Until recently I thought that one of the ultimate goals of productivity is comfort. By comfort I mean that fundamentally you are proficient enough to do what you need to almost automatically so you can use your left-over mental capacities towards something else, like achieving world peace or becoming a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.
Being comfortable had the complete opposite effect on me. My increased proficiency lead to complacency and as a result I didn’t have the same attention to detail in completing everyday/procedural tasks. Overall I didn’t feel as sharp and switched on. Luckily it didn’t affect things too much. Inside me however, I felt that this new found comfort had dulled my creative/innovative mind, in effect it gave me a false sense of security. After all things are going good, so why change something that works?
A shift was occurring. I could feel that I was becoming a reactive rather than proactive person. I didn’t want to be going mentally stale, long story short I had to make some changes.
To counteract this shift I started taking more time to be “less comfortable”, which means an almost obsessive monitoring of my own progress and self-improvement.
I now take regular scheduled time to:
- Analyse all of my daily operations: How much time I spend on tasks, how long it takes for it to be done and where I think I am not as efficient as I should be.
- Revisit previous set plans/ideas and business direction: Are we on track? Are the plans still relevant? What is stopping them from being implemented?
By doing this I held myself more accountable and feel like I am able to be on the front foot to tackle issues rather than cleaning them up after the damage is done. The feeling of being active and in control saves a bit of stress too.
Having these sessions scheduled regularly means you are constantly keeping an eye on where you are going and improving on things. Or in the words of our Prime Minister “moving forwards”.
