Learn to procrastinate
Julian Talbot, FRMIA F.ISRM CISSP SRMCP
Enterprise Security and Geostrategic Risk Specialist | Co-Author of Security Risk Management Body of Knowledge (#SRMBOK)
Paul Graham may have one of the least visually interesting websites on the entire Interweb thingy. But he has one of the most interesting minds. His article on procrastination resonates. Procrastination is useful, and we should encourage it.
"Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well." - Paul Graham
Procrastination is natures way of telling you that the thing you are procrastinating on is something you shouldn't be doing. Most of the most productive people I know are procrastinators. They have incredible focus; for the things that fascinate them. Granted, we all have to do things we don't like (tax returns and corporate reports spring to mind) but my rule of thumb is:
"If I find myself avoiding any two items on my to-do list in any given week, it's time for change." - Julian Talbot
That doesn't mean I don't do the things that are important and urgent. We all have jobs that we don't like doing. But guess what; there is somebody out there who loves doing the bits of your job that you don't like. There are people who enjoy doing tax returns, cleaning, writing tenders, and even proofreading. Seriously. There are. But any of these make the soles of my feet itchy for a change.
I have, in fact, left a great many jobs for these sort of reasons. I have always been happier afterward, and always found jobs that were better. This trust in a hyperactive procrastination gland has found me many jobs that I would have done without being paid.
If you find yourself procrastinating on two tasks at work in any given week, make a change. If you can't change the job, change the job. Get out of the one you're in so that someone who will love it can have it.
Find a job that will inspire you every day. Or at least most days :-).
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Thanks for reading. I hope this detour from work today was worth it, whether to help you realize that you need a new job, or that you love the one you've got.
Cheers,
Julian, Chief Procrastinator, JulianTalbot.com
#JulianTalbot.com