One day a C-level mentor and one of the hardest workers I know said to me “My productivity is actually motivated by extreme laziness. Believe it or not, I’m a very lazy person.”
That blew my mind.
Could it really be? I thought. How is this possible?
The comment disturbed me.
Then I realized, what if our definition of productivity is all wrong?
The New Definition Of Productivity
For a minute, let’s consider a new definition of productivity.
What if productivity didn’t mean getting more stuff done. What if the objective of productivity was to have less to do?
Mind blown?
Work Hard Or Work Smart?
“Work hard or work smart.” You hear it all the time. But it’s a false dichotomy.
“The opposite of hard is easy. The opposite of smart is dumb. You can work hard or work easy. You can work smart or work dumb,” explains sales guru Brian Burns.
When our objective becomes having less to do, our focus shifts to find ways to work smart and work easy.
Sounds fabulous right? But how do exactly do you pull that off?
By making yourself a D.E.A.L.
The New Acronym of Productivity
DEAL = Delegate. Eliminate. Automate. Leveragate. Ok, just Leverage. Sadly Leveragate isn’t a word (yet)
- D: Delegate. 80% right done by someone else is better than 100% right done by you.
- E: Eliminate. Does this really need to be done at all? If Pareto was right, 80% of what we spend our time on only delivers 20% of the results. Whomp. I’d rather spend that time at the beach.
- A: Automate. Technology is a beautiful thing. But time-saving automation doesn’t have to just be automatic bill pay. Processes are a form of automation as well. Can you define and create streamlined processes for your team to follow without you?
- L: Leverage: What tasks can you invest in that actually give you more time and space tomorrow? i.e train a team member, teach your kid to tie their shoes, make the right key hire.
Now that you have a new definition of productivity and you’ve put your mind back together…
Ready to make yourself a new D.E.A.L?