Top Time Tip #90
When Focus Took Me Down The Wrong Path
1st May 2007
We all know that focus is a very useful skill. However, I just had a great lesson on how it can also lead you astray. There's always a dark side to everything!
Last week, prior to attending the annual convention of the National Speakers Association of Southern Africa, I spent three days at Kwa Maritane, a fantastic game lodge on the border of the very well-run large game reserve of Pilansberg National Park. The park is densely populated with a huge variety of animals even though only a couple of hours out of Johannesburg.
I'd imagined something in the bush, thatched huts, no power or maybe generators, no phone coverage, no email. Kwa Maritane does have thatched roofs but in most other respects (except the detail that triggered this story) it was very different from my imagined picture. Instead, I discovered a luxurious lodge with all mod cons.
Of course it never happens to you (grin!), but sometimes I don't quite achieve all the things on the ‘to do' list before heading off on a trip. This journey was no exception – an article deadline loomed. I'd done a rough draft on the plane (17 hours gives you plenty of thinking and writing time!), in spare moments it was polished off on the laptop and now it was time to send.
A query at reception about email gave options – broadband either in your room or at the Business Centre, or wireless around the reception area. First choice was broadband in the room.
Bad mistake - it was worse than watching paint dry.
Frustrated, trusty laptop and I trotted down through the acacias and shady thorn trees, past the pool, the men thatching the time-share units, past the convention centre, to the relaxed bar and restaurant area. With full expectation of a job about to be quickly concluded and keen to return to animal-watching, I logged back on.
Just as bad. Next step - ask for help at reception.
The Business Centre apparently had the fastest facility. Full of hope I was shown where to go. Over an hour later one 2-page Word document finally managed to wiggle its way out and off to New Zealand!
A quick scan of email that had managed to download while this ‘sending' malarkey took place showed nothing too urgent. A couple of things could be managed by phone and the rest could wait – no way was I wasting any more time trying to get through.
Can you sense the frustration? By this time I was right into ‘they should have a better system' and ‘how inefficient is this', interspersed with ‘well, you're on holiday for a couple of days – you should just relax'. Both lines of thought are valid, but it was a conversation over dinner that night with a very nice British couple from Nigeria that gave me the real ‘aha'.
‘What is the Nigerian infrastructure like as regards email?'
‘Oh' said Bill. ‘Sending emails by phone is the most reliable.'
‘Really,' I queried with great interest, imagining something clever through the phone lines, ‘how does that work?'
‘Via wireless, through your mobile phone or hand-held PDA – like a Treo or Blackberry,' replied Lesley.
With metaphorical slashing of wrists I groaned. ‘I've got a Treo in my room!' Of course I knew it did email – it had been bought specifically to make on-road email more accessible. However, on the day in question, expecting that the laptop connection would do it, the PDA had been completely forgotten! I'd become too one-eyed, allowed tension and frustration to colour my thinking, hadn't stepped back to see how else the job could be done. How ridiculous!
Focus is a wonderful trait – most of the time. But as in this case, it can also be our enemy, especially if we've left things to the last minute. How often do we push our way through the thorns and thickets of a problem, so narrowly focused on ‘this is the way' or ‘we must do this right now' that we miss the side path that would give a much better result?
So my new resolution? Especially when doing things in a different way, try where possible to allow enough time to let the subconscious kick in. When something doesn't go right, leave it for a while. You can almost guarantee that an alternative will present itself.
And a secondary resolution – keep learning the capabilities of any new device. Dig the well before you need it!
(If you're considering travel to South Africa, it was only up in the bush that connection speeds were so slow. Everywhere else has been just fine - and it's a fascinating country with very friendly people.)
Signing off from Cape Town – such a beautiful city.
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