The kernels, not the husk
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“Those who work much do not work hard.”
—Henry David Thoreau
It’s a mistake to think that good work is the direct result of looking busy, or that productivity is in direct proportion to the number of tasks you add to your work calendar, |NAME|.
That’s a 19th century way of looking at things.
It’s built on two false assumptions: that the value of your output is measured by the quantity you produce, and that the value of your time is measured by how closely you stick to someone else’s definition of a ritualized work schedule.
That way of thinking may have seemed practical when a job entailed making the same product repeatedly on an assembly line (e.g., start work at 9, finish at 5, meet your daily quota of widgets).
Today, it makes no sense when you’re in a creative enterprise.
I’m not saying you don’t need to put in the hours to do great work—you do.
But the activities that constitute “putting in the hours” aren’t what most think they are.
Creativity comes from habit, not ritual.
I like what Aristotle says about this: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.”
Repetition can be thought of in two distinct ways.
The first is ritual. It involves a sequence of acts. Anybody can engage in it with practically no thought given to why they’re doing it. It leads to what Peter Bevelin in Seeking Wisdom cautions as the “do-something syndrome.”
The second is habit. Here, it involves the practice of an idea or method. It serves a deeper purpose than of just showing up, doing what you’re told and seeming busy.
What kind of habits am I talking about? Here’s what’s worked for me:
I read more than I write.
I spend more time standing than sitting.
I ask more questions rather than jumping to providing answers when diagnosing business problems.
I question the assumptions that influence my thinking rather than doubting myself.
I spend more time choosing good clients to work with than on just landing new business for the sake of “busy-ness.”
I make helping others the way I help myself.
I hold myself to account to a standard of work that is independent of what others think.
Why this matters.
Each of these represents an opposite of what I used to do.
And each one of these has contributed to me doing better work. It meant letting go of short-term and mostly hollow measures of what constitutes being busy today, and replacing it with what makes for lasting, meaningful work in the longer term.
So understand the importance of knowing the difference between ritual and habit, between looking busy and working with purpose.
On that note, I’ll close with one of the most eloquent passages I’ve ever read on the subject purposeful work, which comes from Henry David Thoreau:
“The really efficient labourer will be found not to crowd his [or her] day with work, but will saunter to his [or her] task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure. There will be a wide margin for relaxation… [S]he is only earnest to secure the kernels of time, and does not exaggerate the value of the husk.”
Very best, Patrick
P.S. CreativeBoost is on hiatus throughout August. Enjoy your summer and I’ll see you in September.
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