All people sometimes make bad decisions. Some my claim that there is no reason or correlation between the bad decision and some other factor; that bad decisions “just happen”. If assuming that good decisions are those leading to efficiency and bad decisions are directly related to inefficiency. I believe that finding a way to continuously make good decisions, thus is one core aspect of being efficient.

The problem is that we do all make bad decisions. As bad decisions are made, the focus is shifted from the right things, to irrelevant things. So why do bad decision occur? I believe that bad decisions come from situations and times when we don’t feel well, from times when we are in a bad state of mind.

So how do we avoid making bad decision? It is simple. Don’t make decisions when you don’t fell really good. So when your boss, wife, friend ore parent comes to you and need you to make a decision about something really important, you simply say “sorry I don’t fell good right know so it has to wait…”. Well, I guess that’s not always possible.

It is of course impossible to always fell great when you make decisions. Therefore, my advice to become more efficient in terms of decision making, is to try to as often as I can make my decisions when I feel good.

In all projects and organizations leadership is needed and a crucial factor for the success of the project.

For a leader to be inspiring and functional for a longer period of time it needs to be better than or at least as good as the rest of the group when it comes to completing the tasks set up for the leader.

The learning point I want to emphasize is the if you want to execute successful leadership you must be prepared to continuously be a role model for the rest of the group in execution of your tasks.

Swedish winters are quiet dark and consequently in January this year I started having problems being on time at work in the mornings. When you run a company with employees, it’s not a good thing to do.

After trying conventional methods such as putting the alarm clock far away from bed and setting three different alarms without any success I realized that I had to do something drastically. I talked to my colleagues at work who also had the same problem and together we decided to set up the “Lunch-rule”.

The Lunch rule was quite simple and implied that if you were late one morning you had to pay for one of your collegues’ lunch if he/she was on time the same morning. The rule had a great effect – we’re all on time nearly every day after the introduction of the lunch rule.

However, even thought I generally do prefer rewards rather than punishments, my learning point in this specific matter is that punishments/rules are really effective!

The last days I’ve partly reached a high level of efficiency partly been quite inefficient. I’ve been thinking back and forth on different reasons to why.Of course I find several different reasons but I do find a pattern.

I reach higher efficiency as well as higher output when working by myself in the “quiet part” of the library or when all my colleagues have left the office. It’s often a challenge for me to just focus on the tasks that I have to finish and I easily start to talk to my colleagues about things that I should discuss during lunch-break, in my spare-time or during our strategy meeting.

However, I think it’s important to be able to reach a high level of efficiency even when my colleagues are around.  Therefore, my solution in the future will be to plug in my ipod and don’t let anything they say disturb me. Furthermore I will to the extent it’s possible work in an empty room at the office or at the library when it comes to my studies.

Every day is the same thing – I pack my things and leave my office with just a few todo’s left. In order to get home decent normal hours, have some dinner and time over to relax, I convince myself that I just need a few minutes in front of the TV to finish the last tasks – in total contrary to the normal outcome.

I usually end up trying to have dinner, relax, read a magazine, write an e-mail, work on the next marketing project, going through different business model improvements and talk to my close ones – all at the same time. As a result I go to bed totally exhausted, too late and stressed. The fact that I don’t even manage to finish the few tasks that I brought home, just a lot of new open loops, doesn’t make the situation better.

So, is this a sustainable way to work? No, of course not. Therefore, in order to change this unbalance between work and free-time to spend with yourself and close one’s, My main takeaway of today is that I’m going to set up a rule to never bring any of my work home and always try to finish all open loops at the office before I leave. They say that as a entrepreneur, you’re never off from work, and I think most people who start their own business, including myself, agree with that.

Besides that, I’m sure that this will help me to find a better balance, clear my head, find time for myself and close ones and reduce the risk of getting washed-up.