| Procrastination & Productivity |
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My next installment here, regards an issue that I, and I suspect many technophiles, struggle with constantly. I have tendencies toward what might clinically and negatively be called ADD, and what might positively be called "The Hunter Gene" (an idea written about and coined by Thom Hartmann). This post-modern era with its myriad distractions and shouts for our attention provide no end to fueling this proclivity. First it was the convenient, and now burdensome email inbox, and next comes Facebook and Twitter, with endless up-to-the-minute personal news-feeds and tweets. Hmm, shall I tackle those taxes, that huge pile of bills, or should I see what Brad is tweeting about? I have often felt that much of the white-collar-desk-jockey world justifies its existence with how many "fires" were put out today, (including the fires represented by an endless stream of tweets, status posts and email threads) instead of getting on with the business of productivity and true creative problem solving. Love him or hate him, Seth Godin also riffs and writes about this in his blog. Running a one man design agency requires that I wear a number of hats in any given day, and my time becomes very precious. When I have the Accountant hat on, the Designer hat is off and no billable hours are being generated. If I add to that another distraction from someone who considers their email request or Tweet important enough to be answered immediately, then I can quickly become lost down the rabbit hole of hypertext linked paths to nowhere. When it gets down to it, I have to ask myself, can I use these new tech tools as tools, or am I simply allowing yet another excuse to not get down to the business of running a business? "Look at the pretty flashing graphic!" I find that this often irritates those of my friends, peers and clients who continue to succumb to the tyrrany of the urgent, but over time, they are becoming accustomed to, and even may understand that thier crisis does not always represent my ownership of their problem. That must, of course, be balanced with the "ridiculously good customer service" that I have cultivated over the course of 10 years in business. Ever a balancing act, and I continue to refine the balance between important and urgent. And that is just it in a nutshell, we all must refine our work ethics and discipline so that discerning the difference between the important and the urgent becomes second nature. |