Title : Succeeding for lazy people
Link : Succeeding for lazy people
Succeeding for lazy people
This is a follow up to my previous post about being lazy. In the last post, I tried to define laziness in a positive (or at least, less negative) light. Now here I'd like to talk about how to work with -- and even take advantage of -- laziness in order to succeed in one's career and other forms of work.
Just as a reminder from the previous post, I like to think of laziness as a value-neutral description of my temprament. My default state is one of idleness, and I have to make an effort to do productive work. Working makes me tired, and I need enough time to recover after doing hard work before undertaking some more. I cannot stay productive beyond a certain point. This doesn't mean I don't care about getting my work done, or that I'm not productive when I'm working, but simply that working makes me tired and there are limits to how much of it I can do.
Just as a reminder from the previous post, I like to think of laziness as a value-neutral description of my temprament. My default state is one of idleness, and I have to make an effort to do productive work. Working makes me tired, and I need enough time to recover after doing hard work before undertaking some more. I cannot stay productive beyond a certain point. This doesn't mean I don't care about getting my work done, or that I'm not productive when I'm working, but simply that working makes me tired and there are limits to how much of it I can do.
I have always looked on with wonderment at people who are able to work 80 hour weeks, do all-nighters, work weekends, go years without taking a holiday, and so on. Again, I'm not making a moral judgement here: whether or not I think working 80 hour weeks is a good thing to do is beside the point. I would simply be mentally and physically incapable of pulling it off. I've never pulled a working all-nighter and can confidently say that I never will---I would fall asleep well before the sun rose!
High energy levels, or whatever term one wishes to use to describe the opposite of laziness, often seem to be disregarded as an ingredient in the successful modern knowledge worker. Being smart is good, being educated is important, communication skills are valuable, good leadership skills are critical, and so on. But say you're an all-rounder with all these marvellous skills and attributes---how far can you get if you are only able to exercise them for 40 hours a week? Is there a glass ceiling for lazy people? This question vexes me, because I do see myself as somebody who could never work far beyond that 9-to-5 plus or minus an hour or two.
I think there's good news here, though. Very few people are genuine all-rounders who are extremely strong in all ways. Some people lack a deep technical understanding of their chosen business, others are poor public speakers, and yet others may have a physical ailment that affects their work. Yet all these people are still able to succeed by acknowledging their strengths and weaknesses, compensating for the latter with the former, and putting themselves in a position where their strengths are strongest and their weaknesses are least significant. By treating laziness as just one more component of every worker's uneven profile of skills and abilities, and intelligently structuring your career and behaviours to minimise its impact, career success should be entirely attainable without working beyond your natural capacity.
And, indeed, I am reasonably satisfied with the progression of my career thus far. So here, dear lazy readers (if you can be bothered reading this), are some tips and tricks I've picked up over the years:
Don't be so hard on yourself
First of all, you need to liberate yourself from the notion that being lazy is a moral failing. It's simply part of who you are, so work with it rather than fighting against it. I found that nobody judges you as harshly as you're likely to judge yourself. Excusing myself from 11:00 PM meetings where my attendance was not essential with the explanation that it would ruin me for the next day have always been accepted on face value, and not as a sign that I'm shirking. And of course when I sneak out of the office at 5:30 in the afternoon I can feel everybody's eyes on me... except that they're not, they're focused on their screens where they always are. Other people absolutely don't give a toss what time I leave, as long as they can see that I'm dedicated to my work while I'm here. This goes too for and good manager. A manager who cares about "chair time" more than productivity is a bad manager and to be avoided for more reasons than just this.
Be clear and assertive
Don't play games. Let people know exactly what your capabilities are and what you are willing and unwilling to do. I've found this to be particularly effective when being offered a new role. Remember, if your manager is asking you to take on more responsibility, that's because they think you're the best person for the job. They don't want to be turned down (they'll just have to find someone else, and they've already decided they'd prefer you) so you're in a reasonable negotiating position. In this situation, simply explain what your limits are and that you'd be happy to take on the role so long as the manager understands where these limits lie. Something like:
"Thanks so much for offering me the role, and I'd love to take it on. I think you should know that I need my rest to work effectively, so I need to maintain a work/life balance. I don't think I can travel internationally more than 2 or 3 times a year, and I'll have to limit the number of late-night calls in which I participate. As long as that's OK with you, we can go ahead."
This does not make you sound like you're whining or pleading. It makes you sound like an honest and upfront individual who knows their own needs and limits; exactly the sort of responsible person every manager wants to have on their team. I've never had an offer withdrawn simply by stating that I expect to have a life outside the office.
Once you've established your limits, be protective of them. My strategy for evening calls, for example, has been to have them all stacked on one or two nights of the week and to keep the rest clear. Then if something is scheduled on an off night, I simply explain that "I can't do calls on a Tuesday evening". Again, I've never had a negative reaction to a polite request to reschedule a meeting.
Another thing about being assertive: politely turn work down once you have a full workload. Quality of work is more important than quantity, and reliably delivering work on schedule is more important than being the nice guy (or girl!) who never says no to a request for help.
Start early
I don't mean come into the office early (although you can do that if you like), but rather that you should start projects early. If you know you can't ramp up your hours right as you approach a deadline, don't put yourself in a position where you might have to. Pace yourself, be organised and you'll find that you can still deliver work on time. In fact, by adopting this strategy you can end up looking like a model of organisation and tranquility among your stressed-out midnight-oil-burning colleagues.
Don't take on roles that you can't handle
I like to think that as a lazy person I have many options in terms of the career choices I make. However, that doesn't mean that I'll take on a role that is fundamentally incompatible with my abilities. Again, this is the same for laziness as for any other aspect of one's personality. People who hate public speaking should avoid roles where they spend most of their time at a podium; similarly, lazy people should avoid roles where late nights and copious business travel are core requirements (real, not imaginary) of the job.
Delegate and coordinate
Many diligent workers avoid delegation because they think it makes them look bad or places an unfair burden on other people in their team. I don't see it that way at all: if you're working as part of a team, you owe it to everybody to do the best possible job you can. If you have more work than you are capable of handling, you will not do the best possible job. Plus if you're a team lead, you'll look like a control freak who's hogging all the responsibility. Don't do that. Instead, evaluate where there is work on your plate that would be better handled by somebody else on your team, and politely ask them if they'd be willing to look after it. More often than not they'll actually be flattered that you thought of them and excited by the prospect of extra responsibility in the project.
Ride the waves of your energy
As a lazy person, sometimes you feel like you can move mountains, while other times you'll feel quite lethargic. Don't try to do very taxing work when you're not up for it. What will end up happening is that you'll procrastinate and not get anything done at all. Better to keep a cache of mundane work available at all times (filing expense reports, tidying your desk, answering non-critical emails, chasing up procurement for the tenth time) and to tackle that work when you're not mentally equipped for the harder stuff. Conversely, don't waste your mountain-moving energy on crap work. Find the hardest thing on your TODO list and smash it!
Go home when you're no longer productive (if you can)
In many roles, employees are measured on productivity rather than on time spent sitting at our desk. Thus, it follows that if you are no longer productive you should go home. There's nothing more stressful than sitting in front of a screen with the realisation that you are good for nothing but procrastination. Go home instead and refresh yourself... you may be able to do some more work later.
If you have meetings scheduled, or if you have a role where you are paid by the hour, or you work in a customer-facing role with fixed hours, you don't have this option, of course.
Such is the article Succeeding for lazy people
That's an article Succeeding for lazy people this time, hopefully can benefit for you all. okay, see you in other article posting.
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