At the Door of a New Year! We Ask: Are We Lazy Creatures?!

"To reach a port, we must sail—Sail, not tie at anchor—Sail, not drift.", Franklin Roosevelt

This is a haunting question. There is a plenty of evidence about human beings laziness compared to other creatures on the planet!

I believe that the statement that “we are lazy creatures” is true to some extent and varies from one to another. Here I will try to throw few ideas about this statement (we can debate of course).

I believe the root behind being lazy is the lack to commitment. Here I refer to the commitment to ourselves and our goals. Many of people do not have goals, objectives, or vision about what they need to achieve in career or life. Here (again) I will borrow from Lewis Carroll (in his masterpiece Alice in Wonderland) a couple of sentences which are very simple to read but very deep to understand:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” said Alice,

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

You need to dream with an objective and set interim goals to reach that dream. Without being committed to this vision, you will lose the line of sight and you are in anywhere!

Accordingly, there are two major issues: first, you may not have an objective at all. Second, you may have an objective but we are not committed to achieve it. If you miss any one of those you will be entrapped and classified under lazy species!

To be committed, you need to be motivated to achieve your goals. Lack of motivation is the seed of laziness and the disease of being unproductive.

Some people are gifted to be self-motivated where motivation comes from their souls. Others get motivated from external sources such as mentors, role model, work in a group, needs, etc.

I noticed in many cases, those who classified as “lazy” could work very hard under pressure especially if someone or some external force set their targets. For example, many people work hard if they have exams to pass or deadline to respect. This proves that they have the capability but they lack the motive to work. This exam date or deadline time did a useful thing. It sets a target!

I have a simple recipe to follow (based on a very humbled experience):

1-      Set one or two practical goals to achieve within this year (do not set much),

2-      Set practical plans to achieve those goals,

3-      Plans must have tangible deliverables. Deliverables motivate you to continue,

4-      Plan deliverables to be close to each other, so you are always get excited with capability to progress,

5-      Discuss your goals with someone of group. Search for those who share your interests or like to see you achieving your goals,

6-      Talk about your progress, promise to achieve, and welcome tips and hints,

7-      If you are behind schedule, reschedule to put yourself on track. Do not lose directions,

8-      Remind yourself with benefits of achieving such goals,

9-      Refresh yourself by something out of your plan from time to time such as trips, gym, or any other activity out of your plan context,

10-   Once you achieve the first goal you will like the idea and you will proceed,

Do not leave yourself without goals to achieve. Remember in the absence of well-defined goals, you will be very loyal to do trivial things on daily basis. Without commitment and plans, your targets will remain dreams.

It is a start of a new year. It is time to set targets. It is time to draw a dream and commit to it. It is time to hunt!

Need for Speed! Increase your Productivity

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” Paul J. Meyer

It is very important to learn the secrets of increasing productivity. Time is the most valuable asset in this life. Proper utilization of time (or this asset) you can get any other asset in this life (or even after life!).

In this short post, I will highlight only one tip and a thought about productivity. Yes, only one idea – this is enough if we understand and apply it.

First let me introduce a nice and profound definition of productivity: Productivity = Value/ Time. Notice the VALUE term. It is important that you produce value and not just producing efforts, consuming time, or actions without real value.

I want to highlight a thought about illusion of multitasking. A misleading idea that if you want to increase your productivity is to be a multitasking processor. In other words, you need to carry out multiple tasks at same time. Surf the net, read an article, listen to music, and have a discussion with your kids. With all of these activities you feel (or imagine) that you have a high productivity. Unfortunately, you are not adding a value in any of these tasks.

Although human brain has the capability of considering several dimensions at the same time for a specific subject. The magic number of dimensions is ranging between 5 and 9 (it is 7 plus or minus +/-2) as mentioned by psychology science. This is applied for a single task with several objects and considerations.

The reality is that you need to be single-minded and focusing on specific task. Here the skill of prioritizing tasks comes to the picture. Proper prioritization and estimation of task duration is crucial for increasing productivity.

If we recall how operating systems work to carry out multitasking, several algorithms exist that rely on task (or program) preemption. Where the processor executes portions of programs and switch to another program to execute another portion and so on. Then it returns back to the first one in a round robin fashion across those programs. This gives the feeling (for users) that computer runs\ executing several programs at same time.

Some version of preemption algorithms starts and finalizes shortest tasks first based on estimated execution duration. Other algorithms allocate specific time quota for each program based on their priorities and processor spent this pre-allocated time executing each program. (Please do not confuse this with parallel processing which is another story!)

Applying these concepts with your brain, you can simulate the multitasking. Be careful that the difference between processor and your mind is the speed of switching time and setup required between tasks. Processor just uploads the program code into memory, adjust its instruction pointers and registers and resume execution. However, your brain needs to recall the context of the task and consider current state before resumption. In all cases, you need to focus on one task with full mind attention. This is much more productive than the illusion of carrying multiple tasks at same time.

Let me summarize the technique of multitasking in few bullets:

1- Set priorities to your tasks,

2- Classify tasks into the quadrant of (Important\ Not Important and Urgent\ Not Urgent),

3- Start with tasks in square of Urgent\ Important (since they are not questionable and cannot be delegated),

4- Try to delegate Urgent\ Not Important tasks (if possible) or do it yourself,

5- Estimate duration of each task in the square (Important\ Not Urgent)

6- Eliminate or delegate the tasks in square (Not Important\ Not Urgent),

7- Focus on the urgent and important tasks one at a time,

8- Sharpen your skills of switching between tasks (this is a key differentiator between one person and another – remember processor efficiency in doing that). How fast and still-focused  you can switch between tasks, determines your productivity and your speed.

I hope this helps.