Work smarter

I’m finding it very difficult to want to work. There are times when I’m completing a task and feeling very good about it all because – well – it feels good to be productive.

Other times, I just want to have it all rot away so that I don’t have to do or think or plan. I’m not going to say I worry, but it really doesn’t feel all that great when you need to work this much and the free time is like a guilt trip.

You should be working, Muriel. Why are you sitting there, watching re-runs of Wings?

P works much harder than I do – and he would do it without a single break if I wasn’t around. I don’t know how he does it really; I think he can see our future better than I. He knows he’s working so hard for what we want in our life, and I feel like I’m working (or procrastinating) so hard for nothing.

As if I’m wasting my life away.

An industrial robot reproduces all 66 books of the bible in calligraphic script. The process takes seven months, non-stop.

Even if it’s a machine, the idea of smelling that ink and seeing the typography makes me all dreamy.

I am now reaching my quota at work. I think I’m becoming really productive. I’ve learned what I’ve been doing wrong in the past. Now I’m working smarter. I’m satisfied with what I’m accomplishing at work.

I always feel better about myself when I am being super productive at work. And I need to stop checking my work email obsessively. It’s driving me batty.

Want to make this month your most creative? Our resident creative expert offers up a different exercise to complete each week. At the end of the month, see how differently you’re seeing the world around you and your work.

Week One: Approach one project in a different way every day.
Each day since the 1960s, the Japanese-born artist On Kawara has made thousands of “Today” paintings, hand-drawing the month, date and year on canvas after canvas after canvas.

Try a variation of Kawara’s routine. Pick a creative project you’re working on—or one you want to start—and spend an hour each day this week approaching the project in a different way. If it’s a visual piece, look at totally different styles, colors and sizes each day. If it’s writing, try different words, rhythms and points of views. If it’s a recipe, substitute different spices, cooking methods or plating options. If it’s a piece of music, play around with different melodies, lyrics or instruments.

Do the same project a different way every day. See what turns up.

This one is an unattainable goal really, I make improvements but things can always get better.

Keeping track of lists, calendars and notes with Backpack has really helped me.

Forcing myself to write things down and recognise when I’m being self destructive seems to be the key.

I have arranged for an assistant – a lovely young girl who is studying part-time – to assist me with the routine administrative work, so necessary, so tedious to do yet so time-wasting if not done properly.

Yay!

I can do the income -generating stuff instead.

Am setting realistic goals – it’s very disheartening to set HHHHUUUUGGGEEEE goals that you can’t reach in a day. I have 4 things left from today’s list, of which I should be able to complete 2 more. 2 left over,although I did make some progress on these.

It sounds boring, but in fact, building lots and lots of prototypes is fascinating. I always think failure is more important than success because you learn something from failure. The process of gathering yourself together and overcoming the disappointment and of trying another idea is — it’s a sort of drug, actually, for me. ...And I wish children were marked at school by the number of failures they made. I think they should be given extra marks for having failed and learned how to solve a problem.

starting wiht a list, prioritising the list, setting (realistic) goals for tasks.