Sharpen Your Axe

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

-Abraham Lincoln

A very popular quote, but, in my experience? Rarely acted upon.

Most people don’t bother to sharpen the axe, opting instead to start chopping away immediately.

And who can blame them?

In our lives, moments feel precious and deadlines approach fast. It’s difficult to make decisions that may have long-term benefits when an alternative path shows progress immediately. When we’re faced with the decision of sharpening the axe or starting to chop, why spend even a second on something that doesn’t move the needle forward immediately?

Improving your use of time is the same as creating additional time. *

*(In the long run.)

Before we dig into it, note that the most effective way to make more time in your life is by reducing the time spent doing things that provide you no value. They aren’t relaxing, enjoyable, educational, profitable, etc. A shocking amount of time is spent on things that don’t need to be done, that we don’t want to do when it comes down to it.

Chopping down a tree with a sharpened axe may be quick, but realizing that the tree doesn’t need to be cut down at all is even faster.

So let’s carry on with the assumption that the tree does need to be removed. (That we’re talking about valuable tasks and the tools you use for them.)

If you’re an office worker, chances are you can point out a few pieces of software you use regularly. A few tasks that you do on a weekly, or even daily, basis.

So let’s ask ourselves:

• What are the tools that you use most in your life?
• Are you maintaining them?
• Have you investigated alternatives recently?
• Are you more effective at using them now than you were a year ago?

In a typical office environment, a key tool might be Outlook or Excel. For salespeople, it might be their CRM, or more abstractly, their persuasion. Regardless of what you do, consider the tools that you use most frequently. Have you been sharpening them? Or have you been using them the same way for the last five years?

When I started my first job my manager was, without a doubt, the most proficient Excel user in the entire office. The speed with which he could work was unparalleled, and even those in finance, who likely used Excel more than him, were always shocked by his ability.

But it’s not as if he was a genius, or had some special ability to understand the program, he just put in a little time learning more efficient techniques. With him as my manager, I quickly learned them too.

In a few months, I was able to more effectively use the software than some professionals that had been using it for more than a decade.

This wasn’t because I was smarter, it wasn’t because I learned it in school, it wasn’t because I was born in a generation that grew up with computers. It was because I took the 10 minutes to investigate shortcuts, and allowed them to become muscle memory over a couple months.

It’s one way to drastically improve workflow that doesn’t require hard work. It only requires a decision on how you spend your time.

Take account of the tools you use most frequently.

• Is there a better alternative? (No point sharpening your axe when there are chainsaws available.)
• What are the actions that slow you down? What are the actions you take most frequently? How can you improve these two areas?

One final thought: There was a point when I was spending 6 hours a day using Excel. If it cost 4 hours of research to become even 3% more efficient, that time investment would pay for itself after about a month.

2021-09-11