Do you know someone who is always in motion? They are always on the go, moving quickly from "one fire to the next", seemingly never able to get a grip on the things for which they are responsible. Does this sound familiar? I think we all know at least one of these people and I think we can all relate to periods in our own lives where we fit this description ourselves.

So does this continual, frantic and stressful movement correlate to action? Ernest Hemingway didn't think so. He coined the famous phrase "Never confuse movement with action." He is, of course, referring to the fact that someone can be in a state of perpetual and frantic motion but yet never really produce any effective or productive actions.

This sort of frantic motion is analogous to a person flailing about in the water in a pool trying to get from one end to the other. Compare this to the smooth, focused, efficient and productive movements of an Olympic swimmer in the same pool. The Olympian's smooth, efficient movements make their swim appear effortless in comparison to the person flailing about frantically. They too are moving from one end of the pool to the other but because they are focused and efficient, they are able to move much more quickly and effortlessly and get so much more completed and accomplished than the person who is unfocused, flailing and trying just to keep their head above water.

The scariest thing about being in this state of frantic, unproductive motion is that, once there, it is hard to recognize the fact that you are unproductive. It seems like you are getting a lot done as you rush from activity to activity but in reality you are probably working on the wrong things and wasting a lot of time in the process…..which in turn intensifies the rushing process as you are even less efficient with your time.

Now there are many techniques you can use to break out of this nasty lifestyle but regardless of the technique chosen I believe the first step that must be taken is to record your activities in half hour increments each day for the course of one week. Once this is done, you need to review these activities and see where you are spending the majority of your time. You MUST be brutally honest with yourself for this process to produce any value. Determine where you are flailing versus where you are moving with the efficiency of an Olympic swimmer.

Once you have this analysis done you must decide where you are going to refocus your attention so you can move away from frantic motion towards more productive and efficient motion. This is where your Strength Zone must play a huge role. If you are not working in your areas of strength or if you are not leveraging your strengths into the roles that you have then you are not being effective, you are flailing. This can lead into the frantic motion lifestyle as you continuously struggle in your areas of weakness. You must decide which activities in your week need to be dropped, what needs to be added, what needs to be refocused or executed differently to take advantage of your strengths.

In doing this simple exercise at least once a year you can shave amazing amounts of unproductive time out of your daily and weekly schedules.

For further information on living a focused and productive live I would recommend that you define your Strength Zone, redefine your roles to take advantage of your Strength Zone and as a bonus I recommend Les Hewitt's book "The Power of Focus".  www.thepoweroffocus.ca

Remember, be a person of focused, efficient and productive action not unproductive motion.