I’m noticing a common theme among clients lately, which is the fallacy that it’s better to be efficient. Sometimes, yes, but not always. I’ve learned to recognize these efficiency fallacies when I hear people explaining that they are trying to avoid “extra work.” Here are some examples:
Claire doesn’t want to take her donations to the drop-off center until she finishes going through all her closets. Meanwhile, donations pile up in her entrance way, creating obstacles and stress. Now she’s so overwhelmed that she can’t bear the thought of more decluttering.
Susan is on a tight deadline to develop software for a new customer. A co-worker asks her to de-bug an old program she wrote last year. A quick patch will take about 30 minutes and fix the immediate problems, but then she’ll have to do a more intensive rewrite later on. She opts to just rewrite the program now, which sends her into a bottomless rabbit hole and she works through the night, oversleeps the next morning and misses an important meeting with the new customer.
Rob doesn’t want to update his database until he can do all the entries in one sitting, because it’s very laborious to bring up the program and access the documents. He estimates he will need about four hours, so he keeps delaying it until he has a clear block of time. In the meantime, all his other work is slowed down, because his database is not up to date.
The most expedient solution is often not the most efficient one. It’s the one that gets the immediate problem solved the most quickly, with the least likelihood for negative fall out.
Another benefit of not waiting to be efficient, is the positive effect of getting those tasks off your to do list. Successful completions clear the way for more successful completions.
So the next time you’re trying to avoid “extra work,” ask yourself if you’d rather have it done efficiently, or just DONE!