In today’s busy times, we’re always trying to create that little bit of extra time to get one more thing accomplished. Seldom is this item one more strategically critical task, mind you. In most cases, it’s simply one more thing because somehow we got the idea that we’re not doing enough things. No matter that we’re doing 100 things poorly – the focus is often on reaching 100.
Hearing or listening
Podcasts and audio books are a good example of this. We listen to podcasts at double speed so they don’t take as long. We listen at that speed under the illusion that we’re getting more done. This, despite the cartoonish voices and the almost certainly reduced comprehension. That way, we can listen to more of them. Or listen to them again because we didn’t really get anything out of them. We listen to more of them on the same topic because we’re struggling to absorb what we might get out of any one of them if we weren’t focused on how many we listen to and how fast.
Does it matter that you listened to 30 audio books last year if you didn’t get anything out of them? Or half of them? Obviously, audio isn’t the culprit, the same could be said for books, newspapers, blogs, or research papers. We sometimes forget that getting anything done well is better than getting that thing done faster and poorly. There is, of course, that “done is better than perfect” thing, but even “done” should have some context.
Years ago, a friend who owned several franchise locations of a fast food restaurant replied to some good natured ribbing from one of this friends who chided him that his restaurants made a lot of mistakes at the drive through window. He said “I don’t pay them to get every order right. I pay them to get the orders done quickly.” It’s a good example. Do you mind if you waited in line for five minutes if your order is right? Or would it be ok to wait in line for two minutes and frequently have your order wrong?
How is that different than whatever you’re rushing through today?
“It takes an unbelievable amount of energy to resist reality.“
Jim Dethmer
Advice from an old guy – and those around you
No, I wasn’t referring to me. Back in the ’60s, Earl Nightingale sold a ton of his book “The Strangest Secret” on albums. Yes, vinyl records. Some of the book revolved around his thought “Watch what everyone else does–do the opposite. The majority is always wrong.“, which I suspect rolled downhill from G. K. Chesterton’s “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.“
While advice like this can be less useful when lived as a hard and fast rule, it has plenty of value. The real root of it is to understand the benefit of taking the time to be observant of the behaviors of those who are, and aren’t successful. What you won’t likely see from the most successful people you know is that they’re cramming more and more into their life. It may seem like it because they are doing different things than you are – and that has the appearance that they’re simply capable of doing it all.
They aren’t.
The difference is that they make a deliberate decision to remove unimportant things from their lives (like “Big Brother” or “Survivor”) so that room is created for the things that are important to them. They subtract, rather than add. Subtracting unimportant things from their lives creates the space that they fill with the things you think you can’t possibly make time for.
Do be careful while observing these folks and selectively extracting lessons to improve your own life and business. Don’t compare your life to theirs. The difference doesn’t matter, and the difference is never what you think it is because you never know the whole story – just like those who have judged you don’t know your whole story.
“Don’t compare your beginning with someone else’s middle.“
Alison Beere
You’re unlikely to make your bucket of life more full by cramming more things into it. Be fiercely selective about what you let in.
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