Are You Working Smart?

It’s the end of the day. You know you have been really busy but you look back and wonder what you accomplished. Ever have those days? A good friend of mine once told me about someone he knew who was a super hyper worker but got very little done. He told me he was like an Australian water wiggler. I asked him what that was and he described a water toy most of us have seen. I had one when I was a kid. It was about a 10 foot hose with a head on it fashioned like a cobras’. The hose and the head had little holes. You would screw it onto your garden hose, turn on the tap and it would rise up in the air wiggling chaotically all over the place. All the kids would run around it trying not to get wet or hit by it. Lots of action but very little gets wet in relation to how much water is used!

Working smart means not being like that water wiggler. It means giving some forethought before engaging in an activity. A little planning goes a long way! It can also mean carefully considering a methodology before using it, even if it is a widely supported strategy. An example of this can be found in the article titled “Is Cold Calling For You?“. It means using your tools to their best advantage. It means leveraging your competencies and those of your teammates.

Many of the articles presented here will provide further insight into how to work smarter. For now, here is a very simple illustration to drive the point home.

Bob was renovating the third floor of his home. His tools were on the first floor in his workshop. Today he is removing all of the old trim from the window and door frames. He has brought up a pry bar and starts removing the trim. After removing a few pieces of the trim, he sees that some of the nails are not coming out of the frame so he needs a pair of vice grips to pull them out. He goes down 2 flights of stairs, grabs the tool and comes all the way back up and removes the nails. In the process of pulling the nails out, a few have broken and the tiny bit that is left refuses to be pulled out. So Bob decides he’ll just hammer it in flush and it will be covered by the new trim. Only problem is, Bob does not have his hammer! So all the way back down the stairs he goes to get his hammer and all the way back up. Bobs legs are getting a good workout! As he gets to the top of the stairs, the phone rings but the portable phone is downstairs so back down he goes. When he is done with the phone call, he goes back up to carry on working but leaves the phone downstairs. He gets to the top of the stairs and sees that he now has a bit of a mess on his hands so he decides to pick up some of the old trim and bring it all the way back down. Back up he goes to carry on… and on… and on!

Bob is working hard, but not working smart. He has made 4 trips when he could have made just one. Lots of activity, not much accomplished. Well, he is getting a good workout! All he needed to do was think a bit before starting. What tools will I need? What else do I need? Oh the phone! As well, he could have thought to bring the old trim down on one of his trips and this would have saved at least one trip. For his lack of planning, he will get tired faster, take much more time than necessary to get the job done and he will get frustrated. Getting frustrated will lead to Bob not doing the best job he can so the quality of the work will suffer. He also robs himself of any enjoyment he may have had.

Getting the idea?

Working smart can be applied to every aspect of your life. Whether it’s a renovation, a holiday or your business, working smart can pay huge dividends. Let’s consider a few simple business examples.

Do you do a lot of e-mailing? Do you have an automatic signature block? You would be surprised how many business people I have met who don’t. Every time they write an e-mail, they type in a signature block with their name, title, address, phone numbers, e-mail address and website. Depending on how fast one types, this can take from 30 seconds to a few minutes. If they write or reply to 20 or 30 e-mails a day, that’s somewhere between 10-60 minutes a day of time they could have saved. Let’s say you type reasonably fast and can type that signature block in 45 seconds. Over the course of a year, that’s between 8 and 12 days of time typing signature blocks.

Here’s another example. Bob sends out an e-mail to Steve as follows.

Hey Steve, do you have time for lunch next week?

Steve replies: Sure. When do you have in mind?

Bob replies: Next Wednesday?

Steve replies: How about Thursday?

Bob replies: That won’t work for me. How about Friday?

Steve replies: Sure ok. Where?

Bob replies: Lorenzo’s?

Steve replies: Sure ok. Not sure where that is but I’ll look it up.

This kind of e-mail thread happens all the time and can last for a few days before you finally get that lunch date firmed up. This can be avoided by sending a few more details in the initial e-mail.

Hey Steve, how about we do lunch next week? I have Wednesday and Friday available. We could meet at noon at Lorenzo’s on 3rd street. What say you?

One last example would be the use of templates. Many of us have to write proposals, quotes or business cases. A surprisingly large number of people have to re-invent the wheel every time they do one of these. So much time can be saved by having some templates to work from. For sure they will all need a bit of modification or customization but they can save 20-50% of the time thus freeing you up to do more creative things or engage in some new proactive activities. Have you ever watched a carpenter framing a house? They don’t measure each piece. They use a template, save tons of time and make far less mistakes!

Working smart is all about forethought, which leads to better organization which ultimately drives efficiency allowing for a higher level of quality in your work. I am not saying that you still won’t have to work hard. I am saying that you will greatly reduce the “hard” part and have additional “time” to get more accomplished, or take a holiday, or finally get to the third floor reno!

© Gil Namur, 2009