NOTES Introduction 1. Ryan Pendell, “Millennials Are Burning Out,” Gallup, July 19, 2018, www.gallup.com/ workplace/237377/millennials-burning.aspx.
Chapter 1: Build a Life You Don’t Want to Escape From 1. Habib Yaribeygi et al., “The Impact of Stress on Body Function: A Review,” EXCLI Journal 16 (2017): 1057, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5579396/pdf/EXCLI-16-1057.pdf. 2. “Stress Effects on the Body,” American Psychological Association, November 1, 2018, www.apa.org/helpcenter/stress-body; Yaribeygi et al., “Impact of Stress.”
Chapter 3: You Actually Do Have the Time 1. Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less (New York: Crown Business, 2014), 31.
Chapter 4: Find Your Green Zone 1. Daniel H. Pink, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (New York: Riverhead Books, 2018), 28. 2. Claire Diaz-Ortiz, “Claire Diaz-Ortiz on How to Find Success on Social Media, the Early Days and Current Mood on Social, and Tips for Entrepreneurial Parents,” interview Carey Nieuwhof, The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast, episode 324, February 26, 2020, https://careynieuwhof.com/episode324. 3. Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (New York: Grand Central, 2016), 150. Newport cited the work of Anders Ericsson and his collaborators. 4. Pink, When, 53, 70–71. Many hospitals and operating rooms, having noted this tendency, have developed protocols to combat it, even creating vigilance breaks to refocus everyone, which is commendable. Still, if you can get the 9:00 a.m. appointment…
Chapter 5: Do What You’re Best At 1. Thanks to Andy Stanley for that definition of gifting. 2. Chariots of Fire, directed by Hugh Hudson, Enigma Productions, Allied Stars, 1981. 3. Gary Keller’s famous question “What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” is worth asking from time to time, too, particularly if you get stuck on what’s most important. Gary Keller, The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results (Austin: Bard, 2013), 112. 4. Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success (New York: Little, Brown, 2008), chapter 2. 5. Seneca, On the Shortness of Life (c. AD 49), in Dialogues and Letters (London: Penguin Books, 1997), 69.
Chapter 6: Yellow Zone, Red Zone, and Other Real-Life Problems 1. Obviously, if you are a receptionist, work at a restaurant or in retail, or work with your hands, you might have all forty work hours prescribed by someone else. But that still leaves you with 128 hours every week. As Henry Cloud said in his book’s subtitle, you are ridiculously in charge of your life. Henry Cloud, Boundaries for Leaders: Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge (New York: Harper Business, 2013). 2. For more on how to create a flexible workplace, see the resources I’ve created for employers and employees at www.LeadABetterTeam.com.
Chapter 7: Hijacked 1. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (New York: Free Press, 2004), Habit 3. 2. Steve Jobs, I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words, ed. George Beahm (Evanston, IL: B2 Books, 2011), 43.
Chapter 8: Distraction-Free 1. Michael Winnick, “Putting a Finger on Our Phone Obsession,” Dscout, June 16, 2016, https://blog.dscout.com/mobile-touches. 2. Nir Eyal, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (London: Bloomsbury, 2020), 12. 3. Herbert A. Simon, “Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World,” in M. Greenberger, ed., Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971), 37–72. 4. Gloria Mark, “Worker, Interrupted: The Cost of Task Switching,” interview by Kermit Pattison, Fast Company, July 28, 2008, www.fastcompany.com/944128/worker-interrupted-cost-taskswitching. 5. Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (New York: Grand Central, 2016), 6, 14. 6. Sarah Stodola, Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors (New York: Amazon, 2015), 86. Special thanks to my editor Eric Stanford for this glorious fact about Nabokov. 7. If you’re expecting an urgent text or phone call from someone who isn’t programmed to break through the wall, just turn off Do Not Disturb for a short window, take the call, and then flip back to DND. 8. Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, trans. Duncan Large (1889; repr., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 9. 9. Courtney Connley, “LeBron James Reveals the Nighttime Routine That Helps Him Perform ‘at the Highest Level,’ ” CNBC, December 23, 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/12/21/lebron-jamesreveals-the-nighttime-routine-that-sets-him-up-for-success.html. 10. Rob Pelinka, “Rob Pelinka, L.A. Lakers’ GM on Swimming with Great White Sharks with Kobe Bryant, Building a World Championship Team, and How Humility Can Transform Egos and Talent,” interview by Carey Nieuwhof, The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast, episode 393, January 25, 2021, https://careynieuwhof.com/episode393.
Chapter 9: What About People? 1. John Townsend, People Fuel: Fill Your Tank for Life, Love, and Leadership (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), 200. 2. An Enneagram Two, for example, would fit this description. See Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Formatio, 2016). 3. Robin Dunbar, How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Dunbar’s Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), 33. 4. Dunbar, How Many Friends, 24, 26–28, 32–33. Start to look for these numeric patterns, and you’ll see them everywhere, from executive and leadership teams (three to ten), to sitcoms (the number of characters you can track with), to churches (the average congregation is under 150). 5. Dunbar, How Many Friends, 34. 6. Dunbar, How Many Friends, 21.
Chapter 10: The Big Sync 1. Ernest Hemingway, “Ernest Hemingway, The Art of Fiction No. 21,” interview by George Plimpton, Paris Review, no. 18 (Spring 1958), www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-artof-fiction-no-21-ernest-hemingway.
Carey Nieuwhof is a former lawyer, a bestselling leadership author, a podcaster, and the CEO of Carey Nieuwhof Communications. Carey speaks to leaders around the world about leadership, change, and personal growth. He writes one of today’s most widely read leadership blogs at www.CareyNieuwhof.com. He also hosts the top-rated Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast, where he interviews some of today’s best leaders. His content is accessed over 1.5 million times a month. He and his wife, Toni, have been married for three decades and have two grown sons.