Finding the path of least resistance.

There is a certain law to decision making that’s changing how I work and operate.

See right now we live in a world that favors heavy planning. Doing things in advance, being prepared, and even occasionally, jumping the gun and getting it done early. And yes, even I have done- and directed many of those actions.

But over time, I found something that occurred. I wasted a lot of time on meaningless work. Sometimes the vision I would have would be crumbled in seconds. Other times, I would run late because of something extremely minuscule and heavily annoying- like a belt loop getting stuck.

There is something so heavily cringe worthy and painful about losing time to the little things, and something even more egregious when your work has gone to waste and the unexpected happens. That, and your plan has fallen into a cumbersome territory that you now might fear touching as it spirals out of balance.

It’s why I have begun to cut planning out of my life.

Well, more like the planning we generally perceive. A planning internment plagued with impatience, urgency, desire, and forth. Essentially- it wouldn’t be far off to say that, in many cases, we are the cause of the lags and inefficiencies produced in our lives.

However, there is a different kind of planning that can eliminate that kind of lag. It begins with understanding yourself, and ends with you eliminating action wasters and an over-usage of stepping stones.

Here’s what I mean: In order to have a better handle on the time that you waste- the micro-minutes, or the emotional dragging- comes from first handling yourself and changing the way you perceive reality.

In essence, I still plan- rigorously. However, I don’t spend time building complicated loopholes in it. I do what needs to be done, build some adaptations and call ti a day.

The overarching concept of this is to find the path of least resistance. To follow the path that has less steps, takes less time, or has less crosshairs that you much tech through in order to get to the destination you want to.

For example, let’s take an example of you running late. Let’s say, that, something caused you to come home late the night before. You wanted to sit down and wind, and in a phase of exhaustion, you ended up watching old videos of Nirvana until 2 in the morning.

So, naturally, you wake up a little to late- precisely at 7:44AM. You need to get to your accounting interview by 8:15AM- and the site is 39 minutes away from where you reside. You have 2 options- you flip out, panic, and rush into the car, driving abruptly, hoping to get there earlier.A ton of extra complications and processes you must endure. Or, you stay rational, get ready at your usual pace, and drive normally- the simpler one.

Now, say you do get the opportunity to arrive early- and you make it by 8:17. You’re flustered and can’t think straight and you get all the more frustrated as the door blocks your path.

Or, you decided to take the stoic route. You showed up, flustered, at 8:22. Everything is kept as it should be and, instead of rushing in, you calmly enter the meeting room, ask for a brief as you set up, and go on with your day without spending your time worrying how your world will end when you’re 7 minutes late.

Which one ends up having the more productive day?

See- there’s something about having the path of least resistance that goes into your favor. 2 specifically. The first is that distractions and lossful investments no longer exist. Your work is focused and complete. The second is that you have less hoops to jump through- you don’t need to panic, or keep track of everything you have. You don’t have to risk getting a speeding ticket, or compensate for 7 minutes of loss time in a frenzy.

Instead, you are simply doing what is the most streamlined path that you must take. As a result, your day is more productive. You spent less time worrying about the stuff that doesn’t really matter- because, truth be told, signing that extra memo, or creating that extra file, or panicking over 2 minute losses, or getting caught up in jargon, or having a meeting about the upcoming meeting- that’s all useless stuff. They are not needed and not doing them will not change the macro: Everyone still knows what’s happening. Manegment still gets the job it needs done. You get the same amount of work done as you would without the two minutes. Everyone knows what you are saying, and the next meeting still happens and works well.

The interesting thing about the path of least Resistance is not that it’s the most efficient, or money-saving. It’s the simplest. Less energy is wasted. Less money is wasted. Less time is wasted. But every problem that you don’t need goes away- and the best part about that is that you get the opportunity to get the real work done.

We waste a ton of stuff in physical life. There’s no need to add to that in the work life we live.