Seen in a NYTimes piece by productivity guru David Allen.

I have found that most professionals take action based on whatever is the latest and loudest in their universe, as opposed to a making a conscious, intelligent choice springing from the model I’ve described. This day-to-day, minute-to-minute arena of “reaction versus pro-action” is where the scales tip to “productive” or “unproductive.”

ONE possible path to that feeling of control is to return to a make-it-or-move-it existence. Find work that requires little if any thinking, but merely reacts and responds to what presents itself. That’s a real option: I once met a senior vice president in a global pharmaceutical company who, after taking an early retirement package, became a duck at Disney World. In such a job, it was probably much easier to have a good day at work, and then leave it behind.