Following the thoughts of my last blogpost I try to explore efficiency a bit more. As mentioned, I am very busy lately and there is not much time for just doing nothing. But last Saturday I had nothing to do that really had to be done. And although I knew there was plenty of things that will have to be done soon, I enjoyed doing nothing.
At some point I caught myself wandering around my apartment thinking that I should fold my socks. I don’t like doing that, folding socks. Somehow they never come out of the machine in pairs. The single socks never ever pair up again. To fold them efficiently you should just put two similar socks together. But to do it effectively you not only should look for a perfect match but also you should check them for holes and stuff.
As I watched myself walking round the drying rack and slowing down whenever it came in sight just to pass by anyway I tried to tell my self: You have a whole day of sweet nothingness before you, why are you procrastinating when you could make the day very enjoyable so soon. But after a while I fell in some kind of meditation, wandering around and let my thoughts just wander, too. I like that. And because I cannot measure its business value it usually gets skipped in stressful times. But it really feels good. And probably much creativity can come out of such moments, although you cannot measure that directly.
It’s about more then the sum of its parts
I read about a trick that claims to make networking easier: You shouldn’t focus on what you need right away from those people you talk to at the time. Instead you should enjoy the socializing, become friends, offer help whenever you feel you have to offer them something. Because there is a social rule of reciprocity people you help now will help you in the future. Of course you cannot predict when and how they will help you. But still, the theory goes, there is some equilibrium in the universe.
I like that and I think, so far, it worked out for me. Additionally, I think there also is some kind of equilibrium of creativity. You can not make yourself or someone else creative at command. But sometimes procrastinating over socks helps. Or having some fun while solving a problem. I had a meeting last week that started out with a lot of laughing. And the laughing continued and in the end we had some respectful results. Furthermore I have some motivation and energy to continue the project although it doesn’t always go so smooth.
Sometimes efficiency is not the most effective thing you can do. Procrastinating over folding socks, or anything for that matter, can help sometimes to find out what is. Hopefully your gut feeling will come before it is too late.