Move With Purpose

Some thoughts on the value of efficiency

Photo by Jess Zoerb on Unsplash

The idea for this post arrived in my head, ironically, as I lingered lazily in the shower one morning. It is rooted in a lesson that I try to convey to my three sons, which is summed up in this phrase that I repeat far too often, as much for their benefit as for mine: “Move with purpose!”

I’m not telling them to hurry or rush. Nor do I want them to stop playing or daydreaming in order to be productive. I am simply reminding them that, when they have tasks to do, it is far better to move through those tasks with a sense of purposefulness than to procrastinate or give a partial effort or drag them out.

Here is an example from our home. My boys insist on waking up at 6:15 every morning to get ready for school. They grumble about how early it is, but claim it’s necessary to do everything that needs to be done—get dressed, eat breakfast, pack lunches, do a 20- to 40-minute music practice (age-dependent), brush their teeth, and leave the house by 8:30.

It does not take 2.25 hours to complete these tasks! I have explained to them countless times that they could sleep in longer if they moved with purpose, rather than at a snail’s pace, engaging in random digressions (and gratuitous squabbles) along the way.

Typical distractions include fighting over who gets to hold the hamster, who took whose book without asking and is now reading it provocatively on the couch, why someone ate the last of the cereal or didn’t replace the milk, and whose turn it is to take out the compost. They remain unconvinced by my logic, however, and continue to wake up at the crack of dawn and move sluggishly.

To be clear, I do not think that every minute of a person’s day should be productive. I am very much pro-relaxation and boredom and easing into one’s day, if that’s what a person wants. But recently, I’ve been thinking about time, and how little of it I always seem to have. I have concluded that a lack of efficiency is at the root of my seeming lack of time. I’ve noticed that when I focus on work and refuse to be distracted, the work speeds by and I end up feeling more satisfied by my effort and as though I’ve gained hours in my day. The fact is, I probably have. It’s an exhilarating sensation.

Tasks as Finite

Photo by Catt Liu on Unsplash

Lately, I have begun to think of work- and household-related tasks not as a nebulous array of never-ending things to be done, but as specific jobs with clearly defined start and end points. The amount of work required to complete each one is finite, so it seems logical that doing them is just a matter of effort. If one action marks the “start” and another the “end,” it’s all on me to move as swiftly between those two points as I can. Why drag it out?

The phrase I repeat in my head to stay on track, and the one that I remind my sons to ask themselves when they feel aimless during a task, is, “What needs to be done next?” When we ask ourselves that, and then move along to the next right and necessary thing, without being distracted in between and during execution, stuff gets done.

The key, then, is not to add more tasks to the to-do list, but to take that wonderful surplus of time granted by efficiency and use it for the things I really want in my day—like a long walk by the lake, a prolonged reading session by the fireplace, a lengthy afternoon nap, a more involved homemade dinner, a phone call with an old friend.

Photo by Radek Grzybowski on Unsplash

Struggling With Distraction

This all might sound like common sense, but distractions abound, especially now that many of us have smartphones in our pockets. No doubt there have always been things to derail people’s attention throughout history, to pull them away from the task at hand, but I think we face a greater challenge now, with a world’s worth of hyperstimulating content tugging constantly at our minds and fingertips. It’s harder than ever to stay focused and to move with purpose. The potential of our days erodes along with our willpower.

Put another way, to move with purpose is to prioritize self-discipline. As Rob Henderson wrote, “Self-discipline beats motivation. Often, people say they need to feel ‘motivated’ to perform a task. Motivation, though, is just a feeling. Self-discipline is ‘I’m going to do this, regardless of how I feel.’” That is the message I’m trying to teach my kids—that it doesn’t matter how you feel; it’s always best just to buckle down and do what needs to be done. And then be done with it.

There are times when even I, as the author of a book on the benefits of curbing excessive digital media consumption, have to fight the urge not to grab my phone and open a social media or news app just to fill a mental lull in between tasks. While the act itself may seem harmless, it inevitably turns into a rabbit hole that consumes both focus and time. A day can pass in a weird blur of half-hearted productivity blended with strange Internet-enabled tangents that may inform and entertain, but leave my brain feeling confused and, ultimately, dissatisfied.

I like to remind my kids, too, that technology has given us back massive swaths of time that, in the past, were consumed by hard labour. (See my post on this: Consider the Washing Machine.) It feels disrespectful to squander that gift on mindless scrolling and far better to use it purposefully, completing our crucial tasks with efficiency and then freeing ourselves to engage in higher quality and more rewarding pursuits.

“Move with purpose,” I tell them, and we may be able to squeeze a little bit more time out of this beautiful and fleeting life for the things that we truly want to do. They have yet to adjust their morning routine, though they say they are considering moving their alarm clocks to 6:30 a.m. Fifteen minutes isn’t much, but it’s still a win.

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