365 Exciting Ways to Live : Excitement # 35: Shift Your Focus to Task from Activity

Shift Your Focus to Task from Activity

Never mistake activity for achievement.

– John Wooden

There is a difference between task and activity. Walking, jogging, reading, running etc. are examples of activities. Time is like a container and the content is the activity. For example, you fill up your time with running, writing, reading etc.

Effective people think not in terms of activities, but in terms of tasks. A task is a result you want to achieve by doing an activity. For example, jogging is an activity. But why do you jog? To reduce your weight? Then don’t say that you are jogging, but say that ‘in the next three months, I will reduce my weight by three kilo grams’.

By shifting your focus from activity to task or result, the activity will become more meaningful. Perhaps you will be able come out with alternatives. For example, if you want to reduce weight, instead of jogging, you can do yoga or use a treadmill etc.

From today, keep asking yourself the question: Why am I doing what I am doing and what is that I want to achieve by doing this? Is there an alternative?

Try this from today!
(From my book '365 Exciting Ways to Live')

N C Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
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