10 steps to more purposeful time

It was 2017. A cold February damp Thursday at 6pm when this happened...

“Show me a busy fool my friend, and I will show you just a fool”

His words hit home.

Wisdom sometimes comes from the strangest of places don’t you find?

This gem arrived via a Manchester taxi driver as we sat together in rush hour traffic on the way back home from another mid week business trip…and he made me think, about how foolishly busy I had become.

“Show me a busy fool and I will show you just a fool”

He made me think, I really do like it when that happens, don’t you?

He seemed calm, as I checked my watch, for the third time, and then went back to wishing the wall of cars in front would part… it had been 4 days since I had left my family on my most recent business trip, not a long time granted, but after four years of regular travel, these days increasingly felt very long. I frowned and focused on the cars, nothing moved.

I asked my driver if he minded this constant heavy traffic on the motorway in which he must perpetually sit, just as we did then, how did it not frustrate him?

“Not at all, there’s only so many hours in the day, I never worry about what I can’t fit in, the world seems to spin fine without me”

Wow, 2 gems in 2 minutes.

I sat back and smiled.

My new teacher had jolted me back to a pleasant memory, resurfaced in the moment, an important tale I once heard, but had somehow allowed myself to forget.

Sat still in the car, waiting, the story unfolded itself… and demanded my attention…

…a tale of an old man, on a beautifully warm day , sat fishing on a box on a jetty over a sapphire sea, a simple cardboard sign on the side of his box advertising for sale the $1 fish he caught.

A brash holidaying businessman walked up, stood over him, blocking his sun.

The holidaymaker introduces himself a little brusquely and then asks why the fisherman didn’t price his catch higher, surely $1 dollar a fish was far too low...he should raise his prices, so that he might one day afford a boat… catch more fish to sell for higher prices….and from the profits, employ people to catch more fish for him… to sell, for even higher prices..so one day he could afford his own fleet and catch many tons of fish, corner the marketplace…and then, and then …one day, he would have enough money, to do precisely whatever he wanted to do with his life in this world.

The holiday maker smiled smugly, pleased with this golden insight shared.

The fisherman slowly looked up, under the brim of an old, weathered cotton hat, smiled and quietly said:

“Hmmm, interesting - so one day I could do what ever I want to do in the world, you say?... like sit on a box in the sun, by a beautiful sea and sell fish to strangers for a dollar?“

Love that story.

This story has poignancy for me – for many reasons, not least as the Guy who once busily lived a life, regularly between two countries with his family in one. Learning that no matter how interesting your career might be, or how amazing the people you share your working life with is, ultimately sharing the balance of your time with the people who inspire you to work, is about finding my own box on the jetty.

For me the fisherman’s tale is not about industry or effort, it actually tells us nothing of the wealth or productivity of either man, rather I think this is about beauty, beauty in the clarity of purpose and also the strength to focus and make this happen.

Of course we should never mistake busyness or pace for productivity. We all know lots of people who talk fast, act fast and then never actually move themselves or their organisation forward. Purposeful pace is not about speed, its about being clear on your goal.

If we doubt this I am sure we can still find that Tortoise to talk to, you know the one, the one from our childhood, the one with the smile and the race medal.

But wait…if this is more about clarity of purpose and timely action than productivity Carl, why am I now wasting my important time here reading an apocryphal tale? How do we find our Purposeful pace when life is just so busy around us?

Great questions.

Let me share some of my distilled learning from some of my teachers on mindfulness and effectiveness.

Here’s a super simple 10 step plan to help you find your own box on the jetty.

Grab a pen and paper (relax, no-one is watching you, pen grabbing rarely draws attention)

10 steps to Purposeful time :

1. Breathing slowly, in 5 minutes write down a list of your “Big 7” – THE most important things in your life (whatever this means to you- it might be family, friends, career, health, sport/ arts, learning or something else). You will likely write more than 7 initially, that’s ok, but be ruthlessly honest, cut the list to no more than 7…. and No, you don’t need more time, the important things float to the surface, just breathe and wait.

2. Now, against each of these 7 items note the % of your waking time you currently focus on them. Reflect on this last week, how much time did you devote to your Big 7?

3. Write a second list of your Enablers and Distractors - those important and not so important activities that actually have filled your waking hours, this past week, those things that take up your current reality.

4. Reflect on this second list …to what extent do these items support your Big 7?

5. Ok … next Choose 3 Enablers from this list to add to your Big7. You know have your final Purposeful Big10.

6. Now make some time trade-offs… split your 100% time for your next week across your Big10 items. What should this split look like, when, you are at your very best and most resourceful. What does great balance look like for you?

7. Now act. Start small… but start immediately. Within the next two hours spend just 10 minutes on the one item in your Big10 that needs most immediate attention. We both know, you know what this is. So make the call (possibly literally) but don’t delay, do.

8. Record what you did and smile. Well done, You just spent some really purposeful time here.

9. Next, Plan your next 5 days. Where will you focus to rebalance to purposeful time? Remember start small, and incrementally build.

10. Review your plan every 7-10 days. (I find Sunday afternoons work well for me), reflect on how easy it is to make small changes, for bigger results. Reflect on the impact this has had. What did you notice? what did you learn?

That’s it.

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Thanks for your minutes here. I hope they prove purposeful.

For more 4BOX thinking: click here : 4BOX

?Carl Fitzsimons is the Founder of 4Box Consulting, a human investment practice bringing better ways of working and unique thinking to European Leaders and their teams in their 4 areas of greatest challenge: ? Strategy ? ?Talent ?? Performance & Coaching.