I recently read "Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action." At first reaction "hey,... (
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I recently read "Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action." At first reaction "hey, I work hard...." and then the ingredients of the statement began to stew and I realized the 80/20 Principle (Pareto's Law) does apply to me.
The majority of my efforts and "business" stem from reacting to events and triggers instead of keeping the end in mind - thinking and focusing more on being effective than being busy being efficient. Effective in the sense doing the things that get me closer to my goals and purpose. Efficiency being the performance of a given task in the most economical manner possible.
Recently I discovered how trying to be "efficient" has caused me to be lazy. I deferred my purpose and priorities and reacted to my email in-box and on the emails delivered when someone commented on a blog or LinkedIn.com group.
The groups and emails are valuable to me. But not as important as being effective in my primary role for work, home and personal service. They are now being shifted in order of priority. Emails aren't the first thing I work on now. When I want or need to I then go to the information instead of having it just show up.
The "lazy thinking" means doing what ever comes to mind or shows up in my in-box. Or in other words, letting others think for me what is important. Indiscriminate action means I'm jumbling tasks and have a lack of focus. This lead to being confused more often. So by processing fewer items with greater attention to outcome helps lazy turn into active and indiscriminate action into effective and purposeful action.
By not having identified important items and tasks and not setting start and end times the unimportant became the important.
Or in other words, I'm striving to spend 80% (more time) of my efforts on 20% (fewer items) of the items that generate 80% (more results). And what deserves 80% of my attention? The same goes for every business person - my relationships.
Have you had a similar experience of lazy thinking causing indiscriminate action? If so, share your thoughts and experiences below.
