The Science Of Getting More Done And Working Less Hours!
There’s two truths and one lie in the following three statements. Can you pick out the lie?
Here we go, ahem:
- Time is everything.
- Time is money.
- There’s not enough hours in the day.
Did you pick out the false statement? Good, I’ll tell you if you’re right or wrong later in this article, so stay tuned:
How To Get More Done And Work Less Hours
There’s this mindset that we need more hours in the day to get more accomplished. Everyone seemingly accepts this as evident.
…Why?
Sometimes I feel we really are connected to the Matrix because we have accepted so much that’s been taught to us without ever questioning why or where it originally came from.
To think we need more time in the day to do more work is moronic and I’m here to prove it to you:
The Effects Of Poor Time Management
Needing more time the in day is just asking for trouble, because the more time you have, the less focused you become on eliminating those tasks. Also, the more time you have, the more non-essential tasks you may take on.
What are non-essential tasks? Things you do that don’t immediately effect you.
If I have a project to do and I give myself a month to do it… Even though I always start off thinking I’m going to take this seriously, I’ll be honest – I ALWAYS wind up taking it easy… It’s not until I’m running out of time that suddenly, I muster up some unfathomable motivation and get my work done in its entirety!
This is just how I do things! I remember in college I had a term paper that I had an entire 4-6 months to work on. I goofed off the entire semester until the VERY DAY it was due! I spent 2 hours in front of a computer and put together 20 pages!
I got an A+.
So from personal experience, I’ve learned that giving someone more time doesn’t boost efficiency. In worse cases, it only clutters it.
Why Do We Put Everything Off Till The Last Minute & Is That Bad?
There’s a study going around that in the office culture, even though typically most workers put in 40 hours per week, in a given 8-hour day, we may only spend 2 of those hours actually being productive.
Because honestly, WHO can really spend 8 hours so laser focused and doing tasks for your job each and every day? Most people can’t carry their attention that long.
It’s not bad to be this way, in fact it’s better. If you can be just as productive in less amount of time – why not?
When you can remain focused and accomplish essential tasks that provide the most benefit to you, you find that you can do it in a relatively short amount of time.
You also find that you become better at “cutting out the fat”
When I work full 8 hour days, I’m surprised at how many menial tasks get dropped on my plate for no apparent reason… It’s nothing more than ‘busy work’ and that’s not productive, which brings me to my first truth, Time Is Everything.