I was at the gym the other day when a few people came in and started using the machines seemingly at random. They did a set on one machine, then jumped to another, and then another. To me, it didn't really seem like they had any sort of plan, they were just doing whatever they felt like at the moment.
Now, in exercising, I believe that anything is better than nothing. Those people were getting more benefit from what they were doing than if they had just stayed home on the couch. But, what if they were more intentional? What if they had a plan and focused on a specific goal or on working on specific muscle groups. You don’t have to have an exercise science degree to know they’d get better results.
At work, some days I’m like those people, though. I just jump on whatever task is the most visible without really having a plan or strategy. Usually, on those days, I’m exhausted at the end of the day but don’t have much to show for my efforts. The best days, however, are the days where I have a plan and am intentional about what I focus on. Those days usually start with me asking, “What’s the most important thing?”.
The problem is that planning is hard, it takes energy. Sometimes it takes some digging to answer the question “What’s the most important thing to do today?”. It requires long term thinking and it requires effort. But it’s worth it. Because if you spend all your time putting out fires, you’ll never build anything worthwhile.
Comments