Simplicity – The Art of maximizing the work not done is essential

Re-sharing an article I wrote quite some time back as this topic keeps coming in the discussions... Hope you enjoy it.

A very straightforward line with infinite wisdom in it. We all know the advantages of keeping things simple. But, what about “Maximizing The Work Not Done”?

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?? It is a tricky concept. People often think – maximize work not done – are we trying to be lazy – should we avoid work? Don’t do work !!! Hahaha, No, that’s not the case.

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I learned the value of this principle very early in my career and my married life. I used to be a cleanliness freak with everything kept in order, all clothes completely ironed and psyched to a level, that if I am going out, I would iron the clothes again to remove those folding lines and then go out.

In a nutshell, I was doing lot of things which were not really valuable in my personal life. And this I realized when I had kids. Balancing, office, home + cleaning and kids and their education was slowly becoming a challenge. I would sleep less and less in order to be on top of everything. It put me in thinking mode, why am I spending time on things that are not really important.

I jotted down – what is important – My family, myself and my work. What was not important was the unnecessary stuff I was doing at home which I could either or just not do it. This changed my entire thought process.

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Now, instead of spending time after office on cleaning the house, I started playing with the kids and then helping them in building a strong base for their education.

What I did was whenever there was some work to be done, I first asked myself – is it really needed. If not, then don’t do it. Basically, I was eliminating all the wasteful activities, all the non-value adding activities from my life. So, the art of maximizing the work not done is really – The art of maximizing useless work not done – anything which is not really important or necessary. Hope you like it?