Productivity pointers–from a poet?

I remember starting a new job about 10 years ago and being introduced to an employee who was plugging away in his cubicle. As we moved out of earshot, the manager who was showing me around remarked, “Good guy, but a bit of a poet.”

“I’m not sure I follow you,” I replied, bristling internally at the insult to poetry (and to my new coworker).

“Not very productive,” the manager said, “but easy to work with.”

I’ve always had a reputation for being highly productive at work, but I also write poetry in my spare time. And, unlike this manager, I don’t consider my job and my poetry to be entirely separate enterprises. Indeed, a well-channeled poetic sensibility is part of what makes me efficient. Productive endeavors of all kinds—from getting through a rote task, to organizing your workday, to pacing a project, to crafting a big presentation—are not unlike well-executed poems. Here, I believe, are the commonalities:

A compelling opener. No matter what work lies ahead of you, an engaging first step sets the right tone. Start out with something intriguing that’s intrinsic to, not distracting from, the task. I often choose a peculiar element that has the potential to inject humor into the mission.

Elements of surprise. Too much predictability is deadly. Let yourself make discoveries along the way rather than follow a rigid script. Just remember that there’s a difference between a detour, which can derail you, and what poets sometimes call a “happy accident,” which can actually speed you along.

Repetition as pleasure, not drudgery. To be sure, almost any endeavor requires some redundancy. The key is to feel like you’re on a roll. Doing things in threes sometimes works, as does transforming aspects of your work into a game.

Endings that are new beginnings. Being exhausted and being energized are not mutually exclusive. Similarly, effective poems may be taxing to plow through, but they also make you appreciate the journey and want to explore the next horizon. It might be a stretch for your job-related task to reach that same level of artistic edification, but if you build personal challenges into your plan, you’ll feel like you’ve grown. And chances are the audience for your work will feel that way, too.

Steven DeMaio teaches English and math to adults at the Community Learning Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Somerville Center for Adult Learning Experiences in Somerville, Massachusetts. –Steven Demaio, Businessmirror