Four stages of work

My friend and I were talking about our work at lunch today. He told me about a grid that he has come up with to clearly define 4 stages of the work. This is what the grid looks like.

Four stages of work

	Trying hard	Not trying hard
Making swift progress	Jamming	Cruising
Making slow progress	Grinding	Slacking

Most people are stuck in the 4th quadrant where they are neither trying hard nor making swift progress. My initial assessment was that the most productive quadrant is Jamming but you can’t sustain trying hard for a long period of time. The key is to be in Cruising quadrant. It’s much better for your endurance. The only problem is that it’s very easy to slip from Cruising to Slacking. The other paradox is that if you try hard not to go from cruising to slacking, you might risk getting into Jamming. The key is to make a healthy balance between not trying too hard and still being focused. It’s really difficult to that especially so many interesting things going in the workspace. Some of them are shown below


Conflict Resolution Is this really a release blocker bug ??



Enthusiasm of your colleagues



Your own desires to find your inner self