Entropy. It is happening to all of us. It is a fact of life. Stuff moves from working to not working over time.
I experienced this last week with my computer. It’s the finest laptop I’ve ever owned (although there was that Macbook I had for work… but I digress). But, even at that, it decided to die.
I lost more than a couple of hours to the problem. In fact, as of this moment, it’s not fixed. It’s not fixed because, at it’s core, there’s a hardware issue that appears to be unrecoverable.
Things break. We get to decide how we manage those situations, but they’re not going to stop. I experienced a great deal of frustration with my computer situation last week. And then I remembered that it’s part of life. There’s a mandate to subdue the earth. Some part of that is putting order to the disorder. So, next time something breaks and you work on it for hours, remember that you are simply doing your job. There is disorder. Give it order. There is dirt on the floor. Sweep it up. It is good work you do.
creativity
A thing you'll never see
I spent a good while looking at business related stock photography for a presentation. I never found a chart that shows diminishing results. Apparently there’s no call for that. You bury that in 9 point arial somewhere in the back of the corporate report. Pretty graphics are used to show positive results. Lesson learned.
Life without Books
Work Begets Work
If I’m not careful, I’ll start to sound like one of those productivity bloggers. That’s not among my goals in life.
My wife, Rebecca, pointed out an important life lesson from our kids. It started out when we were at a low point for sleep in our toddler’s life. Rebecca let Grace take a long nap one day. Like, scary long. And I was afraid. “Honey, do you think it’s wise to let her sleep so long during the day? I mean, are we going to wind up regretting it in a few hours?”
And Rebecca said these fateful words: “I don’t know. I think, sometimes, sleep begets sleep.” We started to pay attention, and it certainly seems to be true in our kids lives.
I’m seeing a similar principle at work as I am reordering things and working on focus. Completed work begets more completed work. Delivery begets delivery.
The more I accomplish my goals, the more likely I am to continue to accomplish my goals.
Work begets work.
On No
Kevin Ashton wrote a brilliant post (over here) about saying no. It has some of the most quotable polite rejections that I’ve ever read.
Here’s a doozy (in response to being invited to participate in a study on creativity)
“One of the secrets of productivity (in which I believe whereas I do not believe in creativity) is to have a VERY BIG waste paper basket to take care of ALL invitations such as yours — productivity in my experience consists of NOT doing anything that helps the work of other people but to spend all one’s time on the work the Good Lord has fitted one to do, and to do well.” – Peter Drucker
Much more than that, though, at the source. Ashton’s main thrust is that we have to say no in order to be able to accomplish the things we want to accomplish. My friend Samuel made the same point about saying no to our kids here.
Sounds like I need to learn to say no.