As a business owner, one aims to work with less to achieve more productivity. In this post, I will provide you with a formidable strategy: how to be achieve more and more productivity whilst working with less assets.
First, let’s start with an anecdote…
Once upon a time, Warren Buffet was discussing with his pilot about his career opportunity. At some point, Warren Buffet asked his pilot to list down 25 main objectives he would like to achieve.
After listing his objectives, the pilot submitted the list to his boss, who then asked him to highlight the 5 objectives that mattered the most to him.
At the end of the day, the pilot had two list: the list only containing his 5 most important objectives, and the list containing the other 20.
Everything seemed clear to the pilot…
At this stage, the pilot thought he was to put in most of his efforts on the first list, and work on the other list whenever he had time.
After all, setting priorities isn’t that much of a big deal. It is an elementary task of most of business owners. Should you need to guidance in how to prioritize your task, take a look at this previous post.
I would assume most business owners would think as the pilot did. I know I did. But this is the beauty of learning from successful people: the pilot and I were wrong.
But then…
I could not be further from what Warren Buffet had in mind. And I assume his pilot probably thought the same.
Warren Buffet told his pilot to tear the second list. In order words, the pilot was only to focus on the first – his top priorities. Not only that, but he was also told NOT to allocate any time whatsoever into working on the second list.
Unless he had achieved his main objectives, the pilot was NOT to focus on the second list. He was to focus on it ONLY after fulfilling the everything on his first list. Coming to think of it …
Working with less for more productivity forces you to eliminate the non essentials…
Now Warren Buffet is one of the wealthiest people on earth. That means his advice is valuable to people working on building their wealth. Although it seems counter intuitive, this advice actually makes a lot of sense.
Not working on pointless things makes sense. But it seems like it doesn’t make sense to avoid working on the the objectives you reckon as important. Here is where the absolute prioritization comes in. Once your top five actions have been prioritized, forget about the rest. Regardless of how important they are!
Though this is capital for several reasons, I will give you the main one: having too much to focus on will dramatically reduce your productivity. The more things you have to do, the more you tend to scatter – thus losing sight of the most important tasks.
Working with less for more productivity forces you to cut on costs…
Less productivity comes at a cost. The cost will be either on time, on energy or on money. Our time and energy are limited assets we all have – and depending on people, money is more or less limited.
Allocating so much time and energy for very poor results is a loss of productivity. At the end of the day, it will be frustrating – because of the limited assets (time and energy) that would have been dedicated for that. Unlike money, once time and energy are gone, it is impossible to get them back.
Focusing on the most important objectives will force you to cut on the time and energy spent on unnecessary tasks.
Another advice Warren Buffet gave to his pilot is the following: once all of the most important objectives are achieved, the exact same exercise is to be done with the other objectives. They are to be listed and prioritized. The top priorities is what your full attention should be on!
Do not hesitate to work with less to achieve more productivity!
Was this post helpful to you? Had you been aware of the importance of working less for more productivity? Have you ever applied it in your life? How did it go? I’d love to read your feedback in the comments’ section.
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