The Necessity of Focus/Attention on Task On Hand

The Necessity of Focus/Attention on Task On Hand

There is a well-known saying in English "Haste makes waste", which emphasizes the need for a poised, calm and collected mental state and deep attention to the task on hand. There is a related saying "Procrastination is the thief of time". When we keep delaying our activities, we then rush up to complete the tasks in the 23rd hour, which brings in unwarranted haste jeopardizing a good delivery of the schedules.

I had a good learning over last weekend at Canara Bank, Kasturba Nagar branch for an unnecessary haste which I had run into. I had to visit the branch for a few cash transactions and also checking up my financial tax related advises and statements. Since it was Saturday, the following were some of the featured scenes at the bank:

1. The bank branch works only till 11.30 hours forenoon and hence there was a good amount of push and pull besides an acutely high amount of crowd at the branch, with each one vying with one and another to accomplish their plans and branch transactions.
2. Since I had two tasks lined up besides updation of my passbook; the third task forcing me to become an active contributor to the push-and-pull crowd at the Savings Bank section, I was little bit tensed.

Well! This tension or anxiety, I would like to clarify, would not be because of any of my Procrastination. Since even I go at 9.30 (the branch open time), I had to wait for my service fulfilments at three distinct counters and hence it would anyway cause a little scene like running from pillar to post to get things accomplished. I believe, I have described the ambience at the branch. Now, coming to my learning on why we should not be hastening up on tasks is described below.

While I was waiting at the Deposit section, I had my hat on hand besides the bag, the stationery material (pen and the challan). The queue prevents me from packing up in one section and then moving in perfect tranquility and hence the just pick and move strategy is the one that could be adopted. In the hurry, my hat just dropped off. Fortunately, one good samaritan fellow, who was waiting alerted me that the hat dropped down.

This was the second incident and in the previous one, I dropped the bank challan and then searching for it a month back. I believe since the last week incident, my Todolist has started a new task of behaving with more calm and poised mind regardless of the state of the ambience. I waited for one week to observe myself regarding the various activities that I could be an active participant to see how things move about. As an introspection, I would like to say that while visiting a more crowdy Canara Bank, today I was able to even help out a person who came in a hurry but he could not fill the challan in English.

I would hence share my learning and experience with others to refrain from getting tensed. BTW, did I mention, that my softskill tutor is Todolist? You can meet him here. He has been my tutor for more than four years. Now, my colleague (Pradeep Joe Felix) has also been enthralled by my tutor and he has started to learn from him. Todolist is the best tool to correct our activities, streamline our time management habits and elevate our lifestyle and standards. Perhaps if you are interested, you can also check out a review of this tool from my technical weblog.