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The Need to Assess

by Mike Vardy

“The only way to make a spoilt machine work again is to break it down, work on its inner system and fix it again. Screw out the bolts of your life, examine and work on yourself, fix your life again and get going.” ― Israelmore Ayivor

Yesterday was supposed to be a big writing day. It wasn’t.

Today was also supposed to be a big writing day. It also wasn’t.

Now I’m not facing writer’s block (after all, I’m writing this piece only an hour before it went live). But what I am facing is a need to assess — which is overriding my desire to write some of the deeper or more technical posts that I’d like to write.

Right now I need to assess a lot of things. I need to put everything I’ve got going on out there so I can see the big picture (essentially do The Big Paper Exercise) and move forward with less friction and more effectiveness. I know I need to assess because I can see it when I open up my task manager and — more importantly — I can feel it in my gut when I look at my task manager.

I’m so grateful that I’ve got this awareness, although it would be ideal to have it every time I look at taking things on. Sometimes when you’re building something you want to either build it faster or focus on different areas instead of the areas that should be dealt with. Stopping the building process and assessing what you are really trying to build helps get you back on track so you can build…better.

So I’m done with writing for this week. Instead, I’m going to break myself down, work on my inner system and fix it again. That means adjusting priorities, shelving projects, and letting go of the things that don’t matter in the grand scheme of things so that I can focus on the things that do. (You can read all of the entries associated with my assessment by clicking on the links below.)

  • Assessing Priorities
  • Assessing Projects
  • Assessing Workflow

About Mike Vardy

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, productivity strategist, and founder of Productivityist. He is the author of The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want and The Productivityist Playbook.

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