When talking about productivity, we often talk about how to do things efficiently to save time. While doing things efficiently could save you time in the short term, you may still lose time in the long term. The reason is that you lose more time not by how you do things but by what you don’t do. Not doing things efficiently could cost you hours or days, but not doing things at all could cost you months or years.
Why does it happen? Why don’t people do what is right to do? There are three reasons for that:
- They don’t know what is right to do.
- They know what is right to do but underestimate its importance.
- They know it’s important but procrastinate doing it.
In this post I will focus on the first and second reasons. For the third reason you can read defeating procrastination habit or my review of The Now Habit.
The first and second reasons have cost me time again and again. One example in blogging is regarding Amazon Associates program. Since the early days of my blogging I often write about the books I read. Some of the posts (like 37 Lessons to Help You Live a Life that Matters and 106 Tips to Become a Master Connector) became popular and attracted a lot of visitors. But I didn’t know that I could earn commissions by referring people to Amazon through those post. Only after blogging for almost one year did I realize that and join Amazon Associates.
Experiences like this teach me that to save time I need to prevent such things from happening again in the future. I must find the right things to do and do them.
Here are some tips to save time by finding the right things to do:
1. Expand your knowledge
The first thing you should do is expanding your knowledge. If you don’t even know that something exists then there is nothing you can do about it. That’s why it’s important that you get as many options as possible on your radar. You can do this by regularly reading books, magazines, and blogs in your field. You can also read materials from other fields - whether they are related or not - so that you can cross-pollinate ideas. Of course, reading is just one way to expand knowledge. There are other ways like watching videos, attending seminars, and joining professional organizations.
2. Write down all potential ideas
While expanding your knowledge, you will find potential ideas along the way. Write down all of them in your idea journal. The act of writing makes the ideas sink deeper into your mind. You should write not only the ideas that incrementally improve your way of doing things but also the ideas that could radically change the way you do things. I often get such ideas from unrelated fields and experiences.
3. Take the ideas seriously
This is where I often make mistakes. It deals with the second reason above: knowing what is right to do but underestimating its importance. To overcome it, whenever you encounter an idea ask yourself: what if the idea is right? What consequences will it have on my way of doing things? Perhaps there is no consequences right now, but what are the potential consequences five or ten years from now?
4. Find the ideas that have the biggest potential regret for you
Since you have only limited resources (whether they are time, money, or energy) and most likely many potential ideas, you should choose only a few of them that are most promising to implement. My favorite way of doing this is by assessing the potential regret I would have if I didn’t implement an idea.
Imagine yourself years from now looking back. What can you potentially regret if you don’t implement the idea? Questioning potential consequences as you do in #3 should help you find the regret level you could have if you don’t implement it.
So here is a key question to choose the few ideas to look deeper into:
Which ideas - assuming the ideas are right - could make you regret the most if you don’t implement them?
5. Investigate the ideas
Now that you have a few promising ideas, you should look deeper into them. Get as much information as possible about them. Ask or learn from people who already apply them. Use the questions what, why, when, where, who, and how to guide your investigation:
- What is the idea?
- Why should I apply the idea? Why is it good?
- When should I apply the idea?
- Where can I apply the idea?
- Who should apply the idea? To whom should the idea be applied?
- How should I apply the idea?
If possible, find multiple viewpoints for the questions so that you get complete view of the idea.
6. Test the most promising ideas
From your investigation you will get one or two most promising ideas. Now what you need to do is testing them in the real world. Apply the ideas. Incorporate them into what you do. Find out by yourself whether or not the ideas work. Some of them will fail but that’s how you improve yourself to save time in the future.
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These tips will help you save time in the long term. As you’ve seen, the idea is to minimize your potential regret. Minimizing your potential regret has nothing to do with playing safe. Instead, it requires you to take risks here and there.
