Prioritizing effort by leverage
"If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe." - Abraham Lincoln
I love the idea behind this quote, and it widely still holds in our current age of knowledge work. Some efforts have higher leverage than others.
I’ve found it helpful to classify efforts into one of three categories, in order of increasing leverage: single serving, temporary value, and everlasting.
A single serving effort only delivers a single instance of value. Take a task like making a sandwich. The work that went into making the sandwich only feeds you for a single meal.
A temporary value effort produces multiple instances of value that eventually runs out. In contrast to making a sandwich, cooking a double batch of a recipe that feeds you for several meals makes it a temporary value effort.
An everlasting value effort produces value forever. A great recipe that was lovingly honed through iteration and experimentation will bring value every time it’s used. That dish will never stop tasting good.
I’ve noticed a relationship between these three types of efforts. Everlasting and temporary value efforts tend to make single serving efforts easier to do.
Filling a pillbox (temporary value) makes taking daily pills (single serving) easier. Packing for a camping trip (single serving) is a breeze when you’ve made a reusable and battle tested packing list (everlasting value).
While modest, single serving efforts are often the currency of the deposits we make into our life accounts. Completing runs (single serving) are what actually makes me a runner, and eating whole food, plant based meals, are what actually makes me a plant-predominant person.
Since single serving efforts are often what moves the needle, spending time to make them easier is time well spent.
For that reason, I’ve begun to prioritize at least one or two everlasting and temporary value efforts in my weekly project mix. It can be easy to get lost in the weeds of always doing single serving work, especially in reaction to external forces and deadlines.
By identifying and prioritizing at least one or two of these higher leverage efforts at all times, I ensure that a portion of my effort always goes toward sharpening my ax.