Smart is only part of Productive
Drake was a little irritated with my suggestions to help him claim some time for personal activities. He resisted my ideas by justifying why he does what he does – even though what he does wastes a meaningful amount of time. “I’m a smart guy,” he says.
My reply, “All of my clients are smart – and in many cases brilliant. And, they’re not experts at productivity and neither are you.” This was a little like an athlete expecting to be world-class at golf, billiards, and hockey. Impossible.
You or Drake being great at one thing doesn’t mean you will be great at another. Since you’re reading this blog on productivity I will project that you’re not advice adverse. Nonetheless I want to urge you to stop for a few minutes and examine what tips & suggestions you’ve tossed out or read right over because it doesn’t fit you. Take a second look. Try one thing before you write it off. Try another. Be open.
Some of the folks that backtrack and reconsider suggestions previous rejected have said things like
• Wow, that was easy.
• I waited long enough to try this. It’s so useful I’m glad I didn’t wait longer.
• Hey, I’m getting good at this. I’m going after your job soon!
For you smart people out there – leverage productivity coaching and implement then practice. You’ll soon have another hour per day for yourself!
05/11/2009 at 8:19 am Permalink
I guess it is in our character as humans, not to see the forest because of the trees. Sometimes, we have the “Bright” idea in our minds, we think that this automatically leads us into finding the optimized solution ( because, a problem can have many solutions, but we most likely want to find the shorter way into solving that problem), but perhaps we just need to take advice from people who are specialized into “time optimization”. And, taking advice, doesn’ t make you less intelligent, but also this suggests that you are the type of person who goes for more.