Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Small Tasks


A good day is a day of achievement and achievements normally come about one small action at a time. If your mind is inclined to be distracted by far horizons - you Big Thinker you - it must be restrained so its focus is on one of the small tasks at hand. 

Once that is done, move to another small task. 

The trick, of course, is to choose the small tasks which Vilfredo Pareto - he of the 80/20 Rule - would designate as among the vital few; i.e. the ones which will produce the greatest beneficial results. If you don't set such priorities, then your time may be squandered by the successful completion of work which produces relatively little progress or which merely restores the status-quo.

I suspect that few of us are natural practitioners of mindfulness. We are slaves to distraction. We resemble the man who jumped on a horse and rode off in all directions. Our inclinations tilt more toward activities than toward action.

Remember, small tasks today.

And more of the same tomorrow.

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