I’ve said elsewhere that I’m not against hard work. I am happy to watch others work hard. Mark Twain said something to the same effect. But sometimes your options narrow, and you have to roll up your sleeves, put you shoulder to the wheel, knuckle down, with your best foot forward, your nose to the grindstone, grit your teeth and get on with it.
I don’t know about you, but I have found this a rather difficult position in which to get things done. There is a case to be made for getting things done. It seems that getting things done is quite popular.
You never see self-help books on procrastination. But I think there is a need for, “How to Procrastinate.” You never hear about awards for Procrastinator of the Year, or honorary degrees conferred on top procrastinators.
History would have been so different if Genghis Khan, Stalin, and Napoleon had just not bothered to get so much done. World domination takes a lot of effort – or so I am led to believe. I haven’t tried world domination myself.
Getting things done might all be well and good, but which things do you want to get done? Are you sure? That is a question that needs thinking about.
I do my best thinking when in a state of calm. Taking things off your list (if you have one) is a good object of thought. Of course, those wise words, “Never do today, what you can put off and do tomorrow,” spring easily to mind.
If you’re afflicted with list-making, then how about arranging items by doing what you enjoy most? If you simply can’t, let’s say you are required to sit though a corporate PowerPoint presentation (the worst thing a human can tolerate and still live), then think about how you can enjoy what you have to do.
Many years ago, I was an employee of a large company. I was often a PowerPoint victim. Some people love to torture you by reading from the screen. I kept a notebook in order jot down all my witty (and I’m rather ashamed to admit sometimes unkind) remarks. My private notebook made things almost tolerable for me.
I hit upon the notebook idea when I was told that I would do well to keep my remarks to myself. I tried that, but then I was told not to roll my eyes. I wasn’t aware that I was doing it. You see, I had much to learn about being in corporate meetings. The idea apparently was that if you were being told the obvious, even in longwinded detail, you should enthusiastically greet the information as a revelation.
These days I score much higher in the tact department. In all fairness those presenters were doing the best they could.
I recommend the notebook because we simply can’t always voice our true opinions. An added benefit is that you look like you are really interested by taking so many notes. You don’t have to share those secret comments with anyone except your friendly notebook; therefore you can still be necessarily amicable. I do advise not bursting out laughing though at an inappropriate moment. This is always a danger. But the notebook is a wonderful stress reliever. There! You didn’t think you would actually get something useful out of this blog did you?
It takes a lot of effort to do something new. If you want to learn to tango, drive a car, bake a cake, become a nanotechnologist, or sew on a button, then it is going to be hard at first (especially the button sewing). You need to make an effort. But I have come across some people who think that a lot of effort is a good thing. This is clearly nonsense.
My school reports praised my lack of effort. There was always a note in there that I could try harder. But you see I didn’t.
Now here is where minimum effort comes in. If you can achieve the same result with a lot of effort or minimum effort which would you choose?
To my mind the answer is easy. Think how much effort it takes to drive a stick shift. When you learned it took a lot of thinking about. It took a lot of practice. You spent all that time crashing the gears and making a terrible noise. But once you mastered it, it only took a very tiny effort. A better example is a swimmer. The poor swimmer splashes about using up lots of energy and getting nowhere. The accomplished swimmer uses minimum effort. She glides though the water with ease.
It’s a paradox: maximum effort with a goal of minimum effort. Ease up, slow down, and embrace counter-urgency.
Tags: Talk Back //
I’ve been sitting here laughing my head off at your brilliant articles and posts.
You would probably have more comments but you have convinced all your readers that there is no need whatsoever to rush.
Incidentally (you may already know this), Descartes never got out of bed before noon! When he was forced to rise early in order to tutor Queen Christina of Sweden, his constitution couldn’t take it and he contracted pneumonia and died a few weeks later.
Thanks again for providing such entertainment and humor!
Thank you for the valuable information about Descartes. I was completely ignorant of his bedroom habits. But this is an important piece of information and should be taught in all philosophy courses.
I’m glad you are laughing your head off. Laughing is the supreme human act. Well done.
Chris…
Marvelous!
I recently picked up, for Minimum Cost (the distant cousin to Minimum Effort) a book of essays by Jerome K Jerome - a spiritual predecessor to chaps like your good self - which I will read when I can be bothered to make the effort to open the pages. That said, I have already read the first essay, which speaks of the pleasure of doing nothing when you’re supposed to be doing something. Anyway, I digress…
Hard work is indeed over-rated. There is a prevalent feeling that hard work has value, in and of itself - irrespective of the context. Your reference to attempts at world domination highlights a fine example of the error of this presumption. I also feel it important to expand upon your commentary by asking…when have attempts at world domination actually succeeded? So not only is hard work potentially immoral, but also likely, in this kind of context, to be ultimately pointless. Hard work (although, as you admit, occasionally necessary) has a tendency to lead to misery, conflict, stress, war and may even be the death of our planet. Sloth, however, is largely harmless.
Go (as you lovely American folk are wont to utter) figure!
Dan,
Thanks for your message. I love Jerome K Jerome. I first read his Three Men in a Boat as a child. When I first read him, I didn’t realize that this bucolic, and mundane story of leisure was written at the time of the Industrial Revolution. But stories give us relief from some of the harsh realities of life. We imagine other worlds. The more I slow down, I realize just how much I live in my own world of imagination. Life is a subjective experience. We all interpret reality. This is a good thing, because our own world is something we can have some control over.
Imagination gets short shrift. It shouldn’t because we imagine almost every minute of the day. We imagine how the future will be. We imagine that the jam will be there on the toast when we need it. We imagine our next cup of tea. We imagine business opportunities. We imagine a slow lifestyle—even if it isn’t quite as slow as one would wish.
I call myself British-American, but everyone here in America sees me as British. The accent never went away. In fact, the longer I live here in sunny California, the more British I become with respect to reading British authors and occasionally listening to plays on the wonderful BBC website. I play badminton (which may well be more Chinese than anything else). But I love it here. I’ll probably stay until the (Big One) earthquake comes.
Ahh yes, imagination… that internal world of infinite possibilities… I spend much of my time inside my own head… It is warm and comforting and delightfully random there, but can on occasion be the most terrifying of places… I wouldn’t give it up for a galleon of goggles, though!
Dan,
Please share the title of the Jerome K Jerome essays you have. I just came across The Jerome K. Jerome Society and made the discovery he is buried in the churchyard at Ewelme. I know it well. It is the next village to where I used to live as a child.
Chris,
The essays are contained within a book entitled “the Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow” - a compilation which comprises…
On Being Idle (which I have read)
On Being in Love
On Being in the Blues
On Being Hard Up
On Vanity and Vanities
On Getting On in the World
On The Weather
On Cats and Dog
On Being Shy
On Babies
On Eating and Drinking
On Furnished Apartments
On Dress and Deportment
On Memory
Dan,
Thanks. Now I remember that one was broadcast on the BBC. I shall get it.
Your mention of JKJ prompted me to get two of his books from the Oakland Public Library: American Wives, and Told After Supper.
I requested these books online and they were sent to my local branch. This saves me walking around the lake to the main branch. I have to commend the public library system here for their superb care of us readers.
The books were unearthed from the deep within the vaults of the library: a place of secrecy no doubt. The last due date for American Wives was October 31, 1933, and the last time anyone took out the other book was April 15, 1937. Both carry the warning of a two-cent fine if they are overdue. I shall be careful.
These books are wonderful objects. And I do see a resemblance between his style and mine. Could I have been channeling him? This is a perfectly acceptable comment to make here in California you know.
One recommendation for you: The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, edited by Fran Muir.