MonkAtWork.com

It’s not news that the kinds of questions you ask can greatly influence the kind of success you enjoy.

If you’re always asking yourself, “Can I do this? Can I get this project done?”, guess what your day is going to be swamped with? That’s right — uncertainty. Doubt. A submerged sense of confidence. And, because you’re always wondering if it’s even possible, you never fully engage with the task at hand, and so the major determiner of your project’s success (your commitment) is missing, or halfway at best.

I used to suffer from this, big time. I’d get great ideas, but always wonder if I could pull them off, or not. As a result, I spent a lot of time wondering, hemming and hawing, and never really applying myself to the fullest. I constantly felt water-logged, as if time was slipping down the drain.

(And if you want another productivity tip, try that one on for size: Engage fully. Sitting on the fence does little good when it comes to getting things done.)

So, where were we? Oh yes… questions.

Shifting away from “Can I do it?” questions is crucial if you want to make headway with your projects. At the same time, making that shift can be harder than three times nine.

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I got nudged by Ben Yoskovitz from Instigator Blog the other day, to chime in on his Ultimate Guide to Productivity Group Writing Project. The gauntlet thrown?

What’s your secret to being productive?

Challenge yourself by picking your single best productivity tip.

And since I’m kicking the writing project off, I’d be curious to hear from Alister Cameron, Adam Kayce, Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Andrew Wee, David Armano, Tony Clark, Mike Sansone and Chris Cree.

Well, the challenge has been answered so far by the likes of Harrison Loke, Ploop, Kathie Thomas, Engtech, Lorraine Pirihi, Andrew Wee, Janet Barclay, and kindred spirit, Wendy Piersall.

Some the tips shared include tried-and-true concepts such as focusing on the one big important thing you absolutely must get done, working at your best time of day, and removing clutter from your inboxes.

These are fantastic suggestions… some of these I do already, and others are new for me — and I’m looking forward to trying them on.

One arena that I’m not yet seeing addressed, however, is one of the biggest keys to my productivity, and so I’ll make it my contribution to the Ultimate Guide to Productivity:

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If you’ve been watching the links and quotes in my posts lately, you’d have noticed that I’ve been mentioning David Seah a few times.

His business is “information design & interactive development,” and although I don’t know exactly what that means, it’s not the strictly-professional information that I’m looking for from his site.

I love design; always have. I came thiiiis close to pursuing a degree in architecture; I’ve done 99.9% of my own design work, and both of my parents are artists (in fact, my mom drew the monks you see around the site). David’s design work is clean, inspiring, and just cooler than toast (check out his Printable CEO series).

But what I read David’s blog for is his regular musings on what it all means. His candor and front-row-seating approach to discussing what he does, what he thinks about, and how it all impacts him is refreshingly honest, non-pretentious, and a great example of working from one’s values, which is a big part of what Monk at Work is all about.

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I talk a lot about heart, here at Monk At Work. In fact, it’s one of the things I talk about the most (looking at the “Topics” in the sidebar as I write this, you can see what I mean).

But the heart I’m talking about is not just the heart of compassionate action, as in, “I want to hit my sales goal, but when I check in with my heart, I feel that I’m holding onto my goal a bit tightly, and I need to back off a bit.”

Having that kind of self-awareness is great — essential, even, to working holistically — but it’s also just the beginning of your heart, as I’m defining it.

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Maybe you’re thinking about blogging, and aren’t sure what it’ll take. Or you’ve got a blog, and aren’t sure what to do with it, how to stay focused, or how to face the daily grind.

For the sake of getting clarity in your business, my recommendation is, “do it!” The payoffs are huge — and, too numerous to go into in a single post.

But one thing blogging will do is force you to get clear. How? Here are five ways I’m finding blogging to be incredibly clarity-producing:
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Today we did the “Key to Your Purpose” telecall (if you’d like to download the recording, you can get it from the “Free Teleclass: The Key to Knowing Your Purpose” post).

On the call, we talked about the importance of context, love, and connection, amongst other things. We also took some time to do a brief intuitive exercise, to start the introspective process that I’ve found to be absolutely essential to discovering and evolving your own sense of Purpose.

One of the great distinctions that has come out of examining our Purpose, for me, has been the awareness that I have some definite core qualities that emanate into whatever I do. What I do may change, where I go always changes, but who I am on a fundamental level doesn’t change; it only ripens.

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… I sure had a doozy last night (don’t worry, it was totally family-friendly).

Before going to bed, I spent about an hour and a half reading work of Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan’s, on consulting, structure, clients, you name it. It was with Varjan’s concepts swirling in my head that I laid down to sleep last night.

That said, I’d be curious to hear what you’d make of this one:

I was at a workshop of some kind (as a participant, not a facilitator), in a semi-nice, yet semi-cheesy hotel conference room, with wood-paneled walls and bad carpeting. There were at least ten other participants, but it was clear that all the focus, in that moment, was on me.

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