Means the desire to know or learn, i.e. inquisitiveness. It is a spirit of inquiry that makes one not only want to dig below the surface but also ask questions on all aspects of a problem, situation or person. It means being alive, awake and 'wide open' to want to note everything that happens to you and around you. It is the spirit that makes Gulliver set out on his voyages: you do not know what to expect but an open mind makes you better prepared for the unexpected.
When paired with thoughtfulness it implies the desire to view all aspects, not just fleetingly or temporarily, but to devote considerable thought to understanding exactly what and why things are happening.
As such it is an essential part of the creative attitude. For creativity is not just a bag full of tricks or techniques, but a disciplined focus in the chaos of possibilities.
It also may helpt to manage one's time well. For time is what many people seem to 'losing' very much. Time, however, cannot be lost, gained or saved. It is just something you can spend. Good time management means all the difference.
Three questions that can be asked in this respect are:
* What matters need not be done at all? It is always surprising to see how many things busy people are doing which would not be missed if not done.
* What activities can better be done by someone else? Looking into this creates good teams.
* Whose time am I wasting? Just ask others "What do I do that wastes your time without contributing to your effectiveness? You might be amazed by some of the answers.
Time management means:
1 knowing where your time goes;
2 managing the time you have, using it for the things you planned and
3 looking where and how the time could be better used.
It is amazing how few people really know where their time goes. In fact man is badly equipped to manage time. The biological clock gets quite upset when we cross the Atlantic by plane. When people are put in a dark room, they quickly lose all sense of time. And even when there is light, it is difficult to estimate time when the space is closed off from the outside. Our memory is also a bad recorder. When I have planned a certain time and I will recall that later, my memory will tell me what I had planned to do, not what I really did. Much time in meetings is lost whereas afterwards I will recall the whole time as 'meeting time' and develop an aversion towards those 'bloody meetings'.