I was doing a presentation recently and an artist asked me how to work from home and be productive. Her challenge was being constantly distracted by all of the other ‘stuff’ that needs taking care of. I saw she was focusing on one thing or the other, but never allowing herself to have total presence with everything all at once. This small distinction is crucial. We are taught to focus. But focus is like a laser beam – it excludes everything except the one thing you are focused on. I operate from a space of total presence. Total presence is awareness of everything at all times, with a willingness to give attention to priorities and to work with the priorities as they shift and change. Without having a point of view about what I ‘should’ be doing!
Using total presence is what allows me to be both creative and productive simultaneously.
So, how do you do this? Firstly, it is something you BE, rather than something you DO. It is a willingness to always be aware of everything that is going on – whether it is good, bad or ugly! Anything you exclude gives you a lack of awareness which stops you from being able to prioritize effectively. When you include everything in your awareness, there will be some elements which intuitively ‘pop out’ at you. These are usually the activities or people which require priority. Prioritizing based on your intuition rather than your logic is a learned skill. You have to be willing to trust you!! When you prioritize in this way, you create an ease and a flow which mostly minimizes challenges and allows for speed! It means you call people when it feels like the time to call them. It means you may work on 3 – 5 projects in quite a short space of time, moving each of them forward as far as you can then moving onto the next. It means you don’t spend time procrastinating!! This is a different way of working to what is traditionally recognized as ‘the way’ to be productive. It is not logical or linear and there is not a ‘to-do’ list in sight! I have been working like this for many years now and it just gets easier and easier!! So, to go back to our artist: If she continues to hold awareness of her painting whilst she is doing her domestic duties, she will be able to slip right back into the painting when done. Really, it can be that simple! Are you willing to experiment? What if you could be continually creative and productive? How much could that change your business? This is one of the tools we share at Creativity Lab… supercharging your ideas is so doable when you know how!
