So having acknowledged my chosen ‘nature’ and realising the ability to grind; showing up and sitting down to work to enable inspiration to find me at the most opportune moment; should have solved all productivity problems. It hasn’t. Even with the new found sense of dedication there’s a lot of time slipping away where nothing much is accomplished except in wishing that much more could be done.

It’s because I’m busy … things are being done but nothing worthwhile is. This term busy I realise isn’t synonyms with productivity. Thomas Edison said it best I think ” Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, honest purpose as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”

And this brought me to my third requirement for self-discipline to work, another piece to the raising of the bar where the dip is concerned. Planning. The act of defining tasks specific to attaining our goal then actively focusing on accomplishing each. There’s little room for fiddling and wondering (where time quickly and quietly sneaks away). Having everything at the ready and a rough idea as to what you need to do isn’t actually being prepared if you’re still indecisive as to what you should be doing first, second and third. This invites massive amounts of distraction into other areas that feel productive but aren’t really accomplishing anything. It really doesn’t matter if your grind is strong and your conviction is on point, if there’s no habit of a structured approach. A plan. It’s a hard climb. And honestly its a hard enough climb as it is. There’s also something to be said for writing things down, seeing it before you. Makes it more real. Makes it harder to ignore and holds you somewhat accountable. So I’ll try making a planner my new best friend. 

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