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Productivity Get Things Done and Find Your Personal Path to Success 1 edition (May 6, 2019) Edition Gill Hasson
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Hasson, Gill, author.
Title: Productivity : get motivated, get organised, and get things done / Gill Hasson.
Description: Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom : John Wiley & Sons, 2019. | Includes index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019007046 (print) | LCCN 2019007968 (ebook) | ISBN 9780857088017 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9780857088055 (ePub) | ISBN 9780857087843 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Time management. | Motivation (Psychology)
Being productive means making things happen and getting things done.
What being productive doesn't mean, though, is squeezing every minute out of every hour of every day to become some sort of productivity machine. Being productive doesn't mean working harder – it means working smarter; getting things done effectively and efficiently.
Do you want to get more done? Do you want to be able to fit more in? Or would you like to achieve more by doing less? Either way, what's stopping you? What's stopping you getting things done efficiently and effectively?
Perhaps you're doing too much. Perhaps you rush round in a state of panic; you've got too much to do and too much to think about. You can't think clearly; your head is full of what you're doing, what you haven't done, and what you've yet to do. You're certainly doing a lot, but you're not doing it efficiently.
On the other hand, it could be that you're not doing enough. You have things you want to get done but you get stuck; you find it difficult to get started, to keep going and get things finished. You don't feel like you ever get much done.
It doesn't have to be like this!
Chapter 1 starts by encouraging you to think about what your reasons might be; why you might be finding it difficult to be productive and get things done. Whatever it is that's getting in the way of you being more productive, it can be overcome. Chapter 1 explains how the way you think – your attitude and approach –makes all the difference. You need a productivity mindset: persistence, determination, and a positive, open mind; a willingness to be adaptable and flexible.
But as well as a productive mindset, it's important to recognize that what you don't do helps determine what you can do. Chapter 1 also
encourages you to identify commitments and chores that may be cluttering up your time and preventing you from getting on with the things you really want to do.
You might, though, feel that you should be able to fit it all in – other people seem to manage, don't they? Well of course, there's always someone else you know or hear about who seems to be getting so much done – who's able to fit more into their days than you ever thought possible.
But that's their life, not yours.
If you look more closely, you'll find that productive people have set things up to succeed according to their skills, strengths, and abilities; their resources, interests, commitments, and obligations. And rather than working harder, they're working smarter.
You can do the same.
Chapter 2 explains the importance of identifying and drawing on your own skills, strengths, and abilities to help you to be productive; to get things done effectively and efficiently. Then, once you've looked at what's getting in the way and identified the attributes you already have that can help you be more productive, you can start getting yourself more organized. Chapter 3 tells you how.
You'll need to be clear about what it is that you want to get done –what areas and aspects of your life you want to be more productive in. Then, once you have a realistic idea about what, how much, and by when you want to get things done, the next thing to do is to plan how and when you'll do it.
Of course, when it comes to productivity and time management, there's nothing new about setting goals, planning, prioritizing, scheduling tasks, and having routines. But what is new is the approach described in this book to doing these things; to planning, prioritizing, etc.
Throughout this book, the emphasis is on the fact that productivity is personal: it involves finding your own rhythm and getting things done in a way that works best for you; according to your circumstances, your skills and abilities, and the time, energy and resources you have.
You might, for example, be someone who needs to tackle difficult tasks and irritating chores head on. On the other hand, you might prefer to ease into your day. Chapter 3 encourages you to be aware of when might be the optimum time of day for you to be productive. You'll need to remain flexible and open to changing how you do things, because no matter how organized you are – how well you plan your time and your tasks – and how efficiently and effectively you do them, challenges and setbacks happen. You then have to let go of your plans. And plan again.
Having begun to look at why you might be struggling to be more productive in Chapter 1, Chapter 4 looks at what to do about those difficulties. One of the most common challenges is just getting started on things. For many of us, it's easy to keep putting things off. But the guilt and anxiety that you feel while procrastinating are often worse than the effort and energy you have to put into whatever it is that you're putting off doing!
The thing is, waiting until you really feel like doing something is a sure‐fire way for things not to get done. In fact, it's normal not to feel like doing something in the beginning. So, what to do? Chapter 4 has a number of methods – ideas and suggestions – to help you overcome procrastination. It also has some suggestions to help make it easier to keep going; to persist when you come up against difficulties and challenges with whatever it is you're trying to get done.
There will always be setbacks, delays, and hold ups. When there are setbacks and difficulties, you need to refocus your attention on what you can do that could move things forward for you. If you really want to achieve something, there's usually a way. And most likely, there's more than one way.
Whether it's a major delay or a minor hold up, you'll need to know when to let go of what you can't control and look at what you can control. When you do that, you take a step towards getting back on track.
When things aren't going as well as you'd planned, one thing that can make a positive difference is to get help from others. In fact, trying to do everything yourself is not the best use of your time, skills, or
energy; struggling for hours or days before finally getting help can leave you feeling overwhelmed and stressed. And then you can't do anything properly. Other people are often more willing to help than you might think. But if you don't ask, the answer is already no!
And yet, although other people can be of help, when it comes to being productive they can also be a hindrance. Chapter 5 explains how you can manage other people's interruptions; their demands and requests. In fact, learning to be more assertive – saying ‘no’ to other people's requests or tasks if you're too busy, if it is not that important, if someone else can handle it, or if it can be done later – is a key skill if you want to be more productive.
So is a balanced lifestyle. If you're going to give your best to being productive and getting things done, you need to aim for a balanced amount of work and rest in your life. Chapter 6 has some suggestions for how you can do this.
And finally, what, you might ask, qualifies me to write a book about being productive?
I don't make lists or have daily plans. I'm a morning person, I can't think straight after 6 p.m. I can't work in the evenings; I finish working by 6.30 p.m., cook dinner and watch TV most evenings. I don't have one place of work; sometimes I work from the kitchen table, other times I work sitting on the bed or on the sofa. And in the summer, when it's sunny, I'm squinting at my laptop screen in the garden.
I can't concentrate for more than an hour at a time. I'm easily distracted. (It's always been so. When I was nine years old, my teacher Miss Tibbles wrote in my school report that I was ‘easily distracted by fun loving evils from across the room.’)
My only routine is to write every day. It doesn't matter if it's only half an hour a day or six hours a day: unless I'm on holiday, I write every day.
I fit my work around my social life; meeting friends for lunch, days out, trail walking with my friend Gilly, holidays and weekends away with friends and family. I have yet to cancel a social engagement because I'm too busy. But by any measure, that hasn't stopped me from being productive, happy, and successful. As well as my social
life, the voluntary work that I do and teaching a couple of times a week, I write an average of three books a year.
How come? I've worked out what works for me. If you want to be more productive, you need to do just that. This book will help!
1
What's Stopping You?
No doubt you're aware that by being more productive you'll improve yourself or your situation in some way; you'll be wealthier or wiser, happier, healthier, or less stressed. But whatever aspect of your life you're hoping to improve, one thing that's for sure is that being more productive means you'll be doing things effectively and efficiently; you won't be wasting time, effort, resources, or money. You'll feel more on top of things and more in control of your life.
But if you already know that being productive will improve your situation, what's stopping you? What's stopping you getting things done efficiently and effectively? There are a number of reasons why you might be struggling.
Which of these situations is familiar to you?
