There’s an idea articulated in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon that goes something like this: imagine there is a project that will take five years to complete. Imagine further that a technology that could be developed in a year would, once acquired, enable the project to be completed in only two years. Thus, rather than use existing technology to complete the project in five years, it makes more sense to acquire the time-saving technology first.
Reality is considerably less predictable than this simple example allows, but it still illustrates a useful idea: acquiring the right technology first can save time and effort later.
The above is a quote from a recent post my brother-in-law's blog where he writes about efficiencies: what he calls grind skills. His point about advancing technology to create a method for completing a task more efficiently is one we should all consider.
He and I have frequently discussed how inefficient some people (including us) can be when it comes to certain tasks. In addition to areas in which learning a new skill or developing a new technology could reduce the "task time" to a lesser amount (and if developing the new tech plus the time to complete is less than the total time to complete the task under the old tech, it is efficient to develop the new tech) consider another scenario.
What if you do the same project day after day and that project takes you 10 minutes. You could create a template or a procedure that would allow you to reduce the per-project time to 8.5 minutes, but creating the template will take you a half hour. Obviously, you'd have to complete the task 20 times to break even. However, if this particular task is something that you day after day, it makes sense sense to spend the 30 minutes to reduce the task time.
A great role model for us all in this category is McDonald's and other fast food restaurants. As I understand things, McDonald's puts considerable research and money into how to deliver a burger, fries, and a drink to customers more quickly. Because McDonalds serves hundreds of customers in a store each day, seconds count. Therefore, when someone learns that putting the fry boxes above the fryers saves 1 second per order, all McDonald's stores move the fry boxes above the fryers.
I'm in a business (law) where efficiency is not always favored. Because attorneys bill and are paid by the hour, inefficiency can be rewarded. (e.g., if you can do a task in 1 hour, but it takes you 1.5, you can charge the client 50% more). Of course, clients seek the best work at the lowest price, so any attorney who sits on his or her haunches and does not add efficiencies to the process will lose clients, but the market for attorneys is inefficient, so a lot of less-than-stellar attorneys get a lot of business.
My friend Regan Keebaugh inspired me to consider ways to make my practice more efficient. Although he did not provide me with specific techniques, merely thinking about ways to improve my processes inspired me to create templates, learn to navigate in the word processor more efficiently, and use technology to leverage my time and resources.
Consider ways you can do your job faster or more efficiently. Think about ways to gain more free time by reducing the time it takes to do everyday tasks. If you have ideas to share, I'd love to hear them. My brother-in-law is trying to post "grind-skills" on his blog. He already shared some helpful tips for using google. I'm sure more good stuff is coming. Once you start thinking about the idea of doing things more efficiently, you can't help but implement new ways of doing things. Give it a try. (PS - ever heard of Earl Nightingale and "the strangest secret" - basically, that thinking about something will make it come true)
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