Being Productive

You may have seen this before, but most good things need revisiting.

Persistence
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. (Ray Kroc)

Here is something that seems at first like a counterpoint to the above, but it may be just another approach to ‘persistence.’

Procrastinate
If at first you don’t succeed, give up immediately.
Move on to some other task until that becomes unbearable.
Then on again circling back around to the first problem.
By now, your sub-conscious will have worked on it; sort of like sleep but only cheaper.(Author unknown, found in the Wall Street Journal Magazine, Nov. 2011)

An interview I heard with author Jonathan Fields, who wrote a book titled Uncertainty, explored the same topic. He said “The really big insights and ideas usually come when we work really hard and then we step away. It’s the moments that we’re not working, the deliberate pauses that we create where we step away from work where the really big ideas and solutions and creations come to us.”

I agree. I often think best when I am not thinking. That is why, for me, dreams provide the best grist for productive mental output. But the grist for my dreams comes from my recent reading. Dreams provide for me the revelation that penetrates my consciousness that the regular activities of life may block.

Another way of saying essentially the same thing was said years ago by Stephen Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He addressed the habit of taking time to ‘sharpen the saw.’ The ‘saw’ of our mind, our body, our ability to interact effectively with other people, all, I believe, could be enhanced by some of the same tactics suggested above.