I have this battle going on. It is a quiet battle, but it rages on each and everyday. I have set some personal objectives, and have now defined some key results (see John Doerr’s book – Measure What Matters). Now that I have this clarified, I am being faced with decisions that are not comfortable. Everyday is starting to count.
Before I set these objectives, I was just happy to get through the day accomplishing my basic list in the morning. I felt like I accomplished something. However, now I am really grappling with real consequence. Do I waste my time and “relax” or do I take that extra two hours and really make a dent in achieving my key result for this month.
Deciding to work on high value activities is not easy. Proactively focusing on something meaningful, and really setting out to accomplish it is not an easy thing to get the mind to want to focus on. Sure, I will acknowledge that it is something that I should do, or even want to do – but I will come up with every reason under the sun as to why I should delay that activity just another day.
So the battle rages. My thinking my mind over my impulsive primal nature I guess. I suppose it is good that I am now fighting the real battle. The outcome of this battle is really going to count. Am I going to focus on the activities that will really make a difference today, or am I going to allow myself to go the easy path and let my work dictate what I do, react to what other request of me and take the lazy path.
The funny thing is, I really do not have time for lazy anymore. With my morning and evening routines, and my consistent sleeping times I just have to realize that this concept of blowing off several hours is a thing of the past. If I want to be lazy, I actually have to schedule that activity and be purposeful about it now! Yes, I am going to be lazy on purpose!
I wish I could go back to lying to myself and pretending that I was having a productive day – but now that I have defined what I really want to accomplish and how I am going to measure it – I really understand what productivity means. That puts me in an interesting spot today. I have slots in my schedule. I could spend those minutes checking email, scanning news websites, talking to people about nothing of consequence – or I can get to the real work.
No wonder focused people that have a clear objective usually end up successful. They spend the day with deliberate activity. The rest of us are on the losing side of that battle and are bouncing along each day with no defined purpose.
So wish me luck. I am actually going to try to achieve something of consequence today.
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Guy Reams (192)
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