I'm not always clear about what, exactly, I want to achieve. I'm not always clear about what does and doesn't need doing. I often have too much to do and don't know where to start or what to do next.
For any one task or number of tasks, I don't plan out what I'm going to do. I just jump in.
I have little in the way of structure and routine in my day. My time often gets cluttered with unimportant things.
I spend too much time dealing with interruptions and distractions.
I'm prone to procrastination; I keep putting off getting started. I'm indecisive.
I tend to overthink what's to be done and I make things complicated.
I have low expectations; I don't have much confidence in my abilities. I simply don't think I'm capable of achieving much in the way of being productive.
I don't recognize and make use of my strengths.
I tend to try and do things when I'm not at my best; when I'm tired or stressed.
I have clear methods and routines that I stick to. I don't like to change or adapt them.
I'm a perfectionist; I get hung up on details and I won't make compromises.
I often underestimate the time, energy, and resources I need in order to get things done.
I don't persist. When I come across problems and difficulties with what I'm trying to achieve, I give up too easily.
I don't get help and support from other people.
I'm stubborn! When I come across difficulties and challenges I carry on doing something despite the evidence that things aren't working out. I don't try and find a different way to get things done.
Whatever it is that's thwarting your attempts to be more productive – to get things done efficiently and effectively – the good news is that it can be overcome.
A Productive Mindset
When it comes to being productive, the way you think – your attitude and approach – makes all the difference. You need a productivity mindset.
The key characteristics of a productivity mindset are on the one hand, persistence and determination and on the other hand, a positive, open mind; a willingness to be adaptable and flexible. Without persistence, not only do you achieve less than you're capable of, you don't get to discover what you are capable of achieving. And
you don't get the confidence that comes from pushing through and eventually succeeding. Persistence provides its own momentum. If you can just keep going, you'll eventually get results. And results motivate you to continue.
There's a difference, though, between being persistent and being stubborn. Being stubborn is being determined not to change your attitude or approach to doing something despite the evidence that things aren't working out.
But as Albert Einstein once said: ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ Being stubborn means it's less likely that you'll step back to get a broader perspective on what is and isn't happening and become more strategic. In contrast, when you're persistent, although you're determined to succeed, you can see when something is not working. You're flexible; you're able to adjust your plans and actions and are prepared to listen to suggestions, ideas, and advice. You're open to new ways of doing things so that you can keep moving forward, making things happen, and getting things done.
Admittedly, the line between stubbornness and persistence is thin and can be difficult to distinguish. But stubbornness leads to stagnation; it struggles on and it doesn't accept other possibilities, other ways of doing something. Persistence is a more uplifting experience; periods of difficulty are interspersed with small gains and measures of progress. These small gains inspire you and give you hope; you recognize and build on them.
It's likely that you've been both persistent and stubborn at some point in the past.
Think of a time when you've achieved something through persistence – passed your driving test, learnt to speak a language, play a musical instrument, or some other activity. No doubt it wasn't easy, but you achieved it because you were persistent; when things became difficult, you found a way to overcome the challenges and you moved forward.
Now think of a time when you clung onto something – a job or relationship. Rather than recognize it wasn't working out and that nothing was changing, you hung on in there. Or remember a time
when you got lost walking or driving somewhere. Rather than ask someone for directions, you kept going but ended up even more lost. That was you being stubborn.
Stubbornness is delusional thinking. Persistence is positive thinking. Having a positive outlook doesn't mean denying the challenges and difficulties of a situation. Rather, you acknowledge the difficulties and challenges and then, instead of letting them drag you down into a spiral of negative thinking, you move on to work out how you can now respond in positive, constructive ways. And you use the difficulties as learning experiences for the future.
Letting Go Of What's Not Important
So, to be more productive requires a productive mindset: persistence and determination and a positive, open mind; a willingness to be adaptable and flexible. But before you can start doing anything, let's look at what you could stop doing.
Steve Jobs – the cofounder of Apple – once said that what made Apple Apple was not so much what they chose to build but all the projects they chose to ignore. It's true, what you don't do helps determine what you can do. For many of us, it's not that there's not enough time in the day; it's that we've got too many commitments getting in the way of doing the things we most want to do and really need to get done.
Maybe you're the sort of person who overcommits when you're feeling particularly enthusiastic and optimistic about what you're able to do. Or you just want to help someone out. At the time, when you decide to take it on, you think you'll be able to manage. You agree to more chores and tasks, errands, assignments, and projects. You take on more duties, responsibilities, and obligations.
Which of your commitments have become a burden? Whether it's a local cause or you've simply agreed to walk your neighbour's dog or look after their cat, you've taken on a new project or some extra work, or it's always you that does the coffee run, are there things you can drop so that you have more time for the important things? The things you really want to get done?
Of course, taking a step back and disengaging from some of your commitments isn't always easy. It may be that you're thinking about sunk costs; the time, effort, love, or money you've already put into something. Even though you now regret having got involved, instead of letting go, you struggle on.
Perhaps you tell yourself you just can't; you'll let people down if you drop out. You said you'd do something, so you feel obliged – you feel it's your duty – you should keep your word, stick with it, and put up with the difficulties. Or maybe you're worried about the response you'll get if you pull out; the other person will be upset or angry. You feel trapped, but you don't want to let people down and you can't face handling their reaction if you back out. And maybe you don't want to call it a day because you don't want to admit that you were wrong to have committed to it in the first place.
It doesn't have to be like this!
At the time you decided to get involved or to do something, you made the right choice. Now, however, you realize it's not what you want to do; you've had a change of heart; your feelings have changed and you realize it's getting in the way of what you'd rather be doing.
For each commitment, ask yourself: ‘Is it that important to me; in line with what I really want to get done?’
Have courage! You may well feel concerned – worried and anxious –about telling someone else that you're going to stop doing whatever it is you said you'd do. That's ok – it's okay to feel some trepidation –but rather than focusing on how anxious you feel, think of how much better you'll feel for having taken action. Unless you signed a contract, there's nothing to stop you from walking away. You may feel uncomfortable – you've got to explain your change of mind to friends, family, or colleagues – but having a few uncomfortable conversations is a small price to pay for freeing yourself from commitments that are no longer of interest or that you don't have time for. Other people might need someone to fill your role but it doesn't have to be you. If you left the situation tomorrow – left the committee for example – in three months' time, what do you think would happen to those people who ‘need’ you? They'll adjust, and quite quickly they will be fine. People can and will sort it out. But if
you stay in that situation because you think that you ‘should’ or you ‘have to’, in three months' time, will you be fine?
How to tell them? Just be honest, clear, and succinct. Avoid waffling, rambling, or giving excuses. Don't blame someone or something else, just be honest. You only need one genuine reason for saying no. Just say what you need to say. Say, for example, ‘I'm sorry, I'm not going to be able to continue …'. Or ‘Next month I'm going to stop …'. Once you've said what you've got to say, say no more. Just listen to the other person's response. Then acknowledge their response but stand your ground.
And the time, energy, or money you've already invested? That's all now in the past. Don't let the past dictate the present. Think about what you have to gain rather than what you have to lose by pulling out. If you can let go of some of the things you do, you'll feel less stressed and you'll have more time and energy for the things you really want to do.
Think like Beyonce. As she once said: ‘Thank God I found the good in goodbye.’
