I’m efficient because I’m lazy

I’m lazy. At work, at home. Everywhere.

I’m also a procrastinator. Because I think I can get it done in time anyway. Because I’m efficient, thanks to my laziness.

I think it’s lazyness that’s the mother of invention, not necessity.

Seriously.

Maybe Eddison got tired of having to replace candles all the time, find matches (in the dark) and figured, well, there’s got to be better way (light bulb). For my part, if I ever have to do something more than twice, I’ll try to automate it. Not because I’m smarter, but because I’m lazy.

I figure that by automating things, they’ll be faster/easier to accomplish and I can have more time to myself. So, I have no problem spending 4 days programming something to save myself 10 minutes a day, on a weekly task.

But I hear you say: Why? After all, your ROI is so far out in the future it’s pointless and seems like a waste of time. Ahhh, maybe to the inexperienced eye, it is. But to me, I see it as a challenge and an opportunity to learn new technologies, programming, etc. So my ROI not only consists of time saved, but mostly from gained knowledge while improving the offending process.

Actually, I could argue that the time gained from automating the process has near-zero value for me, since I’m an employee and am paid on a yearly basis. But that freed up time does however allow me to pursue other professional activities which may pay off later i.e learn a new language, more time to read on technologies, ability to participate in more projects at work, etc.

So, in essence my lazyness becomes the fuel to my personal improvement process. Quite shocking to most managers out there, I’m sure… Of course, lazyness does not mean inactivity to me, but more my reluctance to accept status quo when doing redundant tasks. These applications and websites I build all do one thing – they free me up from boring and repetitive tasks so I can focus on creating higher value from the time I spend at work.

And that, my friends, is why we are called knowledge workers. Not because we work with information… but because of our ability to convert that information into value by coming up with innovative ways to tackle everyday problems.