The Art of Dawdling

"Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder." Mason Cooley
 

So, I have all this interesting stuff happening.  “Fodder for future blogs” I called it.  And, it’s SLOOOOWLY dragging on.  And what, I’m surprised?  Well yes….and no.   OK, actually no.  But I am surprised and irritated about it.  Irritated because after all these years as an XOD the last thing I should be is surprised.  Because the axiom that I embraced (and maybe co-created) is this:  “Nothing ever gets accomplished on time and on budget”.  Never!

The only projects that get done on time are those that have extraordinary amounts of flex (spelled M-O-N-E-Y) built in.  The only ones that get done on budget involve either those companies that are out of business just after (or just before) the project is completed or it’s a budget funded by taxpayers.

So I’m dawdling.

daw·dle (dôd l)
v. daw·dled, daw·dling, daw·dles
v.intr.

1. To take more time than necessary: dawdled through breakfast.

2. To move aimlessly or lackadaisically: dawdling on the way to work

I’m just killing time trying to come up with something that appears worthwhile while I wait on the real material.  Let’s call it Productive Dawdling.

Then it occurred to me.  Productive Dawdling is a powerful tool.  You see, we all run into situations in corporate life where you sometimes need to wait out the crap. (Important safety tip, this does not apply to self-employment/small business ownership).   Crap can be defined as anything from impending change in management to some AHDD manager who can’t stay on task for more than 5 minutes (aka, chasing shiny objects).  See Dancin' with Joe

Sometimes you just need to work on things that serve a purpose but don’t get in way of work that’s going to be squashed by some corporate initiative/mandate/bozo.

Productive Dawdling.

Be careful though, don’t make it a career.  It’s an easy trap to fall into since in larger organizations you can successfully hide for years under this cloak.  But it can become a trap.

Use it for good, not evil.

There.  See?  If you distract them with Productive Dawdling they forget that you actually ended up not doing anything. 

Wait.  Damn!!  Did I say tha out loud????