Thanks for this, Jean :) I'm a bit late but just wanted to add that it seems that "being" is how present you are with that activity. E.g. How little you are multitasking. How meta cognitive you can be. Watching yourself doing the task.
"Doing" is how much you're tied up in the task. How much you're in flow. It's not necessarily a bad thing either. Having both gives you a nice balance of productivity and lateral perspective.
I did some podcast episodes on these that I can share with you if you would like to explore more :) Thanks again for writing this :)
This is something I've been struggling with for my whole career (and probably longer if I think back to my school days). I really appreciated the way you described the difference in these mindsets, and I definitely identified with the examples you shared. I worry a lot about how to minimize the time I'm spending at work so I can maximize the time I have for myself. That just results in overthinking and churning when I'm in my "life" time, and makes me obsess over my timesheet when I'm in my "work" time. I freak out when I have work thoughts and I'm supposed to be just enjoying my life outside of work, and I don't really enjoy that time anyway. Whether I'm in work mode or life mode, I'm distracted and anxious about the other mode. I'm not sure how to apply this information yet, but I am hopeful about changing up how I think about work-life balance, and finding a way to shift into balancing being and doing instead.
I just started the book 4000 weeks, which has been recommended to me a few times. So far it seems like there's a lot around challenging the time management for the sake of productivity/efficiency mindset, and is very aligned with this post! What I'm hearing from ppl who seem to be happy with their being/doing balance is that the being and doing are really infused into work and life, just a general mindset about living.
Thanks for this, Jean :) I'm a bit late but just wanted to add that it seems that "being" is how present you are with that activity. E.g. How little you are multitasking. How meta cognitive you can be. Watching yourself doing the task.
"Doing" is how much you're tied up in the task. How much you're in flow. It's not necessarily a bad thing either. Having both gives you a nice balance of productivity and lateral perspective.
I did some podcast episodes on these that I can share with you if you would like to explore more :) Thanks again for writing this :)
This is something I've been struggling with for my whole career (and probably longer if I think back to my school days). I really appreciated the way you described the difference in these mindsets, and I definitely identified with the examples you shared. I worry a lot about how to minimize the time I'm spending at work so I can maximize the time I have for myself. That just results in overthinking and churning when I'm in my "life" time, and makes me obsess over my timesheet when I'm in my "work" time. I freak out when I have work thoughts and I'm supposed to be just enjoying my life outside of work, and I don't really enjoy that time anyway. Whether I'm in work mode or life mode, I'm distracted and anxious about the other mode. I'm not sure how to apply this information yet, but I am hopeful about changing up how I think about work-life balance, and finding a way to shift into balancing being and doing instead.
I just started the book 4000 weeks, which has been recommended to me a few times. So far it seems like there's a lot around challenging the time management for the sake of productivity/efficiency mindset, and is very aligned with this post! What I'm hearing from ppl who seem to be happy with their being/doing balance is that the being and doing are really infused into work and life, just a general mindset about living.
I love this tip! It is very tempting to fill those gaps with busy-ness.