Making it easier: the smart route

My work today doesn’t feel easy, straight to the point - but levels of complexity in ensuring these projects succeed with a variety of stakeholders. I decide that I need a podcast on to balance out the quietness so I turn to ABC’s This Working Life episode ‘How to win at work through less, not more’. This episode talks with Effortless author, Greg McKeon about the question, ‘how can we make things easy’. I’m quick to think, the easy route doesn’t understand complexity, strategy and is probably the lazy, tick boxes route. Greg convinces me that asking yourself ’how can I make this easier?’ Is smart and makes space for more productive thinking. Here are some insights I took away that I wanted to share. 

Invert the question

How can we make it easier? Interrupt the high speed of our brains in problem-solving. Every overachiever wants to get better results – there is only so hard you can work – so it’s about working smarter and inverting the question to ‘how can we make this easier'.

Separating easy from lazy 

There’s a very good chance I’m not alone in this, but I had connected easy with lazy. Like most people, I’m passionate about my work and want to make sure it’s to a high standard, understanding complex problems and creating valuable solutions. I don’t want my work to be labeled lazy. But when we look at what lazy actually means, it makes it easier to separate lazy and easy. Lazy is when effort is missing – not willing to put effort in. When you look at how to make something easier, you’re putting effort into making something a success. 

‘It’ll be worth it’

‘We’re going to do this great thing, it’s going to be hard but it’ll be worth it’ – every leader says that and we all just go along with that Greg shares. Next time I hear these words, so next time I hear them, I’m going to ask myself ‘how can I make this easier’ for my role in this big project. This is to buy into this big project and direction and have a productive response rather than a complicated and straight to exhaustive one.

Predictable overachievers

Greg shares that overachievers make a predictable mistake – go big – they go big for a while and then get burnt out. The energy and passion for this exciting project dies out. Instead, when going big, uncomplicate it. 

Greg’s easy approach advice

When taking on the next project, ask these questions:

• What does done look like?

• How can I eliminate steps from the project?