Have You Got an Axe to Grind?
18 Jul 2023
Sharpening the Axe
"Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
Abraham Lincoln's famous quote applies to many facets of life, especially how we tackle tasks and challenges.
It's all too tempting to take the path of least resistance. And as we learn to do things a certain way, we shift to autopilot with each repetition.
Jocko Willinck, author of Extreme Ownership, often repeats, 'sometimes you need to take a step back and detach':
Am I doing this the right way?
Am I getting the most out of my efforts?
How else could I approach this?
Some people I work with use their email to manage everything - tasks, projects, information...
But email apps are a blunt axe for task and project management.
If they invested time in mastering tools like Notion or To Do, it could set them on an entire different career path.
History provides ample evidence that spending time to ‘sharpen the axe’ can be worth it.
The masters knew it: before Michelangelo started sculpting, he would spend hours observing, sketching, and studying.
This was how he created statues with an astounding level of detail and realism.
Every day, we face a forest of challenges and tasks.
Just like Lincoln and Michelangelo, we need to spend time reflecting, observing, honing our skills, and learning new ways to do things.
Don't just look at the big stuff - there are many small tasks you can systematize.
How do you shop for groceries?
Maybe you find yourself going to the store every two days because you always forget that one item.
Or perhaps your meal planning leaves you depending on impulsive takeaways.
Instead, set up repeat grocery orders online. This makes you money by winning time back, ordering less takeaway, and easily spotting discounts.
I'd love to hear from you:
What trees are you chopping with a dull axe?
What could you do to sharpen your axe?
Which trees might be not worth chopping down?
Reply to this email or tweet at me @Sandrerooo and I'll do my best to get back to everyone.
Fun Fact of the Week
Google pays ~$15 billion per year to Apple to be the default search engine on Safari.
Source: Forbes.com
Quote of the Week
"Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations.As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as the United States and Google."
From Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.
Have a great week!
Sandrero