Work Doesn’t Have to be Complicated
Let’s Keep it Simple When it Comes to Getting Things Done
My 21 year old is teaching himself to play guitar. He showed me last night just how simple the process is. Put your fingers here. Strum this way. Replace your fingers there. Strum that way.
On one hand, playing the guitar is complex- two hands doing different things at the same time.
On the other hand, it’s really just putting your fingers in a particular place and strumming strings in a particular way. Simple.
Work, as much as we want to see it as complicated, is actually similar to learning the guitar. It’s simple if you can just break it down into ordinary steps. Things that ‘work’ 50 years ago may still be applicable today.
I think that’s why so much of my writing over the years has been repetitive. As with parenting, things we repeat often reveal timeless truths. So with work and productivity.
Oddly enough, the most basic things about work never get old. I enjoy today, as much as a decade ago, helping people get through their day and achieve a better place of productivity. People are overwhelmed today with what’s on their plate just as they were in decades past. Sure, the inputs are different (email, social media, AI), but our ability to respond to these inputs is timeless.
And, as with playing the guitar, the skills hold true as they always have:
Start with a simple plan
Clear your head when you can
Pay attention to what has your attention
Use a system to track your commitments
Visit your lists regularly
Keep a tidy workspace
Run meetings effectively
Pay attention to people
Don’t obsess over your tools
I could keep going but you get the picture. Keep it simple, be purposeful about your work and take pride in the process. If we really believe that work can be holy, we’ll put more ‘heart’ into what we do.
As Pope Saint John Paul II said in 1981, “Work is a good thing for man—a good thing for his humanity—because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes ‘more a human being.’”
Let’s keep things simple when it comes to our work.