“[The solution] lies in making the most of our time by focusing on the most important things, instead of everything.”
Have you ever left work, thoroughly exhausted from your busy day, but with the feeling that you didn't accomplish anything? That feeling usually comes flooding over me when my daughter asks how work was...I say "busy" but struggle to remember what I did. More often than not it is because I spent my day putting out fires, answering questions, fielding requests, etc. I am caught up in the urgent busyness that surrounds me, but I have not accomplished the item or two that would take my day from busy to productive.
It is essential to think of our workday in its simplest form. What are we getting paid to do, what is our main responsibility? In my case, my main responsibility is to train new hires. All other responsibilites and accomplishments will follow that core responsibility. What is your core responsibility? Name it in one sentence...one idea.
The clarity of knowing that one thing will allow you to prioritze all tasks, requests, and projects. Extra projects are great, they give us a chance to grow, to learn and to experience. However, the success of extra projects will never outweigh the failure to accomplish core tasks.
Use this same stripping away to examine work goals for the next year. What is the one essential thing that needs to be done? How about lifetime goals? Name the central one in a single sentence? Now name your family goal in one sentence. It's hard to boil things down to the essential idea. But the simplicity can be invigorating. When focusing on that one thing, feelings of productivity are increased. I know when I feel good about what I am doing, the things I accomplish are magnified.
Use the wisdom of the Haiku poem to help pin down the essential parts of your life.
For inspiration, here is my Haiku poem about my goal of always being a lifelong learner:
Investigating,
Student of all disciplines,
Horizons expand.
The following link has all sorts of information about writing Haiku poems.
http://www.cranberrydesigns.com/poetry/haiku/examples.htm
Till next time....Lynn
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