1656: [Part 2] Zen and the Art of Investment Banking: When Working Right is More Important than Finding the Right Work

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. Zen and the Art of Investment Banking, When Working Right is More Important than Finding the Right Work, Part 2 by Cal Newport of calnewport.com. The Expert Thomas' story is extreme, but its basic structure is common. Many young people are in a similar position to pre-monastery Thomas. Their ill-find sense of what work should be leads them to chronic and ambiguous unhappiness with their current opportunity.

[00:00:29] Instead of seeking out ways to develop their position, they seek out fault, and where obvious fault can't be found, they generate it. When I meet a recent college graduate who has reduced a relatively easy but interesting entry-level job into a swamp of misery, reeking of perfectionism and invented anxiety, I can't help but think of a young Thomas overtraining on his bike or fidgeting nervously in his Korean classroom, daydreaming about what's next.

[00:00:54] This generates an interesting question. Assuming you buy this premise that working right is as important as finding the right work, how does one accomplish this goal? To find an answer, I turned to an expert. My friend Elizabeth Saunders is a self-styled time coach who helps people who feel guilty, overwhelmed, and unfocused about their work take back control. I asked her to reveal some of the secrets behind her well-regarded schedule makeover process. She told me, She told me,

[00:01:21] I've synthesized my methodology into these three concepts, priorities, expectations, and routine. Priorities require that you make re-energizing activities and people a regular part of your life. She says, You will not feel satisfied if you are not consistently investing in your top priorities. End quote. Expectations require that you make peace with how much time the different components of your work actually require.

[00:01:47] Once you recognize that a project is going to take eight hours and put aside this required time, its ability to cause stress diminishes. This also makes it easier to learn your schedule's limitations and turn down extra work with confidence. A nice compliment, as Elizabeth pointed out, to my fixed schedule productivity concept. Quote, In time coaching, I teach people how to see their time as something to invest and not to create stress by having unrealistic expectations that lead to time debt. End quote.

[00:02:16] Routines require that you have set systems for handling your regular activities in life, including, perhaps most crucially, your daily and weekly planning process. Quote, If you get these planning routines down, you can adapt and adjust to anything that comes your way. End quote. These ideas aren't extreme, but their effect can be. Elizabeth has told me many stories of people who, like pre-Monastery Thomas, were anxious and miserable with their work,

[00:02:41] but who then generated lasting happiness through the type of small, daily, practical changes Elizabeth preaches. One such story was about an executive who had spent 10 years at a large corporation. Though he enjoyed the stability of the income, he also felt, quote, frustrated and confined by what seemed like constant unrealistic expectations. End quote. He had begun to resent his job. This is where standard advice says, change your job, but he decided instead to take control of both his mindset and habits.

[00:03:11] Elizabeth told me, quote, the way that he found happiness had a great deal to do with integrating regular planning into his routine. End quote. By regaining control over his schedule, he was able to gain a clear picture of what work quantities made sense. This allowed him to approach his boss from a position of calm confidence and rework his project load. End quote. A year later, Elizabeth reports that the executive no longer feels like a victim of his circumstance.

[00:03:36] He controls his workflow and, accordingly, does what he does well, but also, quote, asserts his right to self-care by regularly exercising and taking time to spend with his family. End quote. This is less sexy than advising the executive to quit his job to open a surf shop, but it worked. The new employee. Returning to the working world after his stay at the monastery, Thomas, like Elizabeth's client, found new peace in an old setting. He returned to the bank he had left two years earlier.

[00:04:05] This time, however, he approached his job with a new awareness. Without escapist thoughts of fantasy jobs dominating his mind, he was able to focus on the tasks he was given without constantly comparing them to some magical future occupation. Having spent hours scrubbing toilets as part of his Zen training, Thomas had a new appreciation for the value of separating work from judgments of whether it's good or bad. This new focus was appreciated by management. Nine months into his job, he was promoted. Then he was promoted again and again.

[00:04:35] Within two years, he moved from data entry to being given charge of a computer system that managed over $6 billion of investable assets. Today, the system he oversees manages five times that amount. On paper, this should be a stressful job, but Thomas has found appreciation for its moment-to-moment requirements. He told me, quote, I noticed that it does not matter what the task is. If I am focused, it is generally pleasant. End quote. The Conclusion

[00:05:03] Finding happiness in your work is a complicated, ambiguous, confusing process. A process that defies simple answers like follow your passion or reject conformity. Thomas' story, however, emphasizes that when battling these complicated issues, you can do so from a simple, solid foundation. The recognition that working right must precede worries about finding the right work. There's no magic formula to working right. I think Elizabeth's approach provides a good start, but there's certainly many ways forward.

[00:05:31] What seems to be important, however, is making sure that you own your work before allowing the allure of hypothetical dream jobs own you. Thomas told me, quote, No matter what kind of work I do or where I live in the world, I realize that I am the same person with the same set of likes and dislikes. End quote. No new job can change these realities. That effort is up to you.

[00:05:58] You just listened to part two of the post titled Zen and the Art of Investment Banking. When working right is more important than finding the right work by Cal Newport of calnewport.com. And thank you again to Cal. Now, as I mentioned yesterday, he's a super popular author with some bestselling books out there. And on his blog, Study Hacks, he has a ton of articles covering advice, minimalism, education and more. Those types of articles are regularly featured on the podcast Optimal Living Daily too.

[00:06:27] So if you like his style and want to hear his take on building habits, productivity and more, you should check out that show. Again, that's Optimal Living Daily. And make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you get all the new episodes for free. And that's going to do it for the Sunday episode and for our weekend of posts. Hope you enjoyed that two-parter from Cal. And I thank you so much for being here as always. And I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.