Tuesday, June 8
Multi-Tasking and Management
...don't mix. See my consultant colleague Bret Rigby's introduction to this notion here:
Culture Comments: "Multi-Tasking and Management"
My take on it is a little contrarian. No surprise for a guy who coined the term UNCONSULTING.
Less is truly more. Here's Picasso's take on it:
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You must always work not just within, but below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle only five. In that way, the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength in reserve.
-- Pablo Picasso
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If any one thing characterizes the time in which we live, it is the tendency to strive and to overreach and to want more, more, more, now, now, now.
The problem with this pattern of life and work is that there is no room for mastery, for ease, for “strength in reserve.”
* If you want to get more done, work more slowly.
* If you want it faster, develop a singular focus.
* If you want to get better, do less.
The age of better-faster-cheaper is over. And you know what? Even if you want better-faster-cheaper, the internet has already raised the bar on you because it has brought with it the expectation of perfect-now-free. You can’t win that game.
Success, according to Picasso’s definition of “mastery, ease, and reserve” is much like the great pot roast recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation in three simple words:
Low and slow.
You can’t make a good pot roast quickly.
In a hurry? Fine.
Start cooking it sooner.
Buy good meat.
Make your own stock. Don’t open a can.
Use fresh vegetables cut to the right size.
Add only the things you like and what you know tastes good. (Hate potatoes? Don’t add them – it’s YOUR pot roast!) Take care blending the ingredients.
Cook it low and slow. (This seems a good recipe for living, too.)
The above is an excerpt from my book, Relish! The Highly Authorized Guide to Life. Check it out here.
Culture Comments: "Multi-Tasking and Management"
My take on it is a little contrarian. No surprise for a guy who coined the term UNCONSULTING.
Less is truly more. Here's Picasso's take on it:
===
You must always work not just within, but below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle only five. In that way, the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength in reserve.
-- Pablo Picasso
===
If any one thing characterizes the time in which we live, it is the tendency to strive and to overreach and to want more, more, more, now, now, now.
The problem with this pattern of life and work is that there is no room for mastery, for ease, for “strength in reserve.”
* If you want to get more done, work more slowly.
* If you want it faster, develop a singular focus.
* If you want to get better, do less.
The age of better-faster-cheaper is over. And you know what? Even if you want better-faster-cheaper, the internet has already raised the bar on you because it has brought with it the expectation of perfect-now-free. You can’t win that game.
Success, according to Picasso’s definition of “mastery, ease, and reserve” is much like the great pot roast recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation in three simple words:
Low and slow.
You can’t make a good pot roast quickly.
In a hurry? Fine.
Start cooking it sooner.
Buy good meat.
Make your own stock. Don’t open a can.
Use fresh vegetables cut to the right size.
Add only the things you like and what you know tastes good. (Hate potatoes? Don’t add them – it’s YOUR pot roast!) Take care blending the ingredients.
Cook it low and slow. (This seems a good recipe for living, too.)
The above is an excerpt from my book, Relish! The Highly Authorized Guide to Life. Check it out here.
