Courtesy of Dan Zigmond
Dan Zigmond.
- Dan Zigmond is a practicing Buddhist and a data science executive whose résumé includes stints at Google, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
- In his latest book, "Buddha's Office," Zigmond offers advice inspired by Buddha's teachings for anyone seeking balance and increased productivity.
- He shared 5 lessons with us: Make time to think. Hold meetings on the go. Skip meetings where you're not required. Take a real lunch. And set boundaries.
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When he left college, Dan Zigmond said he thought about becoming a traditional Buddhist monk and spending the rest of his days in a remote temple in Asia.
Life happened. He fell in love and needed a job to support his growing family. Over the years, Zigmond climbed the corporate ladder of success as a data scientist at Google, Facebook, and some their subsidiaries like Instagram and YouTube.
His latest book, "Buddha's Office: The Ancient Art of Waking Up While Working Well," details how he used the tenets of Buddhism to find fulfillment at work.
We asked Zigmond to share his biggest lessons with us. Here they are.
Make time to think
Early in his career as a software engineer, Zigmond said he had a boss who would get upset when he saw him sitting at his desk and not typing. He tried - unsuccessfully - to explain that he needed time to mull over difficult coding problems or design the software itself.
"If your job hasn't been automated, it's probably because it requires real thought," Zigmond wrote in his book.
He recommends finding time in the day to step away from a computer and think.
Walk and talk
While Zigmond was at YouTube, he said he would conduct meetings with his peers and direct reports on looping walks around the vacant floor of an old office building the company leased from Gap.
He noticed two upsides. Taking meetings on the go was good exercise. He also found that people tend to speak at ease in motion. A meeting can feel more like an interrogation inside a conference room.
'Any meeting I'm excluded from is a small victory'
It hurts to be excluded from a meeting.
But Zigmond said he no longer fights to attend what he thinks are the most important meetings. He only wants to attend gatherings where his input is really required. Why? It's a validation of his abilities as a manager, Zigmond said, if he can send a direct report who is informed and empowered to make the decision.
"Now any meeting I'm excluded from is a small victory," Zigmond wrote.
He admitted that his change in thinking comes from a place of authority. Now as the data science director at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, he's accumulated enough self-assurance to feel like he doesn't need to be invited to a meeting to know that he's important and his input is valuable, Zigmond said on the phone.
Take a real lunch
Most days, Zigmond blocks out a full hour for lunch. He leaves his desk and finds a friend with whom he can talk about "non-work" stuff over pizza or Indian food. At other times, Zigmond uses his lunch hour to text his daughters, go over his calendar, or catch up on other personal matters.
"Taking breaks at work isn't lazy - it's essential," Zigmond wrote. "It's not just our creativity that needs time to take shape. Our bodies and mind are simply not made to work nonstop. We need time to recover, and we can't do that without a break."
Ask what are the trade-offs you're willing to make in life and work
Zigmond said he has had a job and a family for most of his adult life. Early on, he became deliberate about sticking to an eight-hour work day. Those hours allowed him to drop his kids off at school in the morning and be home for dinner. He had no qualms about cutting out early for a school play or a classroom birthday party.
Those choices has a "real cost" on his professional life, according to Zigmond. He missed some important meetings. He accomplished less work on some days.
Zigmond wrote that "by and large the trade-offs I made worked for me. I think I'm probably not as successful in material terms as I could have been if I had spent more time in the office. But I feel I'm successful enough."
