Making-Original-Products-presentationzen

Slowing Down to See
Slowing down is not just good advice for a healthier, happier, more fulfilling
life, but it is also a practice that leads to greater clarity. Your instinct may be
to say this is ridiculous—business is all about speed. First to innovate. First to
market. First and fast.
What I am talking about here, however, is a state of mind. You have many
things on your plate, no doubt. You are busy. But “busy” is not really the
problem. Sure, there never seems to be enough time in the day to do things
the way you would prefer to do them, and we all face time constraints. But
time constraints can also be a great motivator, bringing a sense of urgency
that stimulates creative thinking and the discovery of solutions to problems.
The problem today, though, is not “busy” but “busyness.”
Busyness is that uncomfortable feeling you have of being rushed, distracted,
and a bit unfocused and preoccupied. Although you may be accomplishing
tasks, you wish you could do better. You know you can. But in spite of
your best intentions, you find it difficult to create a state of mind that is
contemplative rather than reactionary. You try. You take a deep breath. You
begin to think about the big presentation next week. So you launch your
application and begin to think. Then the office phone rings, but you let it go
to voicemail because your boss is calling you on your mobile phone at the
same time. “Need TPS reports ASAP!” she says. Then your e-mail notifies
you that you’ve got new messages, including one from your biggest client with
the subject line “Urgent! TPS reports missing!!!” Then your coworker pops
his head in the door, “Hey, did you hear about the missing TPS reports?” So
you get to work reacting even though you know that dealing with the reports
could actually wait until another time. In this sort of environment, it is nearly
impossible to slow down.
Busyness kills creativity. Busyness leads to the creation and display of a
lot of cluttered presentation visuals that substitute for engaging, informative,
and provocative meetings, seminars, or keynote speeches where actual
conversations could and should be taking place. But people feel rushed, even
frantic. So they slap together some slides from past presentations and head off
to their presentation. Communication suffers…the audience suffers. Yes, we’re
all insanely busy, but this is just all the more reason we owe it to ourselves
Chapter 3 Planning Analog
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