Efficiency Rules

I can’t stand it when people are inefficient.

And I really can’t stand it when there is an assumption that because I don’t have children, the only important thing in my life is work. Or better yet, that time is more precious to folks with kids than those of us who have yet to, or have chosen not to, procreate.

Now, I believe that child-rearing can be a full time job. Some of my favorite people are stay-at-home moms. (Sounds an awful lot like, “I have gay friends,” or, “Some of my best friends are black,” doesn’t it?)

And I believe that I do have more discretionary income than they do. And I believe that I do have more time to myself than they do. Which is why, when I go to Liv and Colin’s for dinner, I try to always clean up. They can populate the earth (with some fantastically adorable children, I might add). I can do the dishes.

Signal vs. Noise has a post about why hiring “family people” is a good idea. They have focused time, they don’t throw hours at projects (or whatever) because they can’t afford to, and they make you figure out if what you’re trying to do is make shit fly or truly something interesting and important. (I don’t mean to take away from the validity of making shit fly…) Read it yourself - Why I love working with family people

If you read the comments, which I didn’t at first, there are some PISSED OFF people. Get a clue. The post wasn’t about discriminating against 20-somethings with umpteen hours a day to spend at work, it was about how folks could stand to be a bit more efficient with their time.

If you think a thing should take 4 hours and it is taking 4x that, STOP. Some things do take longer. Legitamate. But not all things should take longer than you think they should.

Build in efficiencies, and value your own time.

Go for a walk.

When you finally do decide that working 16 hour days is not what you want to do, you’ll have a jump on your contemporaries who still can’t get 8 hours of work done in a 40 hour week.

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