Words Made Easy

If, like me, you are constantly struggling to increase your productivity… and if, like me, your vow to cut time wastage often falls by the wayside: Fear Not.

I had en epiphany this weekend:
When we procrastinate, we are going somewhere.

Perhaps not fast. But certainly somewhere. And as long as in the big picture you have a big goal, then:
You are going Somewhere, Better.

I set myself in goal in 2009. Well, I set myself quite a few goals actually as you would note by reviewing past posts… But one of the more important goals was to: increase my productivity. Sound familiar?

Productivity superstars like, Dave Navarro and Charlie Gilkey, have taught me some powerful tips for time mastery. As we all know, one of these is having a Clear End Goal. If you know where you are going you are more able to catch yourself when wasting time on irrelevancy. And refocus on that which is pertinent to your main objective.

But, if like me, you are also in the field of creativity, marketing, copywriting and social media, you will have noticed something else.

We can not survive on a one track mind.

So what’s a dreamer to do hey? If we don’t focus on our ‘true purpose’ 100% of the time, then are we truly wasting it?

NO. I don’t believe so.

You see, genius minds embrace multiple streams of interest. Take Leonardo Da Vinci… Among other things, he designed helicopters, studied anatomy and was a prolific artist. While we may classify these broadly under the umbrella of ‘design’ they still cover vast ground. So too designers like Eames, and artists like T.S Eliot who happily worked in finance by day and wrote poetry by night.

When Time Wasting works

Though not alive today, I’m sure if interviewed, each of these men wouldn’t dream of giving up their various activities. Beacuse each fed into the other.

The point is, that while I strongly believe that we should have a specific end goal, it’s still the journey that counts. Without it, many of our goals would not be reached. And without the diversions that lead to epiphanies, we may miss the crucial point of discovery that sees us reach The Ark.

IN real terms. My end goal is to see my business healthy and profitable. My short term goals to reach that are to become more knowlegable and to keep writing. However, unless I diverged along the suggested readings of random Tweeps, or took my kids to the Museum, or sympathised with my brother-in-law over his recent job loss, then I wouldn’t ‘get’ what was happening in the world around me and I wouldn’t be able to write with a heart.

Sometimes following the unexpected trail can lead you to a forest glade of delights. Perhaps even Baby Bear’s porridge. But you will never know unless you give yourself the time to meander.

So, by all means:

Set your goals and follow them.

Set your clocks and keep track of your time.

But every so often – probably more often than you allow – turn off those clocks and step out of the blinding goals’ light. Take the path less travelled…  and you may find yourself at the end of the rainbow.

:: Just the goal you had always dreamed of, but never dared believe.

Where would you like to go today?
Let’s get this conversation started.

Charlotte

image thanks to author Molly Dwyer – http://www.mollydwyer.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 @ 12:42 am on the category Performance Goals, business, creativity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.