Is there something or some things that you can let go of; not do, or not go to, or get someone else to do? (More about getting help from other people in Chapter 5.) Whatever it is, let it go knowing that what's left is more in line with what you need and want to do with your time.
In a nutshell
Whatever it is that's thwarting your attempts to be more productive – to get things done efficiently and effectively –the good news is that it can be overcome.
The way you think – your attitude and approach – makes all the difference. You need a productivity mindset: persistence and determination and a positive, open mind; a willingness to be adaptable and flexible.
There's a difference between being persistent and being stubborn. Being stubborn is being determined not to change your attitude or approach to doing something despite the evidence that things aren't working out.
But with persistence, although you're determined to succeed, you can see when something is not working. You're able to adjust your plans, are prepared to listen to ideas and advice, and are open to new ways of doing things so that you can keep moving forward to get things done.
Stubbornness is delusional thinking. Persistence is positive thinking.
What you don't do helps determine what you can do. Is there something or some things that can you let go not do, or not go to, or get someone else to do?
Think about what you have to gain rather than what you have to lose by pulling out. If you can let go of some of the things you do, you'll feel less stressed and you'll have more time and energy for the things you really want to do.
2
Know Yourself
People who are productive – those who get things done – manage to do so not just because they have a productive mindset or because they've prioritized their commitments. They're effective and efficient because they draw on their skills, strengths, and qualities. What skills do you have?
Maybe you have good written and verbal communication skills; you can clearly explain and understand ideas, opinions, thoughts, and feelings. You can clearly and succinctly tell others what does and doesn't need doing.
Perhaps you have good social and interpersonal skills; you can work cooperatively – listen to others, share ideas. You can be tactful and persuasive; you're skilled at negotiating, motivating, and encouraging others. Are you good at networking? If you do have good communication, social, and interpersonal skills, you can draw on those skills to work with others to be more productive – to be more efficient and effective in getting things done. (There's more about this in Chapter 5.)
Perhaps you have good research skills; you're good at finding relevant facts and information. Maybe you have good IT skills? Do you have any specific practical abilities? Perhaps you're skilled at using equipment and tools?
Any of these skills and abilities can support you in being productive; in getting things done more effectively and efficiently. Identify what they are so that you can exploit them to help you get things done.
Identify Your Qualities And Strengths
Read through this list and, as you do, tick each and every quality that applies to you.
Adaptable and flexible: I'm able to change my approach and adjust to different conditions and circumstances.
Calm: I can deal with problems as they happen; I don't get overexcited or too anxious, angry, or upset when things go wrong.
Conscientious: I'm guided by a sense of what's right; I like to work carefully and do things thoroughly.
Cooperative: I work well with other people; I'm willing to be of assistance in working towards a common goal.
Decisive: I make decisions easily, with little hesitation.
Determined: I resolve to stick to a decision and/or keep going.
Enthusiastic: I have a lively interest in ideas, activities, tasks, etc. I'm often eager to get on with things.
Imaginative, creative, and innovative: I can come up with new ways and ideas to make things happen and get things done and to solve problems and overcome difficulties.
Intuitive and perceptive: I'm insightful; I know when something does or doesn't feel right. I can read between the lines, pick up on what others are feeling, what their needs, likes, and dislikes are.
Logical: I'm capable of reasoning in a clear and consistent manner: I can easily work out what the next steps are.
Methodical and organized: I have clear methods and systems for doing things in an orderly way. I plan things efficiently.
Observant: I'm quick to notice things. I notice details and I'm perceptive.
Open minded: I'm willing to consider new ideas and different ways of doing things.
Optimistic: I am usually hopeful and confident that things will turn out well.
Patient: I can wait for things to happen in their own time. I can accept delays and difficulties without becoming annoyed or anxious.
Persistent: I can continue a course of action despite difficulty or opposition.
Practical and realistic: I like to do whatever works; whatever is effective and brings results. I'm more concerned with the actual doing or use of something than with theory and ideas. I'm sensible and realistic in my approach to a situation or problem.
Reliable: I can be trusted and depended on to keep my word, to do what I say I will, and to do something well.
Resilient: I can recover quickly from adversity; from difficulties and setbacks.
Resourceful: I'm able to find quick and clever ways to deal with new situations and overcome difficulties.
Responsible and accountable: I can be trusted to do what I've said I'll do. Not only willing to ensure the job is done, but also accepting responsibility for the results – good or bad. I don't make excuses or lay blame if something doesn't work out. I can explain, justify, and take responsibility.
Thorough: I take pains to do something carefully and completely.
Choose five of the qualities you've ticked. For each of those five qualities, think some more about how each quality has helped you in the past and can continue to help you be productive; to get things done effectively and efficiently.
For example, if you felt that patience was one of your qualities, you might recognize that at work you don't rush things or overlook details; you take time to do things properly so that you don't make mistakes and so you don't waste time having to go back over things.
If being imaginative and innovative are two of your strengths, you'll know that you can come up with new ways and ideas to make things happen and get things done. Can you think of times in the past when you've done that?
And if you're cooperative, you work well with other people. How do you think that's helped you be more productive – to be more effective and efficient at getting things done?
Know Your Learning Style
Being aware of your skills and strengths can help you feel more confident that you do have what it takes to be more productive. But did you know that as well as having specific skills, strengths, and qualities, you have your own individual way of learning? Imagine, for example, that you had to learn how to make, install, or mend something. Would you want to read the instructions first, think through each step, and then do it? Or would you just want to get stuck in and try different ways of doing something until you find the most successful?
The way the one person learns – takes in new ideas and information and acquires new knowledge and skills – may be different from the way you learn. Quite simply, some of us learn best by doing things first and then thinking about what we've learnt. Others learn best by thinking things through first and then getting on with the doing. When you're aware of how you learn best, you can use it to your advantage and apply your preferred approach to learning to help you be productive; to get things done more easily and efficiently.
In 1986, occupational psychologist Peter Honey and his colleague Alan Mumford, a management development advisor, identified four different learning styles: Activist, Pragmatist, Reflector, and Theorist. Not only can each of these learning styles be seen to apply to how a person learns, they also apply to how they approach tasks and activities and get things done. There are strengths and weaknesses to each style. The trick is to identify and make use of your strengths and to be aware of and work round your weaknesses.
If you're an Activist, you're someone who likes to get started on things straightaway. You're happy to hit the ground running. You love the challenge of new experiences and you'll try anything once. You're open-minded and enthusiastic about learning and doing new things. You learn best – and are therefore more productive – when you can just get on with it, without any constraints. However, you
have a tendency to do too much yourself. You take unnecessary risks and rush into action without sufficient preparation. If things don't work out, instead of stopping to consider why, you often just move on to the next thing. You're impatient; you often don't consolidate –pull everything together at the end – and you leave things unfinished.
If your style of learning is that of a Pragmatist, once you've understood an idea or theory, you're keen to try it out and put it into practice. You learn best and are therefore more productive when you can solve problems, make practical decisions, and, like activists, get going on things. However, you may tend to seize on the first convenient solution to a problem and, although it might be practical, it may not always be the best, most suitable, or most appropriate way to get things done.
To be more productive – to be more efficient and effective at getting things done – Activists and Pragmatists need to work on:
Planning and prioritizing.
Listening to other's ideas and opinions and considering alternative ways forward.
Reflecting on and learning from what worked and didn't work with any one task or project.
Finding ways to stay engaged and persisting for longer periods.
