Tasks

The One That Matters

The One That Matters

Garth Beyer

Is that the mindset you have? Are the rest part of your assembly line?

The problem with checklists, the problem with the 20 emails you have to send, the problem with the four meetings you’ve got to attend is that you know you’ve got another one on deck, so let’s just get through this one, cut ourselves some slack, leave out the “thank you” at the end.

When you have the mindset that the last one on your to-do list is the one that matters, you’re dumbing down the work you do, you’re establishing an average that your outlier won’t recover.

The problem for you is there are people out there treating each task as if it were their last, as if the task they are doing is always the one that matters.

We put too much faith on going out with a bang, we support mediocrity and fall to our competitors when we breeze through the assembly line of work and treat only one (typically the last in line) as if it’s the one that matters.

It’s not.

 

Stay Positive & It Might Be Time To Leave The Line

Expanding Tasks

Expanding Tasks

Garth Beyer

Parkinson's Law

 

Tasks expand to the time allowed. That’s Parkinson’s law.

It certainly explains why deadlines are essential? Right? Partly.

Deadlines trigger you to thrash – that energy boost, that scramble to finish and ship something before it’s too late.

When you’re coming up with new year resolutions, consider shorter time frames and leverage your knowledge of Parkinson’s law and thrashing. Do you really want to take an entire year to complete something?

Thanks for reading and I hope to be part of your 2015.

 

Stay Positive & Cheers

Photo credit

Too Much Intake Pt. 2

Garth Beyer

Those who say they have nothing to do are liars.

Every day there is a constant stream of to-do’s, of tasks, of obligations. Keeping busy is the easiest thing in the world. Our inbox’s are filling as I type this. We’ve got more notifications and distractions than ever before. Oh, did your phone just vibrate too?

Plain and simple, we’re damn busy. Of course, “busy” is commonly misinterpreted.

This intake of lights, noises, beeps, buzzers, reminders, flags, dings, ticks, and notification symbols is a great way to trick us into thinking that responding to them is a form of output. That being busy is the same as producing something that matters.

Let’s remember that not all things that come in are worth taking in. Let’s not confuse busy with meaningful. Let’s make sure not to devote too much time to intake when what matters is output.

Hey, intake will be there whether you are too, or not.

Output, on the other hand, only shows up when you do.

 

Stay Positive & Go Do Something (that matters more than responding to that txt)

Garth E. Beyer