Working Smart Rather Than Hard

It has often been said that 20% of our effort produces 80% of our results. This would also suggest that 80% of our effort only produces 20% of our results.

As I think of this, I think of the spiritual teaching story of "The Cat In The Hat Comes Back". Do you remember this?

The Cat has made a pink mess in a bathtub and in his attempts to clean it up he spread the pinkness in more places.

Then to get help he lifted his hat and Cat A entered upon the scene, and then Cat B and C and so forth. The more cats there were working on cleaning up the mess, the messier things got. Until, we got to Cat Z. When Cat Z lifted his hat out came Vroooom!!! Suddenly all the snow was white again and even the sidewalk had been shoveled.

Here we have an example of a tiny percentage of the effort producing 100% of the result.

Being optimally productive comes from our doing the things consistently that bring the best and greatest result.

How can we bring the power of Vroooom into our days today?

Can we work smart and locate the pivot points that can turn whole situations around in flashes of brilliance?

How can we leverage our efforts with what we are currently working on?

Working smart is a choice we can make, moment to moment.

Once Lazy, Now Productive

I have always been a pretty lazy guy. I don't like to work, and have been quite dedicated to assiduously avoiding as much work as possible. Being contemplative by nature, I would much rather sit around reading a book or contemplate the meaning of life than dig a ditch.

I have, to a large degree, been successful in my attempts at avoiding work, and have spent many more hours reading than I have working, much to my delight. But yesterday I had a rather startling insight that turned this happy state of affairs quite on its head.

I have a two-day-a-week job where I am free, for the most part, to read to my heart's content. There are a number of tasks I must perform on this job, but essentially I am free to read. Well, last night at work, I spent the first couple of hours working on a few different items that needed to be addressed. At the conclusion of this two-hour period I noticed, much to my surprise, that I felt better having worked for two hours than I usually do reading for two hours.

This was quite unexpected! Work is more fun than reading?! What's up with that? I don't know, but I have discovered that to be productive (which can only be achieved by working) actually feels better than being lazy. Fancy that! At any rate, I am happy to have made this discovery, and have wasted no time in putting this newfound wisdom to work, as I have been busy, busy, busy working my tail off today. I am awfully tired now (not used to this sort of thing), but I honestly do feel much better about having been productive today, rather than merely ruminative.

Time will tell how the course and quality of my life may change as a result of this stupendous insight (at least it seems stupendous to me at present), but if today is any measure, it could be significant to the point of revolutionary. We'll see . . .

I originally wrote this post just over two months ago, on June 30, 2008.