If your preferred way of learning is that of a Theorist, you take a logical, structured approach to everything you learn and do. You like to analyse and understand the theory behind ideas, concepts, and systems. You're organized and disciplined and likely to be a perfectionist. However, you don't like uncertainty, disorder, and ambiguity. You're not happy until things fit into a rational scheme: a systematic and logical theory. Your perfectionism can result in procrastination; you hold back from doing something for fear of not being able to do it perfectly.
If your style of learning is that of a Reflector, you like to stand back, see things from different perspectives before doing anything. You're happy to observe and listen to others. You like harmony. You're
ordered, careful, cautious, calm, methodical, and thorough. You learn best, and so therefore are more productive, if you can think first: do some research, gather views, opinions, ideas, and information. You like to do things in your own time without pressure and deadlines. You learn least, and so are least productive, when there's no time for planning and you don't have enough information to make a decision. You may have a tendency to procrastinate and you find it difficult to make short cuts.
When it comes to being more productive, Reflectors and Theorists may need to work on:
Being more flexible.
Being less of a perfectionist.
Setting priorities and making decisions.
Getting started on things.
You can find out for yourself what your preferred learning style is by Googling ‘Honey and Mumford Learning Style Questionnaire’. You will probably find that you're not 100% any one particular learning style; that you prefer different methods of learning and doing things depending upon the situation.
It isn't that each of us can only learn or approach tasks and activities in one way, it's just that we might find one way easier and more effective than others. Honey and Mumford recommend that to maximize learning, we each need to understand our own learning style and seek out opportunities to learn and do things in the way that suits us best. But, just as importantly, we also need to develop our ability to learn and do things in other ways in order to become more efficient and effective at learning and being productive.
In a nutshell
People who are productive – who get things done – manage to do so, not just because they have a productive mindset or because they've prioritized their commitments, but also because they draw on their skills, strengths, and qualities.
Identify your skills and strengths. Think about how each quality has helped you in the past and can continue to help you to be productive; to get things done effectively and efficiently.
When you're aware of how you learn best – how you take in new ideas and information and acquire new knowledge and skills – you can use it to your advantage and apply your preferred approach to learning to help you be more productive.
You can find out for yourself what your preferred learning style is by Googling ‘Honey and Mumford Learning Style Questionnaire’.
3
Get Organized
There is, of course, always someone who can tell you what you need to do to be more productive and successful. Someone like New Yorker Anthony Pompliano who, one day in June 2018, tweeted a list of nine things that, he said, ‘the most successful people’ do. Here's his list:
1. Read constantly.
2. Work out daily.
3. Are innately curious.
4. Have laser focus.
5. Believe in themselves.
6. Build incredible teams.
7. Admit they know very little.
8. Constantly work to improve.
9. Demand excellence in everything they do.
He got some amusing responses. Here's one from @TechnicallyRon. The most successful people I've met:
1. Take good naps.
2. Eat regular meals.
3. Enjoy exercise.
4. Like a good treat.
5. Covered in fur.
6. Aren't actually people.
7. Are golden retrievers.
If you're keen to be more productive, you've probably come across plenty of conflicting advice or hacks that are touted as being the secrets that can set you on the road to success.
But what works for one person may not be the best strategy for someone else. Being productive involves finding your own rhythm and getting things done in a way that works best for you; according to your circumstances; your skills and abilities; and the time, energy, and resources you have. Though it can be helpful to get ideas from others who have a knack for getting things done, when it comes to your own productivity, the smartest thing you can do is to learn what works best for you.
Productivity Is Personal
‘No one is you and that is your power.’
Dave Grohl
You might marvel at how much productive people seem to get done; they appear to be able to fit more into their day than you thought was possible. But what you'll find is that they've set things up to succeed according to their skills, strengths, and abilities; their resources, interests, commitments, and obligations. And rather than working harder, they're working smarter.
You can do the same.
In Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Alice has the following conversation with the Cheshire Cat:
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don't much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
Alice: . . . So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.
When it comes to being productive, if, like Alice, you don't know what, exactly, it is that you're trying to achieve, you could well end up just about anywhere and spend a long time getting there!
Do you want to be more productive at work or study? Perhaps you want to be more productive at home: with housework, decluttering, or decorating. Maybe you'd like to be more productive with a creative activity: writing a novel, painting or drawing, or learning a new skill – a language or a musical instrument. Maybe you want to achieve more in terms of health and exercise? Perhaps you want to train to run a marathon?
Whatever area or areas of your life that you want to be more productive in, you'll need to have an idea of how much you want to get done and by when.
These goals, for example have no measures or time frames:
1. Get more business.
2. Get fitter.
3. Write a book of short stories.
4. Declutter the house.
In contrast, these goals show how much each person wants to get done and by when.
1. Get 10 new clients in the next year.
2. Be able to run a half marathon by April.
3. Write a book of 10 short stories by the end of the year.
4. Declutter one room in my home every month.
Reality Check
Knowing how much you want to get done and by when can help structure and focus your efforts. But how do you know if what you're
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1. THE CREATION OF MAN.
Certain of the angels having fallen, God made men, that they might take their vacated places.
According to the most authoritative Mussulman traditions, Adam was created on Friday afternoon at the Assr-hour, or about three o’clock. The four archangels—Gabriel, Michael, Israfiel, and Asrael—were required to bring earth from the four quarters of the world, that therefrom God might fashion man. His head and breast were made of clay from Mecca and Medina, from the spot where later were the Holy Kaaba and the tomb of Mohammed. Although still lifeless, his beauty amazed the angels who had flocked to the gates of Paradise. But Eblis, envious of the beauty of Adam’s as yet inanimate form, said to the angels: “How can you admire a creature made of earth? From such material nothing but fragility and feebleness can come.” However, most of the angels praised God for what He had done.
The body of Adam was so great, that if he stood up his head would reach into the seventh heaven. But he was not as yet endowed with a living soul. The soul had been made a thousand years before, and had been steeped all that while in the sea of light which flowed from Allah. God now ordered the soul to enter the body. It showed some indisposition to obey; thereupon God exclaimed: “Quicken Adam against your will, and, as a penalty for your disobedience, you shall leave the body sorely against your will.” Then God blew the spirit against Adam with such force that it entered his nose, and ran up into his head, and as soon as it reached his eyes Adam opened them, and saw the throne of God with the inscription upon it: “There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His prophet.” Then the soul ran into his ears, and Adam heard the song of the angels; thereupon his tongue was unloosed, for by this time the soul had reached it, and he said, “Praise be to Thee, my Creator, one and only!” And God answered him: “For this purpose are you made. You and your successors must pray to me, and you will find mercy and loving-
kindness at my hands.” Then the soul penetrated all the members, reaching last of all the feet of Adam, which receiving strength, he sprang up, and stood upon the earth. But when he stood upright he was obliged to close his eyes, for the light of God’s throne shining directly into them blinded them. “What light is this?” he asked, as he covered his eyes with one hand, and indicated the throne with the other. “It is the light of a prophet,” God answered, “who will spring from thee in later ages. By mine honour I swear, for him alone have I created the world. In heaven he bears the name of the much-lauded, and on earth he will be called Mohammed. Through him all men will be led out of error into the way of truth.”
