Don’t Work Hard, Work Efficiently

So we are pretty busy right now at Notre Dame. Both sides of the agency (print, web) are swamped. The thing I’ve noticed is when you have too much work to get done, there are two ways of catching up and getting ahead.

Work Harder or More Hours

The first is to work harder. Working harder is easy. Anyone can do it. All you have to do is increase your intensity or work more hours. I can promise you this, it won’t get you anywhere. Chances are you’ll keep getting more and more busy as higher volumes of work come in, which will make it harder to ever work more efficiently. Working hard might inflate your hours logged but it turns you into another cog in the machine. You can boast your dedication and hard work but you are tying your worth to the amount of time you have available.

Work More Efficiently

Stated as the opposite option of working harder and more hours, this seems like the obvious selection. However, because working harder is easier, it is often the first choice and, like learned helplessness, becomes a mainstay as the pressure continues to mount.

So why don’t more people attempt to work more efficiently? I believe it is because they can’t see the patterns. Think assembly line for a moment. Henry Ford noticed the pattern that is building an automobile. Mass production was made possible for Ford Motor Company not because Ford told his employees to work harder, but because he taught them to work more efficiently. Wait a second you might be thinking? By turning your task into an assembly line, aren’t you turning yourself into a cog just like Mr. Hard Worker? My answer to that question would be another question. Was Henry Ford a cog? Absolutely not.

The world is made up of two kinds of people. Those who can do a job and those who invent new ways of doing that job. Both are necessary, but the latter creates value that is greater than the hours they have available. This means you work less and get more done.

Putting it into Practice

So how do you avoid becoming another cog? Below are some tips that will help you on your way to efficiency land.

1. Look for new ways to do each task. Don’t always do something the way you did it last time. After each timely task, reserve time for thinking about how you could have completed it faster. This might seem like a waste of time but will ultimately lead to more speed. The first few times it will take longer as you analyze the patterns and attempt to automate more, but each time after that you’ll start seeing results. A side effect of this is increased knowledge in what you are doing as often the only way to get faster is to know something intimately.

2. Look for patterns. Practice makes perfect. Look for patterns in everything–letters, numbers, road signs, commercials, etc. Awareness will go along way in discovering patterns. Anything that you find yourself doing that feels repetitive is prime for automation. Find ways to do similar tasks together. For example, for quite a while I was doing 4-5 flash spaces in the nd.edu carousel per week. If I did all 4 together, it only took 2 hours but if I did them separately it would often take 3 or 4.

3. Look for others to share the efficiency gains with. Like they say in most sports, the great ones are not just great by themselves, they also make the others around them better. There is also something educating about teaching others. You really have to know your stuff to teach it. Also, you sometimes notice things when teaching that you don’t when learning.

I guess that is all I have. Did I connect the dots? Was I talking gibberish? I’m curious if others have noticed the same.