The Bare Minimum workers

"Work smarter, not harder", is a saying that lazy people like to use. Well, that is not completely true as there is nothing wrong with working smarter but, I don't think people really think through the working harder part. The reason is that work and what you do are two different things.

If you see work as 100%, working smarter increases the volume of work that can be done with that 100%, which is great as it means that more can be accomplished with less per task on overage. However, how most people see working smarter is the getting the same achieved for less without increasing what actually gets done. This means that there is spare capacity that is unused. Wasted potential.

It is very easy to take approaches that save time but, what those savings are then spent on becomes very important. If, they aren't spent but are instead wasted, what was the point of working smarter since, nothing more was accomplished? What I find is that often, the people who are saving time are also the ones who tend to waste the most as they do not introduce an expanded set of activities to fill the void left by the saving. To me, that is not very smart.

Have you ever noticed how the people who work the hardest also seem to find the time to do additional activities while those who work the smartest tend to avoid additional work, even if that work is in their best interest to perform? I think this is because those who are trying to minimize their workload see any additional tasks as a negative while those who are trying to maximize their capacity continually look for space to fit things they find important.

This means that they have to work smarter as they are looking to accomplish more with the same resources. They have to review, rethink, find and dispose of useless, improve in this, reorder that and so on to create the space to fit more into their life. What most find is that the biggest area of opportunity is in the tasks they do not like as these are usually the areas they are also not the most proficient in.

Identifying gaps in skill and improving (or potentially outsourcing) will speed up the process a lot as it is much easier to go from low level to mid-range proficiency, than from high to a little higher. This increase in skill level doesn't just create more time though, it adds additional capacity meaning that not only is there more space to do, what is done can be done better.

How I see it is that the only reasons to work smarter is to either be able to do more or, have the space to introduce activities that increase quality of life. Yes, this might mean leisure activities but, they are activities. In my opinion, too much time is being spent on doing nothing that adds any value but rather, detracts value.

It is nice to sit down and watch a movie but at some point, too much watching movies is going to have a negative effect on other parts of life as tasks either don't get done or, opportunities are missed from not seeing them or, not having the skills to take advantage of them. It is much like the saying, "Too much of a good thing" coming into affect.

What is common however is that for the most part, people have no idea where the majority of their time goes and if they started to investigate objectively, they would likely be surprised at the results. It is part of the consumer society thinking where most people don't really know where their money goes but with a little observation it becomes clear that there is plenty of wastage on unnecessary and, useless. Intuition however, will tell a different story.

How smart are you at managing your time? Do you really know?

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]