God then called all created animals before Adam, and told him their names and their natures. Then He called up all the angels, and bade them bow before Adam, the man whom He had made. Israfiel obeyed first, and God gave to him in recompense the custody of the Book of Fate; the other angels obeyed in order; only Eblis refused, in the pride of his heart, saying, “Why shall I, who am made of fire, bend before him who is made of earth?” Therefore he was cast out of the angel choirs, and was forbidden admission through the gates of Paradise. Adam also was led out of Paradise, and he preached to the angels, who stood before him in ten thousand ranks, a sermon on the power, majesty, and goodness of God, and he showed such learning and knowledge—for he could name each beast in seventy languages—that the angels were amazed at his knowledge, which excelled their own. As a reward for having preached this sermon, God sent Adam a bunch of grapes out of Paradise by the hands of Gabriel.[19]
In the Midrash, the Rabbinical story is as follows: “When God wished to make man, He consulted with the angels, and said to them, We will make a man in our image. Then they said, What is man, that you regard him, and what is his nature? He answered, His knowledge excels yours. Then He placed all kinds of beasts before them, wild beasts and fowls of the air, and asked them their names, but they knew them not. And after Adam was made, He led them before him, and He asked Adam their names, and he replied at once, This is an ox, that is an ass, this is a horse, that is a camel, and so forth.”[20]
The story told by Tabari is somewhat different.
When God would make Adam, He ordered Gabriel to bring Him a handful of every sort of clay, black, white, red, yellow, blue, and every other kind.[21] Gabriel went to the middle of the earth to the place where now is Kaaba. He wished to stoop and take the clay, but the earth said to him, “O Gabriel, what doest thou?” And Gabriel answered, “I am fetching a little clay, dust, and stone, that thereof God may make a Lord for thee.” Then the earth swore by God, “Thou shalt take of me neither clay nor dust nor stone; what if of the creatures made from me some should arise who would do evil upon the earth, and shed innocent blood?” Gabriel withdrew, respecting the oath, and took no earth; and he said to God, “Thou knowest what the earth said to me.”
Then God sent Michael and bade him fetch a little mud. But when Michael arrived, the earth swore the same oath. And Michael respected the oath and withdrew.
Then God sent Azrael, the angel of death. He came, and the earth swore the same oath; but he did not retire, but answered and said, “I must obey the command of God in spite of thine oath.”
And the angel of death stooped, and took from forty ells below the earth clay of every sort, as we have said, and therefrom God made Adam.
No one in the world had seen a form like that of Adam. Hâreth or Satan went to look at him. Adam had lain stretched in the same place for the space of about forty years. No one thought of him or knew what sort of a thing he was. Hâreth coming up to him, saw him stretched from east to west, of huge size and as dry as dry palm leaves. Then Hâreth pushed Adam, and the dry earth rattled. Hâreth was astonished. He examined the form more attentively, and he found that it was hollow. Then he went to the mouth and crept in at it, and crept out again and let the angels know the doubt that was in his breast, for he said, “This creature is nothing, its inside is empty, and a hollow thing can easily be broken. Now that God has made him, He has given him the empire of the world, but I will fight against him
and drive him from the earth as I drove out the Jins. What is your advice?”
The angels answered, “O Hâreth, if we overcame the Jins it was in obedience to God’s command. Now that God has created this thing, if He orders us to submit to it, we must do so.” Now when Hâreth saw that the angels thought otherwise, he changed his discourse and said, “You speak the truth, I agree with you, but I wanted to prove you.”
When God gave the soul to Adam, it entered his throat and passed down into his bosom and belly, and wherever it passed, the earth, the clay, the dust, and the black mud became bones, nerves, veins, flesh, skin, and the like. And when his soul entered his head, Adam sneezed, and said, “Praise be to God.” And when he turned his head, he saw Paradise and all its delights; and when the soul entered his belly, he wanted to eat, so he tried to rise and get some food, but the soul had not yet reached his extremities, which were as yet mere clay, so Gabriel said: “O Adam, don’t be in a hurry.”[22] Then follows the story of Eblis refusing to adore Adam. According to another version of the Mussulman story, the soul showed such repugnance to enter the body, that the angel Gabriel took a flageolet, and sitting down near the head of the inanimate Adam, played such exquisite melodies that the soul descended to listen, and in a moment of ecstasy entered the feet, which began immediately to move. Thereupon the soul was given command by Allah not to leave the body again till special permission was given it by the Most High. [23]
In the Talmud we are told that the Rabbi Meir says that the dust from which Adam was made was gathered from all parts of the earth: the Rabbi Hoshea says that the body of the first man was made of dust from Babel; the head, of earth from the land of Israel, and the rest of his limbs from the soil of other countries: but the Rabbi Acha adds that his hinder quarters were fashioned out of clay from Acre.[24] When Adam was made, some of the dust remained over; of that God made locusts.[25]
A Rabbinical tale is to this effect. God was interrupted by the Sabbath in the midst of creating fauns and satyrs, after He had made man, and was obliged to postpone their completion till the Sunday, consequently these creatures are misshapen. A Talmudic account of the way in which were spent the hours of the day in which Adam was made, is sufficiently curious.
At the first hour, God gathered the dust of the earth; in the second, He formed the embryo; in the third, the limbs were extended; in the fourth, the soul was given; at the fifth hour Adam stood upright; at the sixth, Adam named the animals. Having done this, God asked him, “And I, what is my name?”
Adam replied—“Jehovah.”
At the seventh hour, Adam married Eve; at the eighth, Cain and his sister were born; at the ninth, they were forbidden to eat of the tree; at the tenth hour Adam fell; at the eleventh he was banished from Eden; and at the twelfth, he felt the sweat and pain of toil.[26]
In the Apocryphal Little Genesis, we are told that Adam did not disobey God till the expiration of the seventh year, and that he was not punished till forty-five days after. It adds, that before the Fall, Adam conversed familiarly with the animals, but that by the Fall they lost the faculty of speech.
