If decision-making is the primary element of your job, as it is for me, then it’s imperative that you make the best possible decisions, given that your actions are likely to impact others. Should a decision-maker, form a conclusion whilst typing on a computer – letting the words flow – or is there a better way of working?
As is common, my best thoughts come to me in the shower, or on a train, or whilst out running. Something about the repetitive sounds of these experiences, dulls the consciousness, and allows the good stuff to float to the surface. Would it be fair to say that the shower, the train, or the woods is my office? If not, why not?
All too frequently, I quote Abraham Lincoln to my kids, as evidence that they should keep their body and mind sharp:
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Wise words.
Decision-makers should rid themselves of the lazy thinking which goes: only when sitting in an office can work happen. For decision-makers, work, specifically the chewing over of potential courses of action, is a permanent feature of our consciousness and sub-consciousness. I must remember: my office is wherever I make my best decisions. And, I must sharpen the axe, doing what I can to switch off, whilst keeping the body healthy.
