“Here, man, let me help you with that.”
My classmate Sean reached out to my screen and quickly solved a coding bug that I had spent hours trying to solve. Everyone in our study group was impressed.
Not because Sean wasn’t smart, but because others saw him as lazy. This goes all the way back to our college days when we were studying to be programmers and we were immersed in our studies.
Shaun never put in nearly as many hours as we all did, but he always seemed to turn in work on time. He also slept more than any of us, had a full social life, and spent his days in less stressful conditions.
Needless to say, we were all in awe.
“I choose lazy people to do the tedious work, because lazy people find easy ways to do it.” – Bill Gates
Today, Sean is a successful CEO of his own software company and didn’t have to kill himself to get there. I still remember him fondly because he is a perfect example of what Bill Gates said. He always found easier ways to do things.
I founded my startup Jotform in 2006 and have spent nearly 20 years putting this idea into action. We run his form building business with over 20 million users worldwide helping him automate tedious tasks.
The truth is that we need to embrace our lazy mindset and ask ourselves, “How can I automate the busy work and save my brain for the big one?” Embedding automation means changing the way you look at productivity. It means thinking of it as a way to streamline your work day. is to build
Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen a colleague busy working while you’re struggling to respond to an email. You’re probably annoyed by the way they seem to have endless hours in their day. Many of them haven’t burned out because they’ve found the secret to automating tedious and time-consuming tasks.
That’s one of the concepts I’m exploring Automate busy tasks: work less, get more done, and save your brain for what matters. Because I know there’s a better way, and I’ve seen it work for me and others many times.
“Lazy people” build systems without their feet on the ground. They design and optimize strategically.
For most professionals, it’s easy to get bogged down in busy work, ignoring the big picture and vision of the business.
When my wife was pregnant with our second child, I wanted to be more present than ever during this time by taking three months of parental leave. To be honest, it was both exciting and scary to think about letting go of the reins for so long.
The only way to achieve the above was to review my routine and really see what could be automated. And I thought how easily he could find a solution to something we spent hours trying to solve.
Here are some lessons learned along the way.
- Think of it as a machine that can design and optimize your work, rather than just another cog in your system.
- Achieving success is about focusing on the big picture, not on burning candles.
- The point is not to work less, but to work smarter. In other words, focus on work that enhances your career.
- Know the results you want to achieve and design machines that deliver those results.
- Forget the conventional term “lazy” and think of your business as a well-oiled machine that works without you.
I have taken all of the above into consideration before going on maternity leave and especially since then. One of the key preparations I focused on was automating time-consuming tasks while I was away. Instead of focusing on busy work, I focused on these high-value activities instead.
I can’t help but think Sean would be proud of these efforts. We hadn’t kept in touch over the years, but he was one of the first inspirations to push me to believe in a new kind of thinking. seen as.
As a recovering perfectionist, letting go of control was tough, but it’s one of the most valuable lessons I learned along the way. One of the most amazing realizations about automation is that it removes barriers and opens up a world of possibilities. But it’s also the gift of the last 3 months. By automating, we understood that we had to step aside and spend more time focusing on the best interests of our careers and endeavors.
After three months of putting it aside, I was able to see a new view of the business I had spent building. It was stronger and a much better business at handling challenges than I had previously thought. And that made all the difference.