2. Work Smarter Not Harder
Where it’s from: Coined in the 1930s by industrial engineer Allen Morgenstern, as he aimed to simplify industrial jobs, it means it exactly what you think it does. If there’s any easier way to do it, do it that way and save yourself the time.
This is the one you get any time you did something you probably wouldn’t have done if you had thought about it more… or at least if you had the experiences of whoever said this to you.
What it means: Don’t be rash. Put thought into your actions and be careful to avoid taking mental shortcuts. Gaining a full understanding of the situation will show you your options, then take the best one to get from A to B.
How it relates: Don’t just take the stock guidelines and follow them to a T, ask yourself if you can do it better. You probably can. One of my favorite phrases (besides Feynman’s) is “whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
Thinking = running through scenarios. Setting aside time to think and teaching yourself to always question the correctness and viability and alternatives of your ideas (and those of others) will essentially result in you having the understanding of someone with more real-world experience (but less thought) than you. In other words, by thinking through possibilities you’re running into problems and mistakes that other people have to live through. So it’s usually good to think through your options, and maybe have some conversations before diving into things.
Time is the most valuable thing in the world, not just because you can’t get more of it, but because you never know when time will be up. Having a robust thought process and wealth of experiences to draw on literally gives you more time than others as you recognize scenarios and risks and make quicker, better decisions for yourself. Try to get new experiences every day. Treat your brain like a muscle and keep it active.
We’ll never really live a mistake-free life and we shouldn’t strive to, but we can reduce stress, the monotony of life, and our obligations (in terms of time) by giving ourselves a little time to think about what we’re doing every day.
Some people meditate, but that’s not the only option. Engage your creativity on the work that you perform to make the work more fun, engaging, and easier — but also because it helps you learn and the thought you put in on these tasks will help you engage with and complete new tasks in the future.
There are plenty of times where we find ourselves learning a new job or putting together Ikea furniture, and we almost always follow the procedures the way they’ve been drawn for us. But wouldn’t our lives be way more fun if we did things our own way? If we could feel the pride in our small victories of creativity?
Alright, fine. Maybe you shouldn’t take artistic liberties with your Ikea furniture… Maybe the person before us got it right, but maybe they didn’t! Maybe you should skip Ikea altogether and go to Home Depot so you can smile to yourself every time you look at your crooked-but-unique (and fully functioning!) shelves, and the two perfect tables you made after that.
In short, no matter what you do, just realize that time is valuable and it can be stretched. Time is the most valuable. Working smarter doesn’t mean spending less time on something. It could mean spending more time to make it better and longer-lasting, or to develop a skill. Work smarter to make your life and work easier, yes. But also work smarter to get more out of your obligations and make them work for you, pay more attention to where your time is focused and control that as much as possible. Build. Get creative.