Photo by Michel Filion
Post from: Life Optimizer
译文:
如何从长远节省时间
当说到生产率时，我们常谈及怎么样高效地工作以节省时间。高效地工作在短期内固然能节省你的时间，然而从长远看你仍可能浪费了时间，因为不是你怎么做 而是你不做 浪费你的时间。低效地工作也许会耗掉你几小时或几天时间，而什么事情都不做会浪费你几个月甚至几年。
这是怎么回事呢？人们为什么不做他们该做的事情呢？有3个原因：
- 他们不知道什么事情该做。
- 他们知道该做什么但低估了事情的重要性。
- 他们知道事情的重要性但拖着不做。
在这篇文章里我会把重点放在第一和第二个原因上。至于第三个原因，你们可以在 顽固的拖延习惯 或 我对现时习惯的评论 中看到。
第一和第二个原因一次又一次地浪费我的时间。例如写博客时用到的亚马孙合作者项目。在我写博客的早期，我经常写看过的书。其中的一些博文（像 让你过上重要生活的37课 和 成为沟通高手的106个贴士) 很受欢迎，吸引了大批的访问者。但我那时不知道我可以在博客里帮亚马孙销售商品，并从中获得介绍费。只有在写了快一年的博客后我才意识到这个并加入了亚马孙合作者项目。
类似的经历教会我，为了节省时间，我得阻止这样的事情在将来再次发生。我要弄明白什么是我该做的并去完成它们。
以下是一些如何找到该做的事以节省时间的方法：
1. 拓宽你的知识面
你要做的第一件事是拓宽自己的知识面。如果你根本不知道某一事物的存在，你从何谈起处理它呢？这就是在你的头脑里储存尽可能多的知识很重要的原因。你可以通过阅读书籍、杂志和与自己领域相关的博文来达到这个目的。你也可以看看其它领域的资料，不管它们相不相关，这样你可以把各种知识融汇起来。当然了，阅读只是拓展知识的一个途径，其它途径如看视频、参加短期培训班或参加专业性组织同样可以收到效果。
2. 写下所有的潜在想法
在你拓宽知识面的过程中，你会有一些潜在的想法。把它们全写进你的想法日志里。写这个行动能让这些想法更深入到你的头脑里。你不但要写下那些能大大改善你的做事方式的想法，而且还要写下那些能彻底地改变你的做事方式的想法。我经常在不相干的领域和经历中得到类似的想法。
3. 认真地对待想法
这是我经常出错的地方。它解决的是之前的第二个原因：知道该做什么但低估它的重要性。为了克服这个，不管你什么时候遇到一个想法时，你要问一下自己：如果这个想法是对的呢？它将对我做事的方式有什么影响？也许现在还没什么影响，但五年或十年后会有什么可能的影响呢？
4. 找出最可能让你后悔的方案
既然你只有有限的资源（不管是时间、金钱还是精力）和可能很多的潜在方案，你只能从中挑出几个最可执行的方案来。对这我最喜欢用的方法是评定一下如果我不执行某个方案以后会有多后悔。
想象你在多年之后往回看。如果你不执行某方案的话你可能会后悔什么？像在第3点里那样问一下自己能让你知道如果不执行某方案你将会多后悔。
这里是进一步挑选方案的一个关键问题：
哪些方案- 假设这些方案是对的 - 如果你不执行它们你会非常后悔吗？
5. 审查方案
现在你有几个可执行的方案了，你还要进一步观察它们，要得到尽量多关于它们的信息，询问或学习那些已经尝试过这些想法的人，用什么，为什么，几时，哪里，谁 和怎样 来引导你的观察：
- 该方案是什么？
- 我为什么要执行这个方案？它为什么好？
- 我该什么时候应用这个方案？
- 我能在哪里应用这个方案？
- 该由谁执行这个方案呢？该对谁执行这个方案？
- 我如何来执行这个方案？
如果可能的话，找出问题的多个观点，那样你会对该方案有一个全面的了解。
6. 测试最可执行的想法
从你的观察中你可得到一到两个最可执行的方案。现在你所要做的是在真实世界里测试它们。应用这些方案，把它们纳入你所做的事情中，自己看看该方案是否可行。它们中的一些可能会失败，但这就是如何提高自己在将来节省时间的能力的方法。
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这些贴士将帮助你从长远节省时间。如你所看到的，这么做是为了让你可能的后悔最小化。而使后悔最小化并不意味着谨慎行事，相反，这需要你到处冒险。
由Michel Filion摄影
文章来源： 生活最优化