Everyone who wants to reach a certain goal, has to learn how to be effective. But what does effectiveness really mean? In this short article I dive into a few ideas from entrepreneur, writer and podcaster Tim Ferriss. I remember reading the 4-hour workweek many years ago, not really appreciating a lot of the ideas. For those who haven’t read it, it has nothing to do with being lazy. The main theme in this book is, how to get the maximum done in the least amount of time, so you can live the life you want to life.
One of Tim’s favorite Quotes is by the medieval Philosopher William of Occam:
“It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.”
This is an idea is running against the so deep ingrained “hustle culture” of current times, were accomplishment is often measured by the time spent trying to get results and the fatigue one feels after finishing work.
Many people are busy for the sake of being busy. This should not be the goal. The Effect of your work should. In Tim’s words, effectiveness is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. Most people are just busy and being busy is most often used as a guise for avoiding the few critically important but uncomfortable actions.
That doesn’t mean “hustle” and working hard is not useful. But what you do is way more than how much you do and how efficient you are doing it. Doing something unimportant well does not make it important. Requiring a lot of time does not make a task important.
It pays to spend at least a few minutes, looking over your todo list and deciding which task will bring you the greatest benefit and which nothing at all. Try to shift your mindset to getting results versus doing a lot of stuff. If this is hard for you, try limiting the time you spend working. Most often, if you can work whenever you want, you will work whenever you can. And if you do not priorice, you will work all the time.
Thanks for reading,
Max
Ps: If you are a native speaker and enjoyed this article, you could do me a huge favor. If you find stylistic, grammatical or other errors, please let me know. Thanks a lot!
