What's Signal and What's Noise? (Productive Flourishing Pulse #475)

Learning to tune out the cacophony and into what matters

Photo by Mark Paton on Unsplash

For the last few months, I’ve been experiencing an irritating and persistent ringing in my right ear. It lasts for weeks at a time and, at times, increases to what I can only describe as high-pitched static, like that jarring sound that used to come out of radio speakers as you changed stations.

(As I write this, I realize there is a whole generation that will have absolutely no clue what I’m talking about. Anyway…)

When the tinnitus started earlier in the year, it was sometimes impossible to concentrate on anything else — but over time, I’ve learned to mostly tune it out. 

While I’m not giving up hope on this eventually going away for good (yes, I have seen a doctor, and all seems normal¹), I have decided that while it’s here, I’m going to do my best to classify it as background noise so I can focus on what’s important.

The experience has made me consider how much noise there is in our daily lives. Not just in the literal or audible sense but in the static and distortion from all the distractions, expectations, self-doubt, old stories, head trash, bright shiny objects, and all the other shoulda/ woulda/couldas that can drown everything else out.

In this loud world, how can we identify what’s worth paying attention to? What’s signal and what’s just noise?

It’s an important distinction we each have to make for ourselves. What’s noise to me may be an important signal for you, and vice versa. You get to choose what you classify as important or not.

This also applies to our projects, especially those best work projects that lead to our thriving. It’s why during our Quarterly Planning Sessions, before getting to the actual planning or even selecting projects, we first invite our members to identify two things:

1. A meaningful goal (objective) 

2. Specific metrics that will indicate they’re on track to meet that objective (key results)

Those key results — or, as I’ve started thinking of them, meaningful metrics — become the signals you can attune yourself to when the day-to-day noise starts to creep in.

As you look back at this past quarter, what was your signal-to-noise ratio? Did you hear more harmony or static? How did that impact the journey?

As you think about your Q2 goals, how can you create the conditions here at the start that will allow the right signals to come through?

Or, getting back to that antiquated radio analogy I started with, what are the stations you can pre-set in an attempt to avoid or minimize the static?  

~ Maghan²

Other News and Features

• In case you missed it, earlier this week, I shared our April Planning Tips and how a bit of spring cleaning might help you get clear on your Q2 goals.

• Join us on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, for our next Monthly Community Coaching Call (MC3).

Reads and Seeds

I'm also running with our reads & seeds this week 😏

• I’ve been loving

  Tara McMullin
  ’s Decoding Empathy podcast series. Her latest episode featured friend of PF, Leonie Smith, Founder of The Thoughtful Workplace who spoke about how the tools and practices of nonviolence can help foster not just understanding but connection. The difference with nonviolent communication is that one of the things we share with people is how to check not only for understanding but for connection when you're in conversations with somebody. 

• Another way to think about signals and noise is in how we communicate. In his 2018 video, speaker Gregor Jeffrey discusses how our brain preferences (analytical, structural, conceptual, or social) impact how we take in and interpret what another is saying — determining what's signal and what's noise.

• Wes Kao
  's latest newsletter, "Insecure vibes" are a self-fulfilling prophecy," speaks to how our insecurities may unconsciously get in the way of our connection and communication with others — adding to the noise — and what we can do to stop it.

• I came across a poem by author Brianna Wiest last week and as it felt so aligned with starting something new, we used it as a grounding for our Quarterly Planning session. You can find the full poem here but I'll share a piece that reflects my sincere hopes for all of us as we step into this new season: I hope that when good things are trying to find you, you let them. I hope that you leave room for things to turn out better than you had planned.

1. Tinnitus is one of those weird conditions that the medical world has yet to figure out. Millions of people suffer from it, but after much Google searching and seeing an ENT, the best answer I could find about a cause or way to stop it was essentially: 🤷🏻‍♀️. But my (not inexpensive) doctor's visit did at least confirm that my hearing is above average “for my age,” so that’s a plus, I guess?

2. We've been using the Pulse to reintroduce ourselves to those who might be new to PF (if that's you, welcome!).

👋 I’m Maghan, PF Productivity Coach and Head of Education — or, as Charlie calls me, “the connector of invisible threads.” After spending almost two decades in advertising, I find myself doing my absolute joy work in helping connect people, ideas, and people to the ideas that will best support their thriving. I’m certified in Gallup’s CliftonStrengths and Jonathan Field’s Sparkeype Assessment and will happily talk for hours about either.

I’m also a: Book nerd. Crafter. Crochet addict. Native New Yorker. Lover of potatoes. Newly minted Irish citizen. Off-the-beaten-path sightseer. Introvert on the edge of ambivert. Recipe follower. Hopeless cook. Infinitely curious soul.