Consider this a basics of the basics thought.

What are you doing when you are working?

It seems to me that there are only three “tasks” of work. Now, each of these includes all sorts of specifics, but, as I have thought through things, I think these three pretty much cover it all. Work consists of:

Planning
Doing
Critiquing

Planning is getting ready to do.

Doing is the actual work of work.

Critiquing is evaluating, and getting ready to tweak the next round of work as you go back to planning.

Of course, doing encompasses a whole range of activities, from what you do by yourself, to what you do with others and for others.

And, critiquing is critical so that you reinforce what you did right and well, and you change what needs to be changed the next time. (Think “After Action Review” from the military. You might want to read this blog post).

And, of course, to do well, you must plan what to do in order to do it well.

So, here it is:

Planning
Doing
Critiquing

And, by the way, I put some of the “reading, learning, pondering” work into the planning box.

But, here is what I do know—“wasting time” does not quite fit into any of these categories, does it?