“Meanwhile” is a great word for helping you (and others) focus on action. Use it as a reminder that although one path may be blocked, there's usually something else that you can be accomplished.
It also reminds you that not everything stops while you are waiting, or procrastinating with or without good reason.
For example:
- “We need to meet with the customer to discuss our plans on this campaign” – meanwhile, there are actions that we could put in place today that could make a real difference.
- “The web site needs a complete redesign to be most effective” – meanwhile, what small changes could we make today that would have at least some impact?
- “I've sent him a couple of emails and have still not heard back” – meanwhile, we could pick up the phone and talk to him.. using our words?
- “We're just so busy, there's just too much work and not enough hours in the day” – meanwhile, ________ is not happening and the situation is only getting worse. Let's brainstorm how we could balance priorities a bit better to ensure that _________ can get done.
- “Our hosting provider is really slow and they really don't seem interested in solving the problem” – meanwhile, our application is slow, unreliable and causing us to loose customers.
Oversimplified examples I know – but I hope you can still see that by simply inserting that word – “meanwhile” – should make us rethink the situation and understand a) what we could be doing while we wait and b) what is happening anyway – with or without you.
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