The value of play

At the beginning of the week, I made the fatal mistake of being too organised, yes, there is such a thing. Despite my religious belief that a good list can conquer the world, when you’re faced with a week of ‘urgent jobs’ and ‘must-do tasks’ you tend to lose your motivation, and other more appealing jobs on that list become a priority. Like lunch, for example.

So how can we stay on track and tame the ever growing list of chores? Do we actually need to? As I find myself face to face with another row of boxes that need ticking, I’ve decided we all need to rethink the way we use the word ‘Procrastination’ – it’s really rather a good thing.

The problem (I see it now) with my list is that the structure was all off. Quite naturally, I wrote my to-dos in order of priority desperately hoping that this would inspire me to work through those first. You don’t have to be a genius to know that wouldn’t work. So my first step was to build a little bit of play into my diary. For example:

• Check out Twitter, what’s trending, what’s news. What’s Justin Beiber instagrammed today? (his face, always his face)
• Play
• Tackle the Inbox – not until 9:30am. A new rule I’m experimenting with, so far so good.
• Job #1
• Play
• Important task #2
• Five minute game of table tennis after lunch
• Job #3
• Job #4
• Coffee & chatter

Seems simple, but there is an art to it. Sometimes, literally. This post-it wall has become my daily source of inspiration.

Some post-it notes are more useful than others, some are just there because I had an urge to colour something in. Either way, they have all led to something – an idea, a new perspective (even just a reminder to buy more post-it notes) no time or idea is wasted and isn’t that they key to self-motivation anyway?

Find a space on your wall, a corner, a page in your note pad to ‘procrastinate’ – you’ll be all the better for it.

Then again, the only reason I am writing this blog post is because I need to finish 5 other presentations, update a spreadsheet and put a load of washing on. I’m happy to admit it, I’m a procrastinator and on behalf of all of us, here’s to tomorrow!