God, say the Rabbis, made Adam so tall that his head touched the sky; and the tree of life, planted in the midst of the garden of Eden, was so broad at the base that it would take a good walker five years to march round it, and Adam’s proportions accorded with those of the tree. The angels murmured, and told God that there were two sovereigns, one in heaven and one on earth. Thereupon God placed His hand on the head of Adam and reduced him to a thousand cubits.[27]
To the question, How big was Adam? the Talmud replies, He was made so tall that he stood with his head in heaven, till God pressed him down at the Fall. Rabbi Jehuda says, that as he lay stretched on the earth he covered it completely;[28] but the book Sepher Gilgulim says (fol. 20, col. 4), that when he was made, his head and throat
were in Paradise, and his body in the earth. To judge how long he was, says the same book, understand that his body stretched from one end of the earth to the other, and it takes a man five hundred years to walk that distance.[29] And when Adam was created, all the beasts of earth fell down before him and desired to worship him, but he said to them, “You have come to worship me, but come and let us clothe ourselves with power and glory, and let us take Him to be king over us who has created us; for a people chooses a king, but the king does not appoint himself monarch arbitrarily.” Therefore Adam chose God to be king of all the world, and the beasts, fowls, and fishes gladly consented thereto.[30] But the sun, seeing Adam, was filled with fear and became dark; and the angels quaked and were dismayed, and prayed to God to remove from them this mighty being whom He had made. Then God cast a deep sleep on Adam, and the sun and the angels looked on him lying helpless in his slumber, and they plucked up courage and feared him no more. The book Sepher Chasidim, however, says, that the angels seeing Adam so great and with his face shining above the brightness of the sun, bowed before him, and said, “Holy, holy, holy!” Whereupon God cast a sleep upon him and cut off great pieces of his flesh to reduce him to smaller proportions. And when Adam woke he saw bits of flesh strewed all round him, like shavings in a carpenter’s shop, and he exclaimed “O God! how hast Thou robbed me?” but God answered, “Take these gobbets of flesh and carry them into all lands and drop them everywhere, and strew dust on them; and wherever they are laid, that land will I give to thy posterity to inherit.”[31]
Many are the origins attributed to man in the various creeds of ancient and modern heathendom. Sometimes he is spoken of as having been made out of water, but more generally it is of earth that he has been made, or from which he has been spontaneously born. The Peruvians believed that the world was peopled by four men and four women, brothers and sisters, who emerged from the caves near Cuzco. Among the North American Indians the earth is regarded as the universal mother. Men came into existence in her womb, and crept out of it by climbing up the roots of the trees which hung from the vault in which they were conceived and matured; or, mounting a
deer, the animal brought them into daylight; or, groping in darkness, they tore their way out with their nails.[32]
The Egyptian philosophers pretended that man was made of the mud of the Nile.[33] In Aristophanes,[34] man is spoken of as
πηλοῦ. Among some of the Chinese it is believed that man was thus formed:—“The book Fong-zen-tong says: When the earth and heaven were made, there was not as yet man or peoples. Then Niuhoa moulded yellow earth, and of that made man. That is the true origin of men.”[35]
And the ancient Chaldeans supposed man was made by the mixing of the blood of Belus with the soil.[36]
2. THE PRE-ADAMITES.
In 1655, Isaac de la Peyreira, a converted Jew, published a curious treatise on the Pre-Adamites. Arguing upon Romans v 12-14, he contended that there were two creations of man; that recorded in the first chapter of Genesis and that described in the second chapter being distinct. The first race he supposed to have peopled the whole world, but that it was bad, and therefore Adam had been created with a spiritual soul, and that from Adam the Jewish race was descended, whereas the Gentile nations issued from the loins of the Pre-Adamites. Consequently the original sin of Adam weighed only on his descendants, and Peyreira supposed that it was his race alone which perished, with the exception of Noah and his family, in the Deluge, which Peyreira contends was partial. This book was condemned and burnt in Paris by the hands of the executioner, and the author, who had taken refuge in Brussels, was there condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities. He appealed to Rome, whither he journeyed, and he was received with favour by Alexander VII., before whom he abjured Calvinism, which he had professed.
He died at the age of 82, at Aubervilliers, near Paris, and Moreri wrote the following epigrammatic epitaph for him:—
“La Peyrère ici gît, ce bon Israélite, Huguenot, catholique, enfin pré-Adamite. Quatre religions lui plurent à la fois; Et son indifférence était si peu commune, Qu’après quatre-vingts ans qu’il eut à faire un choix, Le bon homme partit et n’en choisit aucune.”
The Oriental book Huschenk-Nameh gives a fuller history of the PreAdamites. Before Adam was created, says this book, there were in the isle Muscham, one of the Maldives, men with flat heads, and for this reason they were called by the Persians, Nim-ser. They were governed by a king named Dambac.
When Adam, expelled the earthly Paradise, established himself in the Isle of Ceylon, the flat-heads submitted to him. After his death they guarded his tomb by day, and the lions relieved guard by night, to protect his body against the Divs.
III. EVE.[37]
That man was created double, i.e. both male and female, is and has been a common opinion. One Rabbinical interpretation of the text, “And God created man in His own image, male-female created He them,” is that Adam and Eve were formed back to back, united at the shoulders, and were hewn asunder with a hatchet; but of this more presently. The Rabbis say that when Eve had to be drawn out of the side of Adam she was not extracted by the head, lest she should be vain; nor by the eyes, lest they should be wanton; nor by the mouth, lest she should be given to gossiping; nor by the ears, lest she should be an eavesdropper; nor by the hands, lest she should be meddlesome; nor by the feet, lest she should be a gadabout; nor by the heart, lest she should be jealous; but she was drawn forth by the side: yet, notwithstanding all these precautions, she has every fault specially guarded against.[38]
They also say that, for the marriage-feast of Adam and Eve, God made a table of precious stone, and each gem was a hundred ells long and sixty ells wide, and the table was covered with costly dishes.[39]
The Mussulman tradition is, that Adam having eaten the bunch of grapes given him as a reward for having preached to the angels, fell asleep; and whilst he slept, God took from his left side a woman whom He called Hava, because she was extracted from one living (Hai), and He laid her beside Adam. She resembled him exactly, except that her features were more delicate, her hair longer and divided into seven hundred locks, her form more slender, her eyes softer, and her voice sweeter than Adam’s. In the meantime Adam
had been dreaming that a wife had been given to him; and when he woke, great was his delight to find his dream turned into a reality. He put forth his hand to take that of Hava, but she withdrew hers, answering his words of love with, “God is my master, and I cannot give my hand to thee without His permission; and, moreover, it is not proper for a man to take a wife without making her a wedding present.”
Adam thereupon sent the angel Gabriel to ask God’s permission to take to him Hava as his wife. Gabriel returned with the answer that she had been created to be his helpmate, and that he was to treat her with gentleness and love. For a present he must pray twenty times for Mohammed and for the prophets, who, in due season, were to be born of him. Ridhwan, the porter of Paradise, then brought to Adam the winged horse Meimun, and to Eve a light-footed shecamel. Gabriel helped them to mount and led them into Paradise, where they were greeted by all the angels and beasts with the words: “Hail, father and mother of Mohammed!”
In the midst of Paradise was a green silk tent spread for them, supported on gold pillars, and in the tent was a throne upon which Adam and Hava were seated. Then they were bathed in one of the rivers of Paradise and brought before the presence of God, who bade them dwell in Paradise. “I have prepared you this garden for your home; in it you shall be protected from cold and heat, from hunger and thirst. Enjoy all that meets your eye, only of one fruit taste not. Beware how you break my command, and arm yourself against the subtlety of your foe, Eblis; he envies you, and stands by you seeking to destroy you, for through you was he cast out.”[40]
Tabari says that Adam was brought single into Paradise, through which he roamed eating from the fruit trees, and a deep sleep fell upon him, during which Eve was created from his left side. And when Adam opened his eyes, he saw her, and asked her who she was, and she replied, “I am thy wife; God created me out of thee and for thee, that thy heart might find repose.” The angels said to Adam: “What thing is this? What is her name? Why is she made?” Adam replied, “This is Eve.” Adam remained five hundred years in Paradise. It was on a Friday that Adam entered Eden.[41]
The inhabitants of Madagascar have a strange myth touching the origin of woman. They say that the first man was created of the dust of the earth, and was placed in a garden, where he was subject to none of the ills which now affect mortality; he was also free from all bodily appetites, and though surrounded by delicious fruit and limpid streams, yet felt no desire to taste of the fruit or to quaff the water. The Creator had, moreover, strictly forbidden him either to eat or to drink. The great enemy, however, came to him, and painted to him in glowing colours the sweetness of the apple, the lusciousness of the date, and the succulence of the orange.
