I wonder what the final score of the game was last night. I’ll just look at the stats quickly. That looks like an interesting article on the future of energy. I’ll click on it. Did the price on that grill drop? I’ll check now. It will only take a second…. When you can’t focus, your mind tells you that this “quick” look, click, or check is what you should do right now. So you turn your attention away from the items on your to-do list and wander into an online wilderness where the journey is rarely as short as your mental GPS predicted. Unfettered curiosity leads to unproductive distraction and keeps you from the destination you want to reach by the end of your work day. You may be in front of your computer for long hours, but you’re only checking minor tasks off your list, getting nowhere on the bigger projects, and spending the majority of your time on interesting items that have nothing to do with work. This can lead to mounting stress and pressure as you get further and further behind until you’re pressed against a deadline and forced to work late to make up for squandered time. Your undirected curiosity undermined your ability to be your best self and do your best work. However, intentionally directed curiosity, where you make a conscious choice to think creatively about something important, can be an incredible force for good in your job and dramatically increase your overall innovation and effectiveness. How to Use Your Curiosity to Be More Productive Here are a few ways to intentionally harness your curiosity to maximize your results instead of undermine them. Identify what’s useful — and hold off on everything else. Productive curiosity is directed toward something that you actually want and need to get done. Perhaps it’s coming up with a fresh way to approach sales presentations to engage potential clients, developing better communication between teams to reduce project delays, or figuring out how you can be more effective with email to increase your focused time to get things done. This doesn’t mean that you can never learn about something simply because it’s interesting, but if you’re stretched for time at work, you want to get curious about something within the purview of your current objectives and intentionally put your attention on learning more about that particular issue. If you come across something else interesting, add it to the list of future items to explore when you have more time. But don’t feel like you have to do something about new ideas now or ever. What’s already on your agenda is enough. Apply intentional curiosity to problem solving. Give yourself some time and space to figure out what’s truly causing an issue before leaping ahead to solve it. This pause is where you can apply intentional curiosity. For example, maybe you’re having a problem with your customer tracking. Before jumping to your first conclusion and assuming you need a new CRM tool, step back and get curious. Look at the software and see if it has the capabilities you need. Look at the usage data to see if people are actually engaging with the system. Talk to users and find out if there is any friction like the technology being slow, difficult to update, or incompatible with their phone or tablet. This exploration will take time initially, but being curious about the root issue will lead to more effective solutions and allow you to solve for the right problems. Improve your work relationships. As Stephen Covey said, “With people, fast is slow, and slow is fast.” When you decrease your pace to truly see and hear those around you, you can leverage productive curiosity to greatly improve your working relationships. If you’re noticing a colleague or employee struggling to get their work done or noticing tension in the working relationship, slow down and think through what could be happening: Does this person have too much on their plate and need more support or help with prioritizing? Does your colleague struggle with breaking down projects and could benefit from a brainstorming session to plot out the best path forward? Could there be some outside factors causing issues like a sick family member? When you take time to think through the situation from a point of openness and empathy, you may land on an insight that resolves the friction. Or you may find that you need to delve deeper and have a conversation with the person about what they’re experiencing so you know how to best support them moving forward. Identify and reduce your stress. Curiosity can also be incredibly productive when it comes to diminishing your own work-based stress. It’s simple to say, “My job is so stressful,” and skip to the assumption, “Maybe I should just look for a new job” or “I’m just not the right person for this.” It’s true that some jobs may not be the right fit, but job searching might not be the answer in all situations. If you think creatively about alternative solutions, you can avoid burnout at work and stay in your position. Explore why you’re actually stressed: Is it your commute? A particular colleague? The type of work? The schedule? The amount of work? The pay? Then explore what could be possible: Could you modify any of the aspects of your job to make it less stressful and more satisfying? Maybe it looks like taking on a passion project, so you feel like you’re working on something that challenges you and is aligned with your values. Maybe it’s having a no-meeting day each week to have the opportunity to get focused work done. Maybe it’s negotiating for a special bonus if you can achieve certain business results. Undirected curiosity has the potential to derail you and keeps you from ending up where you want to go. But productive curiosity is a powerful tool to help you slow down and reflect, so you can solve business problems, build better relationships, and reduce stress.
