Are you being busy or productive?
There’s a lot of reasons why Morrison choose to get into grant writing… 1. It’s a natural gifting for the originals, and now because of strategic hires, it’s a natural gifting for most of the staff. 2. We’ve had good favor and won a bunch. 3. We believe in productivity. There are many other reasons but in this post, we want to linger on #3 for a bit.
What does that mean to “believe in productivity?” Doesn’t everyone? Well, sadly no. Because productivity takes great discernment and so many people in today’s noisy world confuse productivity with busyness. A lot of us scurry around all day to be busy but never really end up producing anything when 5 o’clock rolls around.
We love the idea of freeing up time for ourselves to truly create and produce at the Morrison offices but more than that, we love the idea of freeing up time for our clients. Our clients are intelligent and innovative people... when they have the time. Why not give them a little more of it, so they can keep growing their businesses and building their empires? A grant that comes to mind – we talk about it frequently around here – is the USDA Value Added Producer Grant (VAPG) and that one is an excellent example of where Morrison loves to “cross the great abyss” (don’t worry – this abyss creates life, not death.) From one side of collecting up our client’s loose leaf business ideas and dreams, and moving them to the other side into hardcopy. Whether it’s a planning grant, and the client voices a desire to make something more from his simple kiwis, or it’s a fully operating kiwi lime pie factory, and they just can’t contain their next big idea and need some money to help get them there, Morrison loves to imagine all scenarios as possible.
When we write grants on behalf of our clients, petitioning their case in front of big agencies, we’re freeing up their time and allowing them to be productive on what’s really important, and not just busy.
Now, that you’ve read this and feel more time already to produce great work yourself, check out this interesting Harvard Business Review article on 9 Tips from People Who Write About Productivity to how to start being more productive personally today.