Before You Go and Investigate …
29 December, 2023
Many of us feel compelled to continually investigate tools, systems, and techniques in the hope that they’ll make us more productive. All in the hope that they’ll help us do more work, and do that work more efficiently.
Many of us want to stumble upon that magic tool or system or technique that will solve all of our problems and enable us to get more done. Many of us want find that silver bullet to all our life’s (work) woes, both real and imagined.
Taking a peek at something new from time to time is fine. But it can become an obsession. You can spend a lot of time reading, investigating, testing, tweaking, and constantly repeating the cycle. That’s time better spent actually doing something worthwhile. That's time better spent actually doing the work. Or doing nothing at all.
Before you do any investigation, and before you become obsessed with something, ask yourself these questions:
- Why am I looking at this?
- How will it benefit me?
- Is it worth my time learning a new system or tool? Or can I use the tools I already or tweak the way I do things to get the same results?
Take time to honestly answer those questions. The answers will probably surprise you.