Ask
yourself if what you’re doing today is getting you closer to where you want to
be tomorrow. — Unknown
A couple weeks ago, I saw the above quote and it made me
think of the various posts about dreams, vision and goals that I have
written. Part of fulfilling our purpose
is to know the things we need to do and also be aware of the things we do not
need to be doing.
On Sunday morning before leaving for the airport, I read an
article by Francesca Gino, which is a professor at the Harvard Business
School. In the article, he discussed
“The Remedy for Unproductive Busyness”.
Part of his perspective is that we do things sometimes for justification
that we are keeping ourselves busy. He
gives an example of how people he knows actually drive miles out of their way
to just avoid having to stop at a few traffic lights.
When I reflected on this article, I discovered things that I
do just to keep “busy” or to put a checkmark on my task list. For example, I love to read and it is a great
way for me to relax. However, it is only
April 2015 and I have already accomplished my reading goal. Do I read so much just to feel good that I
accomplished one of my 2015 goals or am I truly learning something from everything
I read? In my goal, I only included
reading books, but there are a number of magazines that I should have read
months ago, but have still not read. I
am not saying it is wrong for all of the reading I am doing, but I have a long
list of other things that I have made commitments on that I need to do. My goal during any “down time” I have in DC
will be to work on some of those past due tasks so that I fulfill promises and
if I have any additional time I will read the book I brought with me!
During the next week, I challenge you to review everything
you are doing. Review what is on your
list of to-dos. Is there anything that
you really do not need to be doing? Are
you doing some things to just be busy and not do other things that need your
full attention? There are so many
aspects of this when it comes to work, family, etc. Take the time to review your priorities. To accomplish our purpose, dreams, vision and
goals, we often have to find the things that are keeping us “busy” and only
focus on the things that are “fruitful” in our lives.
All the mistakes I ever made in my life were when I wanted to say No, and said Yes. - Moss Hart
It is not
enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about? -
Henry David Thoreau
To read the full article from the Harvard Business Review,
click here: https://hbr.org/2015/04/the-remedy-for-unproductive-busyness.
