Working Smarter: Absurd Inefficiency

A lot of times when you ask “What can we do to increase output?” the quick answer many people say is “Work harder.”  No doubt hard work is important, but that is NOT the best answer.

The best answer is to work smarter.  Find a way to conserve your movement.  Use tools and machinery that make the work easier.  Change a sequence in how you do something.  All of these are examples of ways to work smarter, and finding ways to work smarter is a never-ending process.

Let me tell you the most shocking example of NOT working smart that I have ever seen.  Years ago, I was in Playa del Carmen, Mexico on a vacation.  My hotel had a beautiful pool and garden area, and they were building a sidewalk for the hotel guests.  They were building it out of large, flat stones.

One of the workers was an older man who was probably 60.  But a 60 that told me he had worked outside with bricks and rocks his whole life.

I looked up and saw him carrying an enormous flat rock on his back.  He was stooped over and the rock was larger than his back.  He looked like a turtle.  And he was moving like a turtle.  He was really struggling with this heavy rock on his back.  I'm sure the rock weighed over 100 pounds.  Much to my amazement, he slowly walked that rock about 150 feet.  Midway, he had to walk around an EMPTY WHEELBARROW!

I was with a friend named Roger.  We watched in stunned silence.  Then Roger deadpanned, “That guy sure is working hard.”  Then we both wondered how productive that man would have been had he worked half as hard, but used that wheelbarrow.  We also wondered why this poor guy didn't see the need to reduce his physical burden.

The lesson taught to us by Turtle Man was absurd in its obviousness.  Through the years, I've come to realize that most of us carry some rocks on our back.  We might do some tasks the hard way because it is habit, or we just haven't thought about it, or we have an attitude that we deserve burden.

I encourage you to step back and analyze your hour-by-hour activities.  Is there a rock or two that you could take off your back and put in a wheelbarrow?