My dangerous work experiment - and what it taught me about productivity

I once had a job where one of my responsibilities was to create a weekly report - the kind that turned data into information for decisions, as they say.The report took about three to four hours to create. Yet every week without fail, I would put it together. I didn’t really enjoy doing it. If I’m being honest, I knew I could do more and wanted to. But I also knew that companies don’t promote people who suck at their jobs. So, I did my best at my job – and this report was a part of my job, just like it had been for the guy before me.

But tedious as it was, it was all worth it when, on Friday afternoon, I'd attach the finished document, open up my email, populate the recipient field with some pretty important names in the company, lean back, and ever so proudly, click send. It didn't hurt when, every few weeks, I'd get a thank you email back saying that the report had been very useful and helped with an important decision. *Insert proud self-pat on the back here*

And then one week, things got busy! So busy, the unthinkable happened - I forgot to send the report.

"That’s it!" I thought on Monday, "That’s it! There goes my job, my paycheck and my prospects! I'm going get fired and have to spend hours in resume clinics salvaging my career and hours in counseling salvaging my self-esteem! This is it! This is how it ends!"

Well, Monday rolled around and guess what happened?  Nothing! Then Tuesday…Nothing! By Wednesday, I should have started working on the present week's report. But mischievous curiosity won over common sensibility.

“Hmmm… I wonder…”

My Dangerous Experiment

"What would happen if I didn't send the report for 2 weeks in a row...." Only one way to find out.Nothing happened!3 weeks? Nothing. For 4 weeks straight, no report and for 4 weeks straight, nothing happened! By week 5, on the verge of a tension-triggered heart attack, I decided to end the dangerous experiment and send the report. Four hours later, I had put it together as usual, sent it off, breathed a sigh of relief.  And, true to form, nothing happened! But that one-month dance with death got me thinking ... how important was this report really?

Investigating the results

I decided to get some answers. One afternoon not long after, I was in a meeting with a department head, Darren. So, I asked him about the report and how it was being used.

“Oh, Anthony!”  Darren said with coffee-cup in hand, “Those reports are invaluable during our quarterly meetings."

Wait. Did he just say quarterly meetings?

He continued, “It's really great to have the most up-to-date numbers available when we need them”.

No wonder I got the thank you emails every few weeks - that was when they were actually using the report! I was sending reports 4 times a month when they were only needed 4 times a year!

I promptly adjusted and, with the time and space I now created, I was able to work on a process improvement project that led to a promotion within the organization.In retrospect, this experiment was a major turning point for me and was probably a powerful albeit quiet catalyst for the work I do now. At the time though, I did not intuit this long-term effect.

But I do recall that the experience reminded me of a lusciously bearded 19th-century engineer.

The Pareto Principle

About 120 years ago, an Italian engineer and economist had an interesting curiosity come upon his mind. He wondered if he could apply his great facility with data and statistics to study the distribution of wealth among the population. Could the numbers reveal anything interesting?

You see, at the time, economics was largely a social science almost completely innocent of any mathematical sophistication. It definitely was not the graph-and-chart-speckled discipline we know it as today.He decided to conduct an experiment of his own. But unlike me, his test did not directly jeopardize his livelihood. Smart guy.

Applying his stellar analytical skills, he gathered the data and ran the numbers. His results revealed something unexpected… he found that 80% of the land belonged to 20% of the population - there was a marked imbalance in distribution with most resources belonging to a relatively small number.

The engineer's name was Vilfredo Pareto - founder of the eponymous Pareto Principle. Maybe you have heard of it. But in case you haven't, stated simply, the principle says - 80 percent of results come from 20 percent of efforts. More precisely, it suggests an inherent imbalance in a system between the ratio of inputs to outputs with a tendency for relatively few inputs to account for a disproportionately large ratio of outputs. Let's go with the simpler version - 80/20 it is!

For most people, this claim, though proven by research is not easily accepted. And that is because it is not how we intuitively perceive things to be.

Counter-intuitive, but correct nonetheless

The relationship between efforts and results is not as simple or straightforward as you might expect. You would expect that all effort should count equally in the output. In other words, if you increase "this" by "this much" then your output - "that" should rise accordingly and in proportion. But nature has designed it otherwise. Nature says it all depends on what this is…Put more effort in the right "this" and you get rewarded in a disproportionately large measure. But focus on the wrong "this" and you might end up with diddly squat—nature's technical term for nothing. What does this have to do with my experiment?

Working on the right this

That report was the wrong this. I could have worked harder at that report - made the charts prettier, the tables cleaner and gotten the fonts just right. I could have gotten better and faster at pulling the data and putting it together and it would have gotten me... diddly squat! Or at best, more of the same. It almost definitely would not have led to a promotion.

The real loss was not in what I was getting - it was in what I was losing in the form of wasted energy and potential. And once I redirected that energy to the right this – the process improvement work - I got a disproportionately large return – a promotion! All from about 10% of my 40-hour work week.

Lessons on personal productivity

A little thought reveals that focus is a must if we are to achieve anything great. But what should you be focusing on now? That is not always clear.It is not always clear what the right this is. And it is so easy to get caught up by all the things we could be doing and the things we (or someone else) thinks we should be doing. There is no lack of options in this regard. But until we discover what really delivers the results we want, we may unwittingly find ourselves spending precious time, energy and money on the wrong this.

We must get honest about what is working and what isn’t. What is moving us closer to our goals and what isn’t. What brings us joy and what doesn’t.

…intentionally work to minimize the meaningless and maximize the meaningful.

And sometimes, this is who. Who really matters in your life? And are you investing in them or playing spendthrift on someone else?

As far as productivity goes, my experiment taught me to impersonally evaluate where and how I am spending my time and energy. And then to intentionally work to minimize the meaningless and maximize the meaningful.Where will you spend your precious time and energy? The answer to that question has the potential to transform your life.Until the next article, be your best and do your best.