“There is more to life than increasing its speed” – Mahatma Gandhi

Forbes Magazine interview with Peter Drucker, 'Successful leaders don’t start out asking, “What do I want to do?” They ask, “What needs to be done?” '

Or better yet also by Drucker, “There is nothing more useless than doing efficiently what doesn’t need to be done at all.”

I need to take a hard look at what’s being done and do less. I believe we should take away as much as possible and when the process breaks add back the last step.

No one shows this better than Masanobu Fukuoka He has a great book, The One-Straw Revolution, and I highly recommend it. He walked away from a corporate bio-engineering job and started to farm. He farmed by his one-straw-revolution principle, do less till it breaks. His farm produces as much or more per acre than any commercial enterprise. His innovated of course. When he finds out what must be done, he looks for ways to do it better. He stopped plowing, and the birds were eating too much of his seed. He put the seed in little clay balls next time. The seeds would germinate without being eaten. Sometimes the process breaks. He stopped pruning his fruit trees, and the fruit production dropped far too low. He had to add that step back.

I do a lot of what I do because that’s the way it has always been done. When I pause to consider each step, I like to stop doing it and see what happens. I’m am frequently surprised at the results.

I live in a world of not enough time, and finding more time isn't a sustainable answer. I have to create not-to-do lists. I can’t always be involved. I must delegate even if it’s painful.

One more great saying, “If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it again?” What’s my suggestion? Slow down. Actually, make a list of the tasks you catch yourself doing that aren’t required. Test assumptions and skip some steps to see what happens. Read One-Straw Revolution.