You may remember back at the end of 2006 when I wrote about some of my goals for 2007. In 2007: Reduce, Focus, and Filtering My Inputs, I said:
My goal is to spend more time on quality stuff: getting deeper into stuff that I already do and want to do more of, building more stuff (more on that later), and spending less time on trivia, and generally trying to have a clearer head and less of a sense of urgency.
So far I've managed to do a decent job. I'm spending less time on trivia and more on stuff that matters. But I can do more. It's not just a matter of reducing inputs. As Anne Zelenka wrote in Ten Things I Hate About You, Web 2.0:
The productivity virus so many of us have been infected with in 2006 and 2007. Let’s move on. Getting lots of stuff done is not the way to achieve something important. You could be so busy planning next actions that you miss out on what your real contribution should be.
Well said!
I've been trying to let more stuff fall off my TODO list and onto the floor where it can be swept away by the passage of time. It's a little surprising how many things come up and seem important but are easily forgotten a few weeks later, done or undone.
The irony here is that I spent several hours sorting paperwork and paying bills. I try to do that once a month if possible. I guess that makes up for all the flying I did yesterday.
Posted by jzawodn at March 11, 2007 06:20 PM
Jeremy, I like the bug that comes up in your blog every-once-in-a-while. Where the next article link points to the first article. It's really a reminder of how far you've gone with it, and how much you have entertained and informed me personally throughout the years. "What's new in MySQL 4.0" indeed.
I wonder how obvious the "right priorities" are to us. In the swirl of the online hurricane it's very hard to know if what you do today will have much if any meaning in a few years.
I try to limit my exposure to the on-line hurricane--or at least the Bay Area Echo Chamber. I tired of that sometime last year, and I've gotta say... it's nice having that time back. :-)
For me this quote tends to give me an almost instant level of perspective.
"Things that matter the most should never be at the mercy of things that matter the least." - Goethe
