I’ve written a lot about this subject over the last couple of years.

Both in passing in these daily emails. But also going deep into the topic too and putting the raisins and the rice pudding firmly under the kitchen microscope.

Hence this email being “part 4”.

And I’d go so far to say that anyone who can truly separate the raisins from the rice pudding will find themselves getting more stuff done in less time while feeling better about what they’re doing too. I don’t know if that interests you in the slightest. But working in the crazy world of banking like I do, that’s almost a holy grail.

An example:

I’ve always been one of life’s great list keepers. So whenever I clock in for a shift at Banking HQ, I have a hefty to-do list left over from the night before. Throughout the day, items get ticked off and new items get added. It’s sort of like my very own equivalent of an airport departure board where as soon as a gate closes for one flight, another flight starts boarding.

A few weeks, ago, it got to the point where even though I was churning through my work at an almost superhuman pace, I just couldn’t get my to-do list under control. It was like a game of whack-a-mole where however quickly I finished a task, three more tasks would spring into view.

At one point, I caught myself thinking “blimey, this is rather a lot”. And as I did, I could feel a sinking feeling bubble up in the pit of my stomach.

But no sooner did that feeling start than I let it go again and a wave of calm washed over me.

How did I do that?

Well, this is where the raisins and the rice pudding come in.

In v1 of my banking career, a huge stack of work meant having the weight of the world of my shoulders. And the longer my to-do list, the heavier that weight.

But I’ve come to see there’s ZERO correlation between how much work we have and how we feel about that work. I know that’s true because I've had days where I was genuinely buried and didn't feel stressed at all. I’ve also had days where I had almost nothing on my plate and it still felt like I was drowning.

So the raisins can’t be creating the rice pudding.

Another example:

A couple of mornings ago, I woke up an hour early. This doesn’t happen often nowadays. And rather than go back to sleep or grab my phone, I brewed a quick Americano and settled at my laptop to write a daily email before Baby Grundy awoke from her slumbers. 

It was one of those mornings where I was in the zone and my fingers could barely keep up with what I wanted to write. Half an hour later and I’d written over 1,000 words, which is good going for me. And I have to say I was rather chuffed with myself. 

Yet there was a Saturday a few weeks ago where I wrote a couple of thousand words and I got to the end of that writing sprint as flat as a pancake.

Even at work, there are days where I’ve chaired a bunch of meetings, solved a load of tricky problems and sent a bucketload of emails…and the whole day feels light and breezy. 

It even feels fun sometimes!

Then there are the days where I get to 5pm feeling like I’ve gone 12 rounds with Anthony Joshua, even though I’ve done the exact same amount of work.

In this case it’s clear that the raisins (my output) and the rice pudding (how that output feels) aren’t connected either.

Truth is, when we see our experience of work isn’t coming from our work, the game completely changes. There’s no need to wait until we’re calm or ready before getting going. There’s no need to waste time and energy fighting the fact we have a challenge to solve. And there’s certainly no need to add new mental challenges on top of our everyday office challenges.

In fact, once you stop treating the raisins and the rice pudding as the same thing, an interesting question pops up:

How much struggle comes from our jobs? And how much comes from everything we add on top?

If you’ve ever suspected that your work day struggles are innocently self-generated rather than generated by your job or your boss, you’re probably right.

And if that interference is coming from us rather than our jobs, that's not a problem. That's an opportunity hiding in plain sight.

This is where my 1:1 coaching program Trust Me, I Work Here comes into play.

The purpose of the program isn’t to reduce your workload or change your ambition.

Instead, we’ll zero in on the mental interference that gets muddled up with the job itself, just like the raisins get muddled up with the rice pudding.

What I've seen time and time again is that once the mental interference falls away, we don’t become less ambitious or productive.

If anything, we become more ambitious and productive. Often while feeling lighter and calmer about our work too.

To check out all the details:

Trust Me, I Work Here

To fulfilment,

Tom