Inward Bound
A world filled with leisure time that was anticipated not too long ago has not arrived. The machines and appliances that were envisioned are here and, in many cases, perform far better than we could have imagined. The cell phones we all carry contain far more computer power than existed in a large scale multi-million dollar mainframe computer only 40 years ago. Yet our lives seem far more hectic. At the office, our daily lives seem scheduled to the nth degree with long to do lists and too many meetings to attend. There is precious little, if any, of the leisure time we were promised.
We were taught early on that success usually comes from doing things and accomplishing tasks. But what we don’t always recognize is that doing/completing/accomplishing tasks successfully often requires more than action – it requires planning and thought. But we often don’t plan to take time to think about what we’re trying to accomplish – we’re too busy trying to accomplish it.
A recent magazine column pointed out that many of the most successful CEOs made a point of putting time in their schedules to really think – about anything and everything: Bill Gates retreated to an isolated cottage for a week to think about the large issues his firm faced; Jack Welch, the famous CEO of GE, set aside at least an hour daily for undistracted thinking; Damon Horowitz, Director of Engineering at Google interrupted his work there to get a Ph. D in Philosophy; Reid Hoffman, one of the founders of LinkedIn, was a philosophy postgraduate at Oxford before he decided to become a billionaire. All these individuals made time to think – and the topics most likely weren’t always related to their respective businesses.
To be successful at anything we need to think about what we’re trying to accomplish and we need to build time in our schedules to do that thinking. If you can accomplish that task – you may find that the other tasks on your list look far less daunting and problematic perhaps leaving more time for leisurely pursuits.
With Thanks to the Schumpeter Blog Economist 4 October 2014 for the idea.
