Life Hacks Are a Waste of Time. Instead, Do These Three Things
“Hacking” isn’t a new word, but it’s arguably never been more popular. What started as a computer term has become a name for a shortcut to success.
Trendy health interventions are now called “biohacks,” and “growth hacking” is presented as a quick and easy business strategy. Such hacks are an easy sell to people who want instant gratification but don’t believe the hype.
The truth is, achieving anything worthwhile takes hard work, and people who push hacks often overlook the degree to which excellence requires perseverance and a focus on doing things well. This is a bad lesson to be teaching and an even worse one to follow if you are an entrepreneur.
I recently read a smart post on hacking by Collaborative Fund partner Morgan Housel. He described a workshop he attended where a social media guru described a series of “hacks” attendees could use to build followings. Housel observed that for all the tips the session offered, the consultant didn’t talk about how to create great content in the first place.
Why? Because writing great content is hard. There’s no hack for great writing; the work takes focus, creativity, and meticulous revision. If you want to be a great writer, then write every day and study successful writers — don’t waste time searching for a way to skip all the practice.
The same principle holds true in business. Rather than looking for hacks to catapult your team to the next level, follow these three tried-and-true paths to success.
1. Remember the 80/20 rule.
A common mistake people make is to set too many goals at once. The 80/20 rule tells us that 20 percent of our efforts yield 80 percent of our results. Thus, most people spend a lot of time on things that aren’t that important in the long run.
Partners in Leadership, a leadership training, and management consulting firm, reports that companies that set too many goals ultimately don’t achieve them. Instead, Partners recommends setting two to five specific, measurable organizational goals each year — a small number of important objectives that the whole team can understand and work toward.
While some people think setting an ambitious number of goals is the key to high achievement, it is better to accomplish a few important things than to pursue several goals and achieve none. So, instead of looking for a life-hack for quick success, focus your passion and drive on whatever endeavor is most important to you. Achievement will follow.
2. Understand that achievement takes time — and consistency.
Life and business hacks are popular because they promise desired results in a short time. It can be intimidating to set an audacious goal, and people are often drawn to the idea of hacking because they don’t know how to begin to make progress toward grand ambitions. They look at others who have made great strides and think success is something like winning the lottery. In fact, overnight success is almost entirely a myth; most of the time people just don’t realize how much work predated the publicity. The best way to achieve goals is — and always has been — to put in consistent effort over time.
When people write books, run marathons or save enough money for retirement, they don’t do it in one miraculous moment. They set that goal and dedicate themselves to achieving it little by little each day. Companies likewise take time to hit major goals. They grow and expand by building value quarter by quarter until their efforts compound into achievement.
3. Focus on excellence.
Famous acting coach Konstantin Stanislavski once said, “There are no small parts, only small actors.” Whatever you are doing, no matter how small, you should commit to being excellent at it. Not only will this show others that you are invested in doing your best, no matter what, but it will set a standard of excellence for yourself that you will apply to bigger things as well.
My favorite example of this is Ann Miura-Ko, who rose to become one of America’s most respected venture capitalists after starting her career in an administrative role. Even though Miura-Ko’s first job was filing and making photocopies, she took those tasks seriously and resolved to do them as well as possible, trying to make her copies indiscernible from the original documents. Miura-Ko’s commitment earned her respect from her superiors and ultimately opened the door to her successful career.
Forget the trendy headlines; you can’t hack your way to success. And, looking for shortcuts just wastes time and energy. Instead, follow Miura-Ko’s example and dedicate yourself to being excellent at even the smallest things. Set clear goals and dedicate time to accomplishing them. If you do even just a little work each day, giving your goals your full effort and attention, that will take you further than any hack could.
Robert Glazer is the founder and CEO of Acceleration Partners and the author of the international bestselling book Performance Partnerships. Join 100,000+ global leaders who follow his inspirational weekly Friday Forward, invite him to speak, or follow him on Twitter. This article was originally posted in Inc.
