It’s easy to frame progress as finishing tasks, but this perspective is limited in the motivation and sustained productivity it can yield. When you instead frame your work as the art of advancing your purpose, you are freed from the drawbacks of being task-focused. You will find yourself reducing procrastination, increasing productivity, and enjoying work a lot more than before. It’s more difficult to procrastinate against a purpose than it is a task. After all, while the task may be something you need to get done, you chose your purpose, and it is what you say you want. It’s easier to hold back on a task than it is your purpose, for the same reason—your purpose is exactly what you want. When you see how whatever you are working on in the moment is the present instantiation of your purpose, you can learn to enjoy it.
Unlike a goal, a purpose is so transcendent that it cannot be measured or accomplished directly. Your progress on a purpose can only be measured by proxy, since you can finish subordinate elements of the life plan like goals and tasks, but never your purpose itself. You measure progress in your purpose through:
- Assessing the character qualities you have attained.
- Measuring what you value, and by how much.
- Considering the goals you have set and accomplished.
- Thinking about the tasks you have set out to complete, their prioritization, and the rate at which you complete them.
Seeing work as the advancement of your purpose creates a positive feedback loop; your reallocation of the time and energy from convincing yourself to begin or continue in important tasks to actually moving them forward will dramatically boost your throughput and the satisfaction you feel in that progress.