In vain: the first man remembered the command laid upon him by his Maker. Then the fiend assumed the appearance of an effulgent spirit, and pretended to be a messenger from Heaven commanding him to eat and drink. The man at once obeyed. Shortly after, a pimple appeared on his leg; the spot enlarged to a tumour, which increased in size and caused him considerable annoyance. At the end of six months it burst, and there emerged from the limb a beautiful girl.
The father of all living was sorely perplexed what to make of his acquisition, when a messenger from heaven appeared, and told him to let her run about the garden till she was of a marriageable age, and then to take her to himself as his wife. He obeyed. He called her Bahouna, and she became the mother of all races of men.
The notion of the first man having been of both sexes till the separation, was very common. He was said to have been male on the right side and female on the left, and that one half of him was removed to constitute Eve, but that the complete man consists of both sexes.
Eugubinus among Christian commentators, the Rabbis Samuel, Manasseh Ben-Israel, and Maimonides among the Jews, have given the weight of their opinion to support this interpretation. The Rabbi Jeremiah Ben-Eleazer, on the authority of the text “Thou hast fashioned me behind and before” (Ps. cxxxix. 4), argued that Adam had two faces, one male and the other female, and that he was of both sexes.[42]
The Rabbi Samuel Ben-Nahaman held that the first man was created double, with a woman at his back, and that God cut them apart.[43] “Adam,” said other Rabbis, “had two faces and one tail, and from the beginning he was both male and female, male on one side, female on the other; but afterwards the parts were separated.”[44]
The Talmudists assert that God cut off Adam’s tail and thereof formed Eve.[45]
With this latter fable agrees the ludicrous myth of the Kikapoo Indians, related in my “Curiosities of Olden Times.”
In Aristophanes’ speech in the Symposium of Plato, a myth is given, that in the beginning there was a race of men of which every member was double, having two heads, four legs and four arms, and each of both sexes. This race, says he, was filled with pride, and it attempted to scale heaven. The Gods desired at once to reduce their might and punish their temerity, but did not wish to destroy the human race; consequently at the advice of Zeus, each androgyne was hewn asunder, so as to leave to each half two arms and a pair of legs, one head and a single sex.
An Indian tradition is to this effect. Whilst Brahma the creator was engaged in the production of beings, he saw Kaya (body) divide itself into two parts, of which each part was of a different sex, and thence sprang the whole human race.[46]
According to another much more explicit version, Viradi, the first man, finding his solitude intolerable, fell into the deepest sorrow; and, yearning for a companion, his nature developed into two sexes united in one. Then he separated into two individuals, but found in that separation unhappiness, for he was conscious of his imperfection; then he reunited the existence of the two portions and was happy, and from that reunion the world was peopled.[47]
In Persia, Meschia and Meschiane, the first man and the first woman, were said to have formed originally but one body; but they were cut apart, and from this voluntary reunion all men are sprung.[48]
The idea so prevalent that man without woman, or woman without man, is an imperfect being, was the cause of the great repugnance
with which the Jews and other nations of the East regarded celibacy
The Rabbi Eliezer, commenting on the text “He called their name Adam” (Gen. v. 2.), laid down that he who has not a wife is not a man, for man is the recomposition of male and female into one.[49]
Bramah, says an Indian legend, being charged with the production of the human race, felt himself a prey to violent pains, till his sides opened, and from one flank emerged a boy and from the other a girl. In China, the story is told that the Goddess Amida sweated male children out of her right arm-pit, and female children from her left arm-pit, and these children peopled the earth.[50]
Vishnu, according to an Indian fable, gave birth to Dharma by his right side, and to Adharma by his left side, and through Adharma death entered the world.[51] Another story is to the effect, that the right arm of Vena gave birth to Pritu, the master of the earth, and the left arm to the Virgin Archis, who became the bride of Pritu.[52]
Pygmalion, says the classic story, which is really a Phœnician myth of creation, made woman of marble or ivory, and Aphrodite, in answer to his prayers, endowed the statue with life. “Often does Pygmalion apply his hands to the work. One while he addresses it in soft terms, at another he brings it presents that are agreeable to maidens, as shells and smooth pebbles, and little birds, and flowers of a thousand hues, and lilies, and painted balls, and tears of the Heliades, that have distilled from the trees. He decks her limbs, too, with clothing, and puts a long necklace on her neck. Smooth pendants hang from her ears, and bows from her breast. All things are becoming to her.”[53]
But Hesiod gives a widely different account of the creation of woman. According to him, she was sent in mockery by Zeus to be a scourge to man:—
“The
Sire who rules the earth and sways the pole Had spoken; laughter filled his secret soul: He bade the crippled god his hest obey, And mould with tempering water plastic clay; With human nerve and human voice invest
The limbs elastic, and the breathing breast; Fair as the blooming goddesses above, A virgin likeness with the looks of love. He bade Minerva teach the skill that sheds A thousand colours in the glittering threads; He called the magic of love’s golden queen To breathe around a witchery of mien, And eager passion’s never-sated flame, And cares of dress that prey upon the frame; Bade Hermes last endue, with craft refined Of treacherous manners, and a shameless mind.”[54]
That Eve was Adam’s second wife was a common Rabbinic speculation; certain of the commentators on Genesis having adopted this view to account for the double account of the creation of woman in the sacred text,—first in Genesis i. 27, and secondly in Genesis ii. 18; and they say that Adam’s first wife was named Lilith, but she was expelled from Eden, and after her expulsion Eve was created.
Abraham Ecchellensis gives the following account of Lilith, and her doings:—“There are some who do not regard spectres as simple devils, but suppose them to be of a mixed nature, part demoniacal, part human, and to have had their origin from Lilith, Adam’s first wife, by Eblis, the prince of the devils. This fable has been transmitted to the Arabs from Jewish sources, by some converts of Mahomet from Cabbalism and Rabbinism, who have transferred all the Jewish fooleries to the Arabs. They gave to Adam a wife, formed of clay, along with Adam, and called her Lilith; resting on the Scripture, ‘male and female created He them:’[55] but when this woman, on account of her simultaneous creation with him, became proud and a vexation to her husband, God expelled her from Paradise, and then said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.’[56] And this they confirm by the words of Adam when he saw the woman fashioned from his rib, ‘This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,’[57] which is as much as to say, Now God has given me a wife and companion, suitable for me, taken from my bone and flesh, but the other wife he gave me was not of my bone and flesh, and therefore was not a suitable companion and wife for me.
“But Lilith, after she was expelled from Paradise, is said to have married the Devil, by whom she had children, who are called Jins. These were endued with six qualities, of which they share three with men, and three with devils. Like men, they generate in their own likeness, eat food, and die. Like devils, they are winged, and they fly where they list with great velocity; they are invisible, and they can pass through solid substances without injuring them. This race of Jins is supposed to be less noxious to men, and indeed to live in some familiarity and friendship with them, as in part sharers of their nature. The author of the history and acts of Alexander of Macedon relates, that in a certain region of India, on certain hours of the day, the young Jins assume a human form, and appear openly and play games with the native children of human parents quite familiarly.”[58]
It must not be supposed that women, as they are now, are at all comparable to Eve in her pristine beauty; on this point the Talmud says: “All women in respect of Sarah are like monkeys in respect of men. But Sarah can no more be compared to Eve than can a monkey be compared with a man. In like manner it may be said, if any comparison could be drawn between Eve and Adam, she stood to him in the same relation of beauty as does a monkey to a man; but if you were to compare Adam with God, Adam would be the monkey, and God the man.”[59]
Literary ladies may point to the primal mother as the first authoress; for a Gospel of Eve existed in the times of S. Epiphanius, who mentions it as being in repute among the Gnostics.[60] And the Mussulmans attribute to her a volume of Prophecies which were written at her dictation by the Angel Raphael.[61]
All ladies will be glad to learn that there is a tradition, Manichean, it is true, and anathematized by S. Clement, which nevertheless contains a large element of truth; it is to this effect, that Adam, when made, was like a beast, coarse, rude, and inanimate, but that from Eve he received his upright position, his polish, and his spirituality.[62]
IV.
