It seemed to be a coincidence. I had been wondering doing a task the purpose it was serving and found myself reading Bernadette Jiwa’s “Why Next?” blog post.

She shares how she had learned to play chess with her uncle. The most remarkable aspect was how he had taught her strategy by asking “why is this you next, best move?”.

A simple question letting her describe the reasons she had chosen a move and how it had become the best move for her. He had her focused on the positive choice instead of asking her to enumerate all the options she had excluded. And he had her focused on making a choice that she assumed best thus also leaning forward into what the move would help her achieve.

Getting back to the task I had been thinking of and was engaged in, I asked myself “why this?”. My answers helped me to open up on what the writing I was doing in that moment was providing me with. The answers were very different from those I had given myself to the question “what is it for?” or to “do I like it?”.

All these questions are useful and important to ask. And more could be asked. They all serve a different purpose and highlight a different aspect of the task. They all help you to assess how the task is linked to your work and how you feel about it. Balancing both helps you do the work you want to do.