When I used to make my living working in sales, I formed a friendship with a colleague, John, in the office whose work habits, patterns, and philosophies aligned pretty closely with my own -- basically, we were work-a-holics.
Come in early, stay late, skip lunch, work nights, work weekends, go-go-go non-stop all day, everyday. It was a formula that worked for both of us, and while his results were often better than mine (I held my own, but this guy was - and still is - an untamable beast in the industry), we both had success by doing things this way.
However, like most approaches that are dialed up to 11, especially when kept there 24/7/365, it's simply not sustainable. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's a pace that a person can't continue, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. One guy that I worked with previously used to work like this all the time, and I suspect he still does. I can take you to the exact spot in my mother's family room where I was standing on Christmas Eve one year when the barrage of emails started coming in from this guy. After working with him for nearly 8 years, I never knew him to truly take a day off. In fact, I won a friendly wager with a colleague when this particular guy took a family vacation to Italy, and within 4 hours of touching down, he emailed me. I knew he would. After all, a lot of emails can be sent back-and-forth while you're flying over the Atlantic (this was before Wi-Fi on flights was as common as it is today).
What I mean about not being sustainable is that the results come at a higher price, in terms of effort. John & I eventually reached the point where we finally had an epiphany, and realized that it was important to sometimes, step away and 'sharpen the saw'.
You may or may not have figured out by this point, that the term comes from the career of a lumberjack. The sharpest axe in the world will eventually begin to dull when used all day, everyday, day after day after day after day. After the edge starts to become less sharp, and more blunt, the effort to bring down a tree increases. It isn't that a dull axe can't bring down a tree, it's just that in order to do so, the swings have to have more force behind them, and there have to be more swings, because the action that's taking place when the axe strikes the tree is less cutting, and more blunt force. If you swing a sledge hammer and beat the trunk of a tree long enough, you can bring that tree down, but it's obviously far more effective and efficient to use a sharp axe.
Work is the same way, sometimes you've got to stop and sharpen the axe. Initially, it might feel like you're losing precious time by doing so, because after all, if you're sharpening an axe on a grinding wheel, you're not swinging it into the trunk of a tree.
But two things are happening are as you're sharpening your saw: Yes, you're improving the tool you use to do your job, but you're also taking a break from the repetition of swinging that axe. This can provide an opportunity to reflect on the aspects of your job that you don't normally have time to give much thought too. For example, you might catch yourself thinking about sharpening both sides of the axe, so that when one begins to dull, you can use the other. Other ideas are likely to manifest themselves during a time of sharpening the saw as well.
Ok, great. So, how does a person actually apply this to their life? It's different for everyone. Maybe for one person, sharpening the saw means taking a vacation, lying on a beach somewhere with their significant other, and just relaxing. For someone else, maybe it means spending the weekend reading a book instead of working (even if the book is work-related), for another, perhaps sharpening the saw means something else.
Whatever it is for you (and if you aren't sure, experiment and discover your own--there may be more than one), make sure you take time to sharpen the saw.
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