Your Drive to Work

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On November 4, 2009, in Time Management, by Brett Duncan

A couple thoughts from C.C. Chapman’s Managing the Gray podcast got me thinking earlier this week.

Do you Dread Your Drive to Work?

traffic_jam_web C.C.’s ramblings (and I mean that in a good way – he does it productively!) sparked this question in my mind: Which do you dread more: your drive to work in the morning, or your drive from work in the afternoon?

Put another way, do you actually look forward to your drive to work in the morning, and regret to some degree that you have to leave in the afternoon? If the answer is yes, then you’re fortunate that you get to spend so much time doing something you clearly enjoy. If not, should you maybe face the fact that spending 8+ hours a day doing something you don’t like to do doesn’t make sense?

I hate to oversimplify situations, because I know we all have responsibilities we must account for, families we must take care of, and times when we simply have to do what we have to do. However, there are tons of ways to make a living out there. There are tons of options. Why not pick the option that both pays your bills and allows you to spend a chunk of your valuable time doing something that challenges you and makes you happy?

Saying Hell Yeah!

The other part of C.C. Chapman’s podcast episode was a reference to this post by Derek Sivers. In summary, it describes a problem many of us have: taking on too many projects. I’m so guilty of this. I come across so many projects with friends that seem like they’d be fun, but they end up being a huge time-suck for me and I rarely deliver with excellence because of it. But the “Hell Yeah” filter changes that. When presented with a project, if your immediate reaction isn’t “hell yeah, I want to work on that,” then let it pass. Everyone will be better off for it. As Derek puts it, “We’re all busy. We’ve all taken on too much. Saying yes to less is the way out.”

Be sure to read Derek’s post, and congrats to C.C. for the new work with Campfire.