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October 20, 2006
When is fast too fast?
I was doing some volunteer work today. They had asked me to come in to help them with a specific project of installing some software. Simple enough. As soon as I got there, one person announced to me that it was "one of those days." It was clear to me that the energy in the office was frenetic. At that point, I was fairly relaxed and was clear about what I was there to do.
2 hours later I somehow became involved in 3 concurrent projects/problems, none of which was making much progress. I had also become frenetic and stressed like the rest of the office. I was trying to do everything too quickly and all at once. I felt like my whole internal engine had starting revving at a higher speed, but not in a good, creative way. Instead of giving my attention and creative focus to one thing, I tried multi-tasking and being a latest and loudest problem-solver. Problem is, I didn't do any of it very well. If I had stuck to my original project and purpose for being there I think I would have seen better results and completion. Instead I took on 3 projects and did a mediocre job with all of them.
When does fast become too fast?
Posted by Kelly at October 20, 2006 06:26 PM
Comments
Ah yes. I've deceived myself so many times telling myself that my mind can solve two (or 3 or 8) problems at once. Only when I stop to make a mini-list of the urgent issues screaming at me and choose one and only one do I ever feel ok at the end of "one of those days". Most times I try to remember to just "say yes by saying no". That is, I give a resounding yes to solving a crisis by saying no to all the others (at least temporarily). I find that in the end, I've often solved them all anyway -- one at a time. Going slow is often the best way to go fast. That said, I'll try and multi-task again on Monday and make the same mistake...frail human that I am. Constant external and self-coaching is my only hope to remembering that the mind is really only geared to think about one problem at a time. Period.
Posted by: Randy at October 21, 2006 06:00 AM
