This must be different for different people, and at different times of one's life, but I find that the less drama I have to deal with, the more productive I am.
I use the word "drama" as a placeholder for many things, but basically it's referring to something that stirs the pot to no apparent other benefit.
When the seas are calm, I find that my mind is relaxed enough to fire off quick decisions, write with more confidence, and see creative solutions through a lens that renders them more sharply than when the perfect storm is brewing.
Maybe energy is just sucked from a situation when the black hole of drama is present. I don't know.
All I know is that there has been fairly little drama in my life for the past month, yet it's been one of the most productive I've ever experienced.
Posts
4 comments:
Hmm, if it's too calm my mind starts to wonder and before I know it I'm on anthropologie.com ;-) Sometimes I work best under pressure, but it's not always the case, I need a happy medium, but that almost never happens.
Ha! Anthropologie's website is an excellent time-waster.
My downfall are the ClickZ or MarketingProfs websites - before I know it, I'm sucked into a webcast that I'm convinced will help me solve a work problem, only to end up further behind!
The happy medium of which you speak is the ultimate goal... just busy enough so that time passes quickly, but not so maniacal that you feel like a hamster on a wheel.
what a good feeling that must be? lol. I mean it sincerely. No sarcasm.
I guess it depends on the drama. If it's about other people, it's easier to let go. If it's about oneself, it's more difficult.
For instance, if the drama is insecurity about your work performance, it's definitely negative. You second guess yourself and everything becomes more difficult.
More often I'm driven by my own anxiety. Like Fish, if I don't have a deadline, it's tough to get motivated. So the driving force becomes my worry that things are going to go haywire. It works, except it's tough to enjoy the ride.
thought provoking topic!
The need for a hard-stop deadline was one of the reasons why I started my career in publishing. Back then, I had no concept that deadlines come with every profession - the results of a newspaper or magazine deadline were just more readily apparent to a 20-year-old!
Drama is definitely easier to doff when it belongs to someone else, Kitty. New-job anxiety can rear its ugly head at any point, and although for me it's been at a minimum so far... but of course, the day after I wrote that post, things took a turn for the dramatic!
It will all work out, I am sure, but it will take some finesse.
Post a Comment