topic because it’s something I’m very interested in discussing (well, the same can be said about all of the aforementioned shows), but it quickly became evident that this particular show lit up everyone I talked to about my topics.

It seems that people can’t fully focus on things like native gardening or critically thinking about issues like anti-fat bias unless they figure out that whole time management thing. I get it.

My guests were perfectly paired with one another.

One provided the psychological perspective of how stress impacts us, especially as it relates to things like deadlines and deep focus.

That guest was Jeremy Jamieson, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. Dr. Jamieson also serves as the Chair for the Department of Psychology  His research focuses on the impact of stress on individuals. 

He was paired, like a fine wine, with a brilliant author (I guess she’s the vegan cheese in this strange metaphor) who specializes in (well, many things, but for the purposes of this episode) what she calls “the portfolio life.”

I’m speaking of Christina Wallace. Christina is an author, professor, speaker, and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. Her most recent book — which I devoured — is The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build a Life Bigger than Your Business Card.

In case you’re wondering what “a portfolio life” means, here’s how Christina responded to that question:

I describe it as based on three ideas, three tenants. One, you are greater than any one job or opportunity. Your identity is so much more than just that one job. Number two, diversification is how you future proof, and I don't mean that just from a “you have to have multiple sources of income at any given time.” I mean that in a broader sense: how you see yourself, who you connect with, how you make use of your time and talents. Think diversification as a way to to future proof. And then lastly, when, not if, when your needs change — as they will — as we go through different chapters of life, it makes sense to rebalance your portfolio.

And this is why I call it a portfolio life and not a portfolio career, because your work is in the context of your life and — whether you have responsibilities to family or community or your own health, maybe some hobbies or other interests you're thinking about — your work is only one slice of that pie.

So if you think about your entire life, the way you do a financial portfolio — allocation of time and talents across various things that you could give that time to — then you just make an intentional choice. How am I allocating for this chapter? And when is it time to reallocate (in a potentially very different way) for the next chapter?

Mind-blowing, right?

I told Christina that she validated something deep for me. As you know, if you’re a regular reader of my Substack, from time to time, I’ve questioned whether I have my hand in too many pots.

But here’s the thing: I think asking myself that question — whether I have my hand in too many pots — might be the wrong question.

In the past year, I’ve been working hard to really nail down what my overall goal is, at least for now (it’s probably a moving target, which is just fine).

What I keep coming back to is that I want to use media and the arts to help people think critically about the world and their role in shaping it.

And so, with that as my compass, when I’m faced with new projects or undertakings, my first question becomes: is this aligned with my goal? Is this aligned with “Voprah” (that’s “Vegan Oprah,” a kind of shorthand that my wife Moore fancies)?

Christina normalizes for me something I have innately felt. So with my own “portfolio life” crystal clear, the next step for me becomes looking at my day-to-day boundaries and, yes, time management concerns.

This is why this episode of Connections was so damn cool for me. Not only did Christina shed light on how and why to pursue the kind of life I enjoy the most, but Jeremy further made sense of the stress that goes along with time management, and he did so in a way that I think might forever change my mindset. He said:

The difference between challenge and threat states boils down to psychology. Do you think you have the resources to complete this task or not? And it's a simple ratio, and your brain's doing this all the time. […]

A wonderful researcher, a friend of mine, Elia Karim at Stanford University, she has this idea of stress mindsets. So a general belief is, “do I believe stress can be possibly good for me? Or do I think it's always bad?” If you can shift those mindsets, it's like shifting a big lens on how you see the world.

I might have a lot on my plate. If I lean into that and I use my body's responses as a resource, as a tool to actually address it, then I do pretty well. The harm usually comes when you look at cardiovascular responses downstream. If you look at your endocrine problems downstream, they're derived from these threat-type states.

And so when people feel overwhelmed, when you talk about burnout, that's a perfect example [of when] people don't feel like they have the resources to cope, so they disengage. To succeed and do well, you need to do hard things.

You need to do hard things. Indeed!

Just not all the time …

Christina is big on the “85% rule,” another revelation for me. She talked about manufacturing plants that run at 100% capacity all the time …

I went down the research [hole] for top-notch, high-performing factories that have really worked out all the kinks and made this so efficient. They top out at about 85%. […] They choose to limit their usage to 85% because planned downtime is cheaper than unplanned downtime. 

And they recognize you need that space for maintenance, for do-overs, for mistakes, for the costs of being human — and for surges for when you have that important customer that says, “I need this really, tomorrow, it's an emergency. Can you help?” And you want to be able to help them.

So intentionally designing a cap on my commitments — and I say “commitments” and not just “work” because it really is all the things I've said yes to in my life — intentionally mapping that out and saying only 85% of my available time is going to be promised to something or another … I am leaving space for the mistakes, the do-overs, the maintenance, the naps that might be necessary to pull this off.

That is one of my biggest pieces of advice because I think the default for almost all highly ambitious people is to go full force.

So, combining Jeremy and Christina’s advice, we really wind up with a precious gem.

My takeaways from this melding of minds are:

• A portfolio life — one ripe with multiple projects and directions — not only can make sense, but it is arguably a more secure and vibrant way of life.

• Shifting one’s mindset around stress — from thinking it’s always bad to believing it inherently has good in it — could make our day-to-day existence significantly easier and lighter, especially vis a vis our projects (whether professional or personal).

• Changing your inner dial to place the top capacity at 85% can set us up for success. It allows us to no longer be operating with our reserves, and it ensures there are always reserves, uh, reserved for later.

This really is a fantastic, eye-opening, thought-provoking episode. You can listen to it (or any episode of Connections) at the link above or wherever you listen to podcasts.

And thank you for listening.

xo,

jazz

P.S. In addition to Connections, here are some other media I helped create that came out in the past couple of weeks:

• Our Hen House: I interviewed artist Jane O’Hara

• The VegNews Podcast: my interviews with Joanne Lee Molinaro (a.k.a “The Korean Vegan”) and Andrea Meza (formerly “Miss Universe”) both dropped

• WXXI: After my cultivated meat episode aired, I pulled together this news story about a rescued pig donating cells to become cultivated meat

• As always, you can catch me every Saturday and Sunday, hosting Weekend Edition on WXXI (Rochester, NY’s NPR member station). If you’re local to Rochester, tune in at 105.9FM. Not local? Download the WXXI app or stream live at WXXI’s website.

• I still have one spot open for a coaching client. HMU if you want to chat.

P.P.S. I ran in an 8K this past week, too. I thought I might die, but I somehow survived. (See? Stress isn’t always a bad thing!)