As we come out of Golden Week in Japan, I have a sort of “New Year” feeling.
In March, many businesses went through the crazy busyness of the fiscal year end. In April, it was all about new hires and moving to new departments. And then the holidays.
So now seems like a time that we can start anew and focus on making progress in our work.
But then it can be easy to fall into the trap of pushing ourselves to do our best and ultimately overdoing it and feeling exhausted.
Is it the same for you?
That used to be me, but now I’m constantly looking for the less effort, more impact approach. (I’m not saying “no effort” – I’m saying minimize how much mental, emotional, and physical energy you spend to get the results you want).
One way to do that is to master simple skills through a bit of education and a lot of repetition.
When I was in my early teens, we were split into the top, middle, and bottom stream at school, depending on our academic ability.
I was in the top stream. This meant I could study more languages (which I loved) and science (not so much), but wasn’t taught to type.
Typing was for the girls in the middle stream, who were expected to become secretaries (in the days before computers!).
But for some reason, I wanted to be able to type. So I borrowed a book from my friend’s sister, Sandra, who was in the middle stream, and spent the summer holidays learning the techniques in the book and repeatedly practicing until I could touch type.
I can’t believe how much that simple skill has helped me over the years!
What simple skills do you find useful in your work?
What simple skills do you still want to learn?