JamieMagee

Tags: Team dynamics Wellness Work life

Andrea Howe comments on one of the magic yet often overlooked ingredients of business success.  The value of friendship applies equally to intra-company relationships as well as those across customer lines.

http://trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters/485/The-ROI-of-Business-Friendships

Posted by Jamie Magee At 1:57 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tags: Wellness

Last year on a demanding project, I hit a point where I was getting burned out from working on a computer for too long.  I'd still saw daylight and exercise and spent time with family, but the twelve hours of computer time a day developing Domino apps seemed somehow related to the feeling that part of me was wasting away.  I recalled having better attention and focus when I was a kid.  Back then, I used to mix it up so much more: playing games, exploring in the woods behind my house, music lessons, building stuff with Legos, breaking and fixing stuff, household chores, etc.  Was it the monotony of my current routine, or was I starting to age!!!?

I read You: The Owner's Manual, a great empirical study on how our health reacts to various choices we make in our daily lives.  One chapter is devoted to mental health.  This section hit home:  "...avoid living on autopilot - that is, doing the same routine day after day.  If you can find ways to stretch yourself mentally, you'll actually avoid brain shrinkage.  The classic way to do this is to learn something new -- whether it's learning how to speak Spanish, play Sousa tunes on the harmonica, or rebuild a car engine.  The point is for you to use parts of your brain that you noramlly don't use.  Like muscles, your brain grows when it's working outside of its normal routine."

Despite the workload, I made time for some sports, several household repairs I would have otherwise outsourced, and I started learning to play guitar.  What an amazing and immediate difference it made in my happiness, acuity, and even my motivation to get more done when I was working.  If you feel like you're a slave to your office chair, try mixing it up a bit throughout the day... or at least at some point each day.

And speaking of sports, if you're looking for a casual but fun after-work sport that is not too athletically demanding, check out  organized adult kickball.  I played in WAKA for six years, on both purely social as well as highly competitive teams.  There are hundreds of divisions totaling about 100,000 members around the US and spreading to other parts of the world.  It's mostly the 20's and 30's professional crowd, about equal counts of men and women, including lots of IT folks.  You'll spend an hour on the field, followed by a few more hours in the sponsoring bar... a real blast.  Stressed out professionals reliving their childhood with a bouncy red playground ball on a grassy field is a great way to mix up your routine.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 2:24 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (5)

Tags: Wellness

At the Lotusphere closing session, two of the 10 attendees to hit the mic with questions for food celeb Alton Brown were veg heads.  

First, I'm not about to knock vegetarians at all... I'm am one.  Sort of... I'm a pesco-vegetarian, which includes fish.  Plus I also make exceptions for wild hunting and organic farming 'cause it's a big step up in humanity.  And ohhh, sometimes bacon...mmmm... it's just soo good!  8 of 10 vegetarians secretly admit to sneaking bacon.  Don't know if that's true, but it makes me feel less guilty.

Some guy from the UK asked Alton Brown to suggest fast food options for vegetarians.  Alton replied that there aren't any veg fast food options.  But Alton didn't know that Burger King is the only restaurant to claim they offer a veggie burger in every restaurant in the world.  And better yet, BK uses Lotus Notes and Domino for a bunch of mission critical applications!  If I wasn't 6 seats from an aisle I would have gone up to the mic.  Maybe this post will reach all you Lotus veg heads out there so you can 'Have it your way'.

Note: I did however find this NOT to be the case last month at the BK at Dallas Fort Worth Int'l airport.  The cashier there said they don't serve the BK Veggie Burger anymore at that restaurant.  And I'm pretty sure it's not because they ran out.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 4:57 AM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (1)