Make September efficiency month
“Doing something unimportant well does not make it important”- Tim Ferriss
While on leave I was reminded of The 4-hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, who espouses the use of efficiency as the root to success. His book is touted as the step-by-step blueprint to free yourself from the shackles of a corporate job, create a business to fund the lifestyle of your dreams, and live life like a millionaire, without actually having to be one.
For the frustrated employee and the overworked entrepreneur this sounds like a magical dream world, doesn’t it.
Yet the reality is that apart from Tim Ferriss himself and a handful of others around the world, this is a utopia, a dream world rather than a reality. A goal to work towards….
It’s a reminder that success is about identifying the critical actions in your world and focusing on getting those right, because as Tim Ferriss says ’Doing something unimportant well, does not make it important!”
So this week, it might be an idea to pick up some Tim Ferriss strategies, and find ways to do less, but do it better in order to create a life that is fulfilling, financially rewarding and releases free-time for the things we love. Human nature is that we love to feel valued, purposeful and useful. This means that we often stretch small tasks into unnecessary mountains of business. We will our days with activity rather than activating our best game to get the right things done, efficiently.
Returning from leave to a mountain of emails, I am reminded to use the acronym DONE to encourage me to achieve more with less. I ask myself, if only had four hours in a day, what would I do ….
D: Declare the to do list by writing everything down
O: Organise the list by priority – what are the really critical actions that need to get done now
N: Unleash your NO! – delete unimportant tasks altogether, delegate to someone else or replace with technology
E: Execute with effiiency – set time limits for your work, use technology to remove repetitive actions. Automate communications and use AI.
