If you walked into an office and asked if there’s anyone that would love to go home at 12 noon instead of 4 pm, I guess many of the workers would raise their hands. This is promising them that their weekly or monthly paycheck would remain intact. And if you also promised to provide a system that would help them do the same amount of work within this time-lapse, I guess the majority would be happy.
The same thing applies to speaking with a stay-at-home parent who does all the house chores and still goes to get the kids from school at 12:30 pm. A mom or Dad would be elated to know of a system that would allow her to do everything in less time because, in the end, time is what everyone has but no one has in excess.
When we talk about productivity, the kernel is that we want more time to focus on other things that we don’t have more time for at the moment. It could be more time to spend with the family, more time to sleep, more time to pray, study the Bible, go out with friends, spend on our hobbies etc.
Now, whenever you want to change or improve on a thing, it’s important to understand what ingredients you’re working with, what variables make up that thing, and what are the constants. This knowledge will help you to determine:
The ingredients you can alter. These are variables you can move up or down to help you improve your goal.
To what extent you can change these variables. Some variables, although adjustable, can’t be stretched beyond certain limits, while others can be completely overturned.
What things are constants. These are those elements that you cannot change no matter how hard you try. or they’re simply things beyond your control. All you can do is adjust yourself and your schedule to get the most out of them without attempting to change them.
Once the above is defined, you can then focus on the things you can change. On the things you can change, you’ll think about how you can change them, what instruments you have to change them and if you can acquire the necessary instruments you don’t have at the moment. On the constants, you’ll see how to predict them and turn them to your advantage. A sailor doesn’t control the condition of the sea, but a good sailor knows how to use these conditions to his advantage.
In summary, understanding the various variables in a concept will enable you to know the places to give maximum attention.
The Book of Proverbs 24:5 says, “a wise man is strong; and a man of knowledge strengthens his power.” Another rendering says that a wise warrior is better than a strong one, and a man of knowledge than one of strength.
So, we see that wisdom is stronger than physical strength because with wisdom you can invent things that can do a job that hundreds of men cannot do. Or even if one hundred men can do it, it would take them multiples of the time required for an electronic device to do the same work. For example: lifting heavy cement blocks or steel to hundreds of metres above the ground cannot be done by hundred men climbing on the shoulder of each other, but a block lifting device can do that effortlessly. Fifty men cannot climb on each other to do the work that a drone does, but wisdom helps you invent something that will do that work successfully.
To get to the top of Burj Khalifa would take climbing 2,909 stairs. Think of how long it will take an average person to get to the 160th floor by using the stairs. But if one uses an elevator, he is sure of getting to the 160th floor in one minute.
So, talking about how to increase one’s productivity begins with understanding the elements that make up the term productivity.
NEXT: The Equation of Productivity
