Being Productive

Being Productive

Weekends can slip by just like that if we do not use them wisely. When I was teaching my undergraduate course in Jakarta, I spent every weekend working on my lecture slides for the coming week. I had to teach early in the morning before I go to the office every Monday and Tuesday. Weekends were the only time available for me to prepare for those classes.

It was hardwork but I enjoyed it because nothing makes me happier than keeping myself busy with productive work. My teaching job was like community service; I was happy to be able to give something back to the Indonesian community which I loved so much.

In between my regular IT job and my part-time teaching, I managed to write some articles for one of the local English publications in Indonesia. I still have one article which--if everything goes well--will be published next month. Those last months of mine in Jakarta were very hectic--every moment of my time was used up in either one of these three major preoccupations.

Now that I'm back in KL, I try to maintain the same discipline of constant productive work. Discipline is so important, especially if you are your own boss. I consider productive work as any act of creation--bringing into existence something new and making things hapen. Growth and creativity is what I strive for. If these elements are present in my work, I consider my time well-spent and productive.

A healthy person spends his day with eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and eight hours of life maintenance activities--eating, bathing, socializing, reading and relaxing (and blogging). I think it is a good formula; I am quite happy if I can achieve a full eight hours of intense productive work. Most of us spend that amount of time in the office, but on the average I think the productive hours are probably just a fraction of that.

Being useful and productive gives me a great high. There's lots of work waiting for me. It is Sunday, the start of another week. I look forward to a very productive week ahead!