01/28/13 21:00:22

The Inefficiency Lie

photo credit: miuenski via photopin cc

I want to take some moments and talk with you about the Inefficiency Lie. The Inefficiency Lie deceives many people every day. Especially people working with computers seem to be prone to believe that efficiencing their lives would result in a very productive life. Instead it destroys people’s productivity and makes them angry.

What is The Inefficiency Lie?

Have you ever had that feeling that you could be more productive if you just could efficience a moment where your computer does work for you? Let me give you an example.

Assume you’re a programmer. In order to look at the app and your changes, the app needs to be “built”. You press build and then it takes a couple of seconds until you actually see the result. This can take up to two minutes in some cases.

Now if that time could just be used more productively! Let’s efficience it!

Another example. Your computer is too slow doing certain things. A file gets uploaded, a search takes longer than expected, a program starts, etc. If these wasted moments, staring at a computer screen, could only be used more ”productively”. Your life would be so much better.

One more example. Meetings and “feedback”. Meetings are a waste of time (if done incorrectly; I agree), reading through user feedback is also a waste of time and only annoying. If all these people wouldn’t waste your time, your life would be so much better, because you could spend your time with the things you actually want to do.

Don’t believe The Inefficiency Lie! It’s a waste of your time. It will destroy all your productive energy and, in the end, it will destroy you too. Because now that you are doing more and more stuff at the same moment, you have many more things to think about. So you need more energy just to accomplish all these little tasks you do beside your normal work.

And when you will get hung up on those little tasks you will get mad at yourself because you just wasted your time with something that was supposed to be a side project for task A. Now you just wasted your time by efficiencing task A with side task B. Good job!

Instead of putting more ”efficiency” in your work, do some mono-tasking instead. Look at the wall. Walls are good. They make houses not collapse. It’s winter. It’s cold. I like walls!

These moments are not wasted. These moments of “uncreativity” are good for your body. Your body needs them in order to generate new energy. If you spend more time with more work, you have less energy somewhere else. It’s not a win-win situation stuffing every moment of ones life with more tasks and side tasks. Doing small side tasks requires energy. Over the course of a couple of months you now not only have a more efficient life, you also have less energy to do your normal work. Work becomes dreadful and stuffed with hatred. Small side projects become a necessity. How could ever imagine working differently? Your life is more efficient! Efficiency is good! It’s like being a computer. Computers are awesome! They can work all day without losing energy.

Except, you can’t. You’re not a machine. You can’t work 24/7. This is a matter of fact and it is good.

You are human.

That’s all I have to say about this topic. Remember: Walls.