On the difference between accomplishing something and moving the needle
2023-12-02
Many people seem and feel like they are extremly busy these days - and most of them actually are. But what far to few realize is that there is a huge difference between just working much and actually working towards your goals. So, let's take a look at this phenomenon and discuss some measures against it...
Especially after having holidays or in the first few weeks of a new project, we tend to have countless things that need to be done on our todo list or ideally in our calender and work our way rather quickly through them. This is highly rewarding, makes us feel very productive and to some degree certainly is. But does any of these tasks have an immediate influence on your larger goals? Does it move the needle towards your ultimate target? More often then not, this isn't case and if we are harsh to ourselves we effectively just wasted our time being trapped in the worst case of procrastination: Pseudoproductivity .
Yeah, you worked a ton, but in the end nobody cares about how you achieve something, just that you achieve it. And with this framing, creating a beautiful website for our product while feeling important really isn't, if it doesn't directly impact our sales. We need to define at least 1 or 2 objective, quantifiable metrics for every goal , with which even a random stranger could determine our success. For example when studying for an exam, this could be the precentage of relevant content you already feel secure in, but not the hours you spent learning. It's honourable, if you spend a lot of time on preparation, but doesn't matter in the end - only your mark in the exam does.
With these metrics in place, we can then think about what we have done in the last couple of days and weeks and criticially ask ourselves "Did this activity really move the needle?". If it didn't, we need to drastically reduce the time we spend on it, ideally eliminating it completely or delegating it to someone else. If it does however in a meaningful way, we should double our efforts and focus on what apparently works best for us. This goes in line with the famous Pareto or 80/20 principle , which states that only a minority of the available variables (most often 20 % of them) is responsible for a majority of the outcome (most often 80 %). It might seem strange to our monkey brains, as it isn't one of the linear relations we are used to and especialized on, but has proven to be right in almost every area imaginable from finances over knowledge to happiness.
The exact ratio doesn't need to be 80/20 and it doesn't even have to make up 100 %, since we are looking at two different supsets - 30% of the customers can make up 60% of the revenue, just as 20 % of our products can be responsible 95% of our profits. We just have to acknowledge that for almost everyone a small selection of variables, tasks or projects has a huge impact, while others are at least negligible or even just a plain old waste waste of precious resources (the worst 20 %). When looking at employees for example, you always have 3 categories:
- The ones who are so productive that they earn the company much more money than their salary costs it.
- Those who are basically a zero-sum game - not generating any additional revenue above their wages.
- Those who burn the companies money like there's no tomorrow by not doing anything meaningful (as per the proven metrics), but still receiving a stately income.
Just as it is with employess, it is with the things each of us does - some are highly productive and effective, while the vast majority of them isn't. By acknowledging this simple fact and spending some time to figure out which of our activities falls into the 3 presented categories, we can really boost our productivity while being able to work less - or any combination you want. So, reserve some time in your calendar right now to overthink the things you do and their impact, be honest to yourself while doing so and feel free to share your results in the comments down below...