It’s amazing what goodies lurk in my article and report collection.
Just when I was feeling overwhelmed and not coming up with a topic to write about this week, I found a gem in my file drawer.
That’s where I keep a file folder labeled Article Ideas, especially for a day like today, when no handy idea pops into my brain to share with you.
What I found is a column that I hadn’t looked at in years; and by happy coincidence, it deals with the topic of overwhelm.
Written by former Detroit area broadcast journalist Mort Crim, it is entitled: Practice the 3 Ds: Do, delegate, ditch.
To quote Mort directly: When you think about it, every task can be dealt with in one of those three ways.
Either do it, give it to someone else to do, or forget it. No Mr. In-Between.
The only other alternative is to vacillate, allowing the stack of worrisome incompletes in our lives to grow out of control.
Mort concludes by saying, Which ever you choose, just don’t delay it. That ‘D’ is deadly.
Mort’s article brings to mind a brilliant observation by Melissa Klein (scribbled by me at the bottom of Mort’s article):
Each paper is a decision unmade. OUCH! That one sure can hit home!
Since I am an inveterate downloader and copier of great reports that people generously share on the Internet, I have finally come up with a system to handle my addiction to learning as much as I can, whenever I can (also know less admiringly as S.O.S./Shiny Object Syndrome).
That answer is the file drawer to which I referred earlier. I now have folders labeled for all the various topics that relate to my area of expertise and that interest me.
I then make it a practice to spend at least one day a week filing everything that I have collected during the previous week.
This allows me the periodic luxury of wallowing in an ocean of useful information,which is particularly helpful in three ways:
- Since I am under no illusion that I know everything about everything, my collection often provides guidance and answers when a client poses a question beyond my current level of knowledge.
- In addition to my books, my files are my own personal research library, to which I can turn whenever I am developing a new training, or want to further upgrade a current one.
- As an added bonus, my collection enables me to continually upgrade my skills and understanding; so that I can serve my clients at an ever higher level of expertise and effectiveness.
I guess that means you could say that I am an organized hoarder of knowledge.
So no apologies! As far as I am concerned, there are far worse addictions to have than that one!
By any chance, do you also share that same addiction?
