One Thing At A Time

I made a mighty effort yesterday to focus at work.

I typically do not have the luxury of choosing my days or how to spend them: as the primary opinion leader for the bulk of many decisions by mid and lower level employees, I am regularly visited by them for opinions, signatures or reviews. I don't mind this function, both for the fact that it keeps me in contact with the daily flow of events and thoughts as well as having people ask before they execute (and we then have to discuss how to solve bigger problems). However, the consequence of this is the ability to focus singlemindedly on a task is often nil.

But yesterday I did it to a large extent. I chose one area of my job and tried to work to get everything involving that area under control.

I made great progress - although I still have as much as a second days' worth of work to do. But oddly enough, I did not feel accomplished when I left for the evening.

Not accomplished? How can that be? You said that you made an effort to accomplish things around one task and you did.

True enough. But what I realized as I focused in this one area were the 10 other areas that were not getting focused on and things not getting accomplished while I worked in this one area. It was if one part of the garden were properly hoed and prepared while every other section was weedy and continuing to sprout even as I said "Job well done" and went back into the house.

I'm honestly not entirely sure what this shows, other than 1) the power of focus and 2) the reality a system which may very well be out of control. I suppose it also goes to show that doing too much with not enough will in the end create a system in which much time is spent careening from problem to problem instead of managing towards a fully functioning system.

But the other thing this experience indicates to me is that the concept of accomplishing something is in itself not necessarily indicative of a thing or a system (or even a life) that is truly healthy. Not merely accomplishment, but accomplishment in balance is the key. Accomplishing anything is not in and of itself indicative of a success; it is only when the whole is viewed that the success of the accomplishment can be measured.