Doing less of "things that don't matter" so that you can focus on "things that do matter" is not laziness. It is hard to operate in such a fashion because our culture rewards hard work and sacrifices personal resources (mostly time) instead of effectiveness and efficiency.
The notion that the world is linear is a fallacy. Most managers think if employees spend 40 hours in front of a computer, they will produce 40 hours' worth of output. Employees believe if they stay at a job for two years, they'll get promoted. The truth is that outcomes are non-linear based on the quality of the work. It is because technology has leveled the playing field in the information age. The hierarchical model from the industrial age is not working in the modern workplace. It was introduced for operational decision-making and specialization of roles, not for adopting a carrot and stick model to move employees up the ladder.
Let's say you spend X hours at work to make Y dollars per year. You'll lose significantly to a modern-day knowledge worker who figures out how to create Y dollars by spending one-fourth of the time of X hours. You spending X+ n hours is not enough to catch up; the math doesn't work. In this case, it is unfair to label such efficient workers as 'lazy' because they now have three-fourths of X hours left to spend on things of their liking. It is even more unfair to assume that the employee who spent X+n hours is more productive than the employee who spent one-fourth of the time of X hours.
There is no doubt hard work is essential. But it is far more critical to decide on:
- Who do you want to work with?
- What do you want to work on?
- How do you want to approach your work?
People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy. -Seneca
Exceptional leaders can measure the results of their actions to the value created or a problem solved. Such an approach is far more challenging than the traditional project management approach of measuring the contributions in time and money spent.
