Moving People to Action

Challenging and Supporting People to do the Most Important Work of their Lives

September 20, 2015

Career Management, Deliberate Practice, Self-Discipline, Success

“Always Busy” is a Decision

You don’t find time, you make time.

“Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time.” Debbie Millman*

Anything worthwhile should take a long time. The myth of overnight success is just that… a myth. Acorns take time to become great oaks. Nothing that comes easily will feel worthwhile, but I chase the quick fixes and the rapid results. There is no other path than committing to the hard labour of the path. A mountain climber uses his own strength to reach the summit, he knows that a helicopter and a parachute does not count.

I find myself so often searching for a few more facebook likes, rather than writing and rewriting chapters that put my ideas into an improved form. I need to remind myself that hard work on what matters is both rewarding in and of itself, and the only real path to somewhere worthwhile.

*I found this quote over at Maria Popova’s brainpicking blog.

2 responses to ““Always Busy” is a Decision”

Marta Dominguez

September 29, 2015 at 11:33 am

Hi Connor, lately I´m using a substitute. It´s about using a specific time to have a task done. If time exhausts (which happens so often) sometimes you´d need to leave the task not done till the swear. If your are a perfectionist don´t expect a satisfaction feeling arising on first times. It gets better though when you think that done is better than perfect. I read somewhere this is called the Parkinson Law. Any experiences of yourself on this?

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1. Conor Neill
  
  September 30, 2015 at 3:43 pm
  
  Pomodoro technique is very much an applied version of this. Set timer and work until done.
  
  When I write, I separate writing and editing. Writing is getting any words onto the paper. Editing is making the words better. I write without stopping and when I have a full draft of the article, I go back and rewrite.
  
  A 99% complete draft is not complete. A bad 100% draft can be improved bit by bit.
  
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