In the age of social media, it becomes easier every day to find ways to procrastinate. In an effort to somehow justify perusing the variety of forwarded emails, articles, YouTube clips, questionnaires, surveys, games, links, invitations…..I contemplate what message, learning or opportunity could be buried in the content, and how I might apply it to my business. Often, I come up short, scolding myself for deviating from the “block schedule”, a fail safe tool which is supposed to insure an efficient and productive blend of marketing, sales, meetings, administration, planning, preparing, delivering and following up. Oh, and a personal life.
Having been recently reacqainted with my high school french tutor, procrastination resources were enhanced yet
again. In one such case, what appeared to be cause for scolding, turned out to be a terrific reminder that a “time-out” is not always a punishment. Pause for reflection, a quick chuckle, change of scenery, is often inspiring, invogorating and just plain fun. Funny how teachers know these things. Maybe recess had a purpose!!
The culpret of the assumed procrastination was a YouTube clip from a skit Jerry Seinfeld performed on Saturday Night Live back in the 90′s. In it, he played a history teacher in front of a high school class. I confess, I watched it more than once because it was hysterical. As usual, I struggled to determine the hidden message, which if conveyed to a business owner, could potentially provide insight that might catapult him or her to success never imagined. Nothing. I rattled off a quick note to my tutor, thanked her for the diversion and mentioned I would eventually figure out what to do with it.
A day or so later, her response read “You don’t need to do anything with it. Just enjoy it and remember you were once a student!” Wow, what a concept.
We struggle daily-attempting to maximize our productivity, do more with less, master a variety of roles, meet deadlines, obtain goals….meet everyone’s expectations. Sometimes a good old “time-out” works wonders. In their book, “The Power of Full Engagement”, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz address the concept of “sprint and recover”, emphasizing that to fully engage, we must allow ourselves frequent, intermittant recovery time to recover from the “sprint” we engage in daily. A few minutes to break the cycle, chuckle at a ridiculously funny re-enactment of high school history and not do anything with it, is OK. In fact, here it is.
ENJOY a “time-out” to recover so you can fully engage in whatever it is your schedule is telling you to focus on
next.
click here for the Jerry Seinfeld SNL clip:
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