THE FALL OF MAN.
What was the tree of which our first parents were forbidden to eat?
In Midrash, f. 7, the Rabbi Mayer says it was a wheat-tree; the Rabbi Jehuda, that it was a grape-vine; the Rabbi Aba, that it was a Paradise-apple; the Rabbi Josse, that it was a fig-tree: therefore it was that, when driven out of Paradise, they used its leaves for a covering.
The Persian story, adopted by the Arabs, is that the forbidden fruit was wheat, and that it grew on a tree whose trunk resembled gold and its branches silver. Each branch bore five shining ears, and each ear contained five grains as big as the eggs of an ostrich, as fragrant as musk, and as sweet as honey The people of Southern America suppose it was the banana, whose fibres form the cross, and they say that thus, in it, Adam discovered the mystery of the Redemption. The inhabitants of the island of St. Vincent think it was the tobacco plant. But, according to an Iroquois legend, the great mother of the human race lost heaven for a pot of bears’ grease.[63] The story is as follows:—The first men living alone were,
“By the viewless winds, Blown with resistless violence round about The pendant world.”
Fearing the extinction of their race, and having learnt that a woman dwelt somewhere in the heavens, they deputed one of their number to seek her out. This messenger of mankind was borne to the skies on the wings of assembled birds; and then watched at the foot of a tree till the woman came forth to draw water from a neighbouring
well. On her approach he addressed her, offered her bears’ fat, and then seduced her. The Deity perceiving her shame, in His anger thrust her out of heaven. The tortoise received her on his back; and from the depths of the sea the fish brought clay, and thus gradually built up an island on which the universal mother brought forth her first twins.
According to the traditions of the Lamaic faith, the first men lived to the age of sixty thousand years.[64] They were invisibly nourished, and were able to raise themselves at will to the heavens. In this age of the world the transmigration of souls was universal,—all men were twice born; and in this age it was that the thousand gods settled themselves in heaven. In an unlucky hour the earth produced a honey-sweet substance: one of the men lusted after it, tasted and gave to his companions; the consequence was, that men lost the power of rising from off the earth, their size, and their wisdom, and were obliged to satisfy themselves with food produced by the soil.
The Nepaul account of the beginning of sin is as follows: “Originally,” says one of the Tantras, “the earth was uninhabited. In those times the inhabitants of Abhaswara, one of the heavenly mansions, used frequently to visit the earth, and thence speedily return. It happened at length that when a few of these beings, who though half male, half female, through the innocence of their minds had never noticed their distinction of sex, came as usual to the earth, Adi Buddha suddenly created in them so violent a longing to eat, that they ate some of the earth, which had the taste of almonds; and by eating it they lost their power of flying back to their heaven, and so they remained on the earth. They were now constrained to eat the fruits of the earth for sustenance.”[65]
According to the Cinghalese, the Brahmas inhabited the higher regions of the air, where they enjoyed perfect happiness. “But it came to pass that one of them beholding the earth said to himself, What thing is this? and with one of his fingers having touched the earth, he put it to the tip of his tongue, and perceived the same to be deliciously sweet; from that time all the Brahmas ate of the sweet earth for the space of sixty thousand years. In the meantime, having coveted in their hearts the enjoyment of this earth, they began to say
to one another, This part is mine and that is thine; and so, fixing boundaries to their respective shares, divided the earth between them. On account of the Brahmas having been guilty of covetousness, the earth lost its sweetness, and then brought forth a kind of mushroom,” which the Brahmas also coveted and divided, and of which they were also deprived; and thus they proceeded from food to food, till their nature was changed, and from spirits they became men, imbibed wicked ideas, and lost their ancient glory.[66]
According to the Chinese, man is part spirit, part animal. The spirit follows the laws of Heaven, as a disciple his master; the animal, on the other hand, is the slave of sense. At his origin, man obeyed the heavens; his first state was one of innocence and happiness; he knew neither disease nor death; he was by instinct wholly good and spiritual. But the immoderate desire to be wise, or, according to Laotsee, to eat, was the ruin of mankind.[67]
According to the Persian faith, the father of man had heaven for his destiny, but he must be humble of heart, pure of thought, of word and of deed, not invoking the Divs: and such in the beginning were the thoughts and acts of our first parents.
First they said, “It is Ormuzd (God) who has given the water, the earth, the trees, and the beasts of the field, and the stars, the moon, the sun, and all things pure.” But Ahriman (Satan) arose, and rushed upon their thoughts and said to them, “It is Ahriman who has given these things to you.” Thus Ahriman deceived them, and to the end will deceive. To this lie they gave credence and became Darvands, and their souls were condemned till the great resurrection of the body. During thirty days they feasted and covered themselves with black garments. After thirty days they went to the chase; and they found a white goat, and with their lips they drew off her milk, and drank her milk and were glad. “We have tasted nothing like to this milk,” said our first parents, Meschia and Meschiane; “the milk we have drunk was pleasant to the taste,” but it was an evil thing to their bodies.
“Then the Div, the liar, grown more bold, presented himself a second time, and brought with him fruit of which they ate; and of a hundred
excellences they before possessed, they now retained not one. And after thirty days and nights they found a white and fat sheep, and they cut off its left ear; and they fired a tree, and with their breath raised the fire to a flame; and they burned part of the branches of that tree, then of the tree khorma, and afterwards of the myrtle; and they roasted the sheep, and divided it into three portions: and of the two which they did not eat, one was carried to heaven by the bird Kehrkas.
“Afterwards they feasted on the flesh of a dog, and they clothed themselves in its skin. They gave themselves up to the chase, and with the furs of wild beasts they covered their bodies.
“And Meschia and Meschiane digged a hole in the earth, and they found iron, and the iron they beat with a stone; and they made for themselves an axe, and they struck at the roots of a tree, and they felled the tree and arranged its branches into a hut; and to God they gave no thanks; and the Divs took heart.
“And Meschia and Meschiane became enemies, and struck and wounded each other and separated; then from out of the place of darkness the chief of the Divs was heard to cry aloud: O man, worship the Divs! And the Div of Hate sat upon his throne. And Meschia approached and drew milk from the bull, and sprinkled it towards the north, and the Divs became strong. But during fifty winters, Meschia and Meschiane lived apart; and after that time they met, and Meschiane bare twins.”[68]
The story told by the Mussulmans is as follows:—
Adam and Eve lived for five hundred years in Paradise before they ate of the tree and fell; for Eblis was outside, and could not enter the gates to deceive them.
For five hundred years Eblis sought admission, but the angel Ridhwan warned him off with his flaming sword.
One day the peacock came through the gates of Paradise. This bird with the feathers of emeralds and pearls was not only the most beautiful creature God had made, but it had also been endowed with
