How are you spending your workday? Are you drowning in Zoom meetings? How many times do you check email and voicemail messages or pick up your smartphone?

Stephen Covey calls it the “whirlwind.” You are incredibly “busy” but what have you accomplished? Tim Ferris touts an ability to complete our work in four hours per week, and I regularly remind people that 20 percent of their work efforts are likely contributing to 80 percent of their results.

Did you know that concert musicians often work in 90-minute spurts? They practice for 90 minutes and then take a 90-minute break. And runners training for marathons have improved performance through alternating ten minutes of running followed by five minutes of walking. When we hiked Machu Picchu, those of us who followed our guide’s direction on summit day, to walk for five minutes and rest for two, reached camp with fewer altitude symptoms.

Could it be that both our minds and bodies respond best to repeated cycles of output followed by rest? Based on the research – I think so. And during the pandemic, the need for this cycle is even more necessary.

You may be familiar with Stephen Covey’s four quadrants: Urgent, Not Urgent, Important and Not Important. Did you know he renamed one of his four quadrants? What was Important and Urgent has been renamed Extraordinary Results. Activities in this category include proactive work, high-impact goals, creative thinking, planning, prevention, relationship building, and learning and renewal. Examples include – exercise breaks, networking, reading a journal article in advance of an important meeting, time with family and friends, stopping for nourishing food.

Einstein published three scientific papers and transformed our understanding of the universe during a year in which he spent most time navel-gazing. How much time do you spend over the course of a day, week or month cultivating extraordinary results? Daydreaming? Planning? Relationship building?

Busy is the enemy of creativity. To be most productive, we must cycle through productivity and periods of focus, followed by periods of rest, networking, preparation and socialization (virtual or physically distanced).

How do you step away from the whirlwind and keep yourself from being sucked into the Zoom meeting vortex? Are you a natural daydreamer, or do you have to schedule time for musing and creative thinking? How will you establish a cycle that accelerates your success and ensures you achieve results during the pandemic?

© 2021 Lorraine A. Moore. All rights reserved. Permission granted to excerpt or reprint with attribution.

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