Measuring Good
Posted by Jered | Filed under Choice
Regardless of your productivity system, be it Getting Things Done, the 4 Hour Work Week, or something else, part of the struggle is defining accomplishment. At the end of the day, when reviewing the completed tasks, how do you measure success when your to-do list continues to grow every day?
In determining value in my day I have used two criteria, based on Buddhist philosophies: Have I decreased my suffering? Have I decreased the suffering of others?
Donald at Life Optimizer has written a great post about how he maintains balance, which I also interpret as a way to measure success. Using the four facets of prosperity, borrowed from C. Peter Wagner in his book The Church in the Workplace:
- Material prosperity
- Spiritual prosperity
- Physical prosperity
- Social prosperity
These things are over arching, not necessarily relating to a task list, but these things, I think, are very important to a work/life balance. Completing work- or home-related tasks would most often fall into the Material category.
Finding or practicing some form of religion, I have found, has been very balancing. While I am not the best practitioner, aiming to do something related to my religion allows me time to focus on myself, outside of work, a task that should be done daily.
Physical prosperity means doing something physical, everyday. As a recent New York Times article (unfortunately, registration required) highlighted, your health cannot be under estimated, especially if you are knowledge worker. I think knowledge workers have a tendency to undervalue their health for more time in front of the monitor.
Keeping up with the relationships in one’s life is important, human beings are social creatures. Donald says he tries to contact one of his contacts every day, which I think is admirable. In the age of Facebook pokes, instant and text messaging, it should be easy to check in on a friend every day (Not the same friend, a different one).
So the next time someone asks you what you “did” today, or “how you measure success”, think about these four gems acting as a guide post. It may lead to a balance and productive life.
Tags: accomplishment, balance, finishing, prosperity, spiritual
