The Critical Difference Between Mork and Cork

Last week, I created a word by accident: MORK. 

I sent a colleague an email in which I intended to say "is this something we should do or is it just creating more work?" But in my rush, I condensed those two words into MORK. She responded, "by mork, you mean 'more work'?"

In that moment, I realized that we need a word that succinctly connotes work that is essential to neither your goals nor your happiness. It is work that we feel we are “supposed” to do. Or work that we’ve agreed to do even though we didn’t want to and probably should have said no in the first place. Or busy work. Or work that is easy to do, so we add it to our to-do lists largely for the pleasure of checking it off even though it is not the most important work.

We all have too much on our plates. We all commit to doing too much. We all feel pressed for time and like we are always running 10 minutes -- or 10 hours -- behind. Don't we? Maybe there are a few of you out there thinking: "nope, I only commit to the things that are essential, and I have my life balanced perfectly." If that's you, please call me, I need to hear your secrets. For the rest of us, we need to get better at distinguishing between Mork and its opposite: Cork, which is work that is critical to our goals and happiness.

Learning to distinguish between Mork and Cork provides a framework in which to consider projects, tasks, and ideas.

If a project or a task is Cork you need to prioritize it. Put it at the top of the list. Get it done. And if it's Mork, you need to get better at saying (even if you are just saying it to yourself) "nope, I'm not going to do X. It's not essential to my goals and won't contribute to my happiness. It's Mork and I'm not doing it."

Yup, repeat after me: "it's Mork and I'm not doing it." Doesn't that feel good?