Hard work is overrated. How to use the law of least effort to do more by doing less.

Hard work is overrated. While there is a good side to putting in the work, there are many people in the world today working very hard and adding very little value to themselves or their organizations. For these people, hard work is like a religion they have been indoctrinated into. It is an end in itself instead of a means to the end of creating value. And like many religions, adherents to the religion of hard work look down their noses at people who choose a different path.  

I invite you to join these few—those who look suspect at the many hours and buckets of sweat and tears these hard workers log with commensurately little to show. Those who believe in the existence of an easier way to their goals.  

Those who treat time and life force as sacred, and intuit that it is more virtuous to use less effort to achieve the same goal than to waste it in back-breaking toil.  

If you would like to join this group—those who want to do all that is necessary (but not more) to achieve their goals—then the 3 keys I present in this article will help you. 

 Hard work has become an end in itself, instead of a means to the end of creating value.

These are based on an understanding of the Law of Least Effort and the 2 kinds of laziness which I will discuss in a future article. You can check that out once it is published here before continuing.  

Short version: The law states simply that organisms will seek out a path of least resistance or least effort for the achievement of their goals or ends. Applying the law of least effort depends on embracing a virtuous laziness that seeks to find a shorter, easier path to the goal.  

Psst! If you like podcasts, I have a longer form podcast on the law of least effort and the content in this article. You can listen to it by clicking on the button below

Now on to the 3 keys.  

1. Assume there is an easier way

I had a friend in university who had a weird nickname growing up. It was Mr. Find Another Way. That was because whenever he was faced with a problem, his answer was almost always “can we find another way?”

What he was really asking was a better question— “is there an easier way?” This mindset is the first step in applying the LOLE. 

It is based on first accepting that there is a path of least effort between you and the goal you want. It may not be obvious, but it exists.  

With simple one- or two-step goals, this is pretty obvious. The shortest path between 2 points is a straight line. Hence the term “straightforward”. But when it comes to more complicated and even complex endeavours—inventing something new, building a successful business, career or raising kids—it gets tricky. 

In theory the shortest path to the end-goal is still a straight line. But the straight line is now less obvious. It is now much more obscure. There are almost sure to be deviations and tangents of all kinds on the path—mostly because the path itself is not so clear.  

But we know, as a matter of fact and principle, that there is a path of least effort. And once we embrace that, we can begin the process of seeking it out.  

If we never even consciously embrace the concept of least effort, we are less likely to ever find the path. And so are likely to fall into the working hard trap.  

But it must start in our minds—in our willingness to find the path of least effort. To become like my old friend and to ask in essence “is there an easier way?” 

To perhaps go as far as regarding paths that are too difficult with some suspicion and then to ask, like my old friend—“can we find another way?” 

2. Let your first impulse be for learning. Look for giants

A lot of time and effort can be saved through learning. In his entertaining yet thought-provoking book—You are now less dumb—author David McRaney makes an interesting point of how little knowledge is possessed on an individual level. When compared to all the knowledge that has gone into our experience and enjoyment of daily life, we realize that we know precious little.

Even more humbling is the fact that we could not—even if our lives depended on it—reproduce many (if any) of the fruits of the accumulated knowledge of mankind we use every day. From the cars we drive to the phones we use to even our clothes. We are so utterly dependent on the conglomeration of the skills of others accrued over thousands of years just to get through a single day. 

Yet when it comes to pursuing a worthwhile goal, our first instinct is not often seeking out the knowledge that already exists. This especially true if you are a man driving down an unknown road.

Ask for directions from a local? Oh please! 

But to live by the law of least effort is to constantly be on the lookout for giants who would lend you their shoulders to stand on. Some of these giants are around you and could be mentors or coaches. Others have written books or articles.  

There are very few if any fields of pursuit where there is truly zero knowledge. Adopting a mindset of finding out what others have already spent their time and effort developing will save you time and effort. And it will enable you build on or tweak ideas to produce value where you would otherwise have been killing yourself trying to come up with the ideas from scratch. All. Over. Again.     

3. Respect the streets! Have an action orientation

Learning is great and the time and energy savings of studying can be significant. But we cannot ignore action. Potential paths can be spied from the amazing views from the shoulders of giants, but they have to navigated at ground level. And the ground level often has many lessons of its own at degrees of resolution that simply cannot be gleaned with a 10,000ft view.  

Spending too much time thinking, planning, and strategizing could become a trap in itself that delays the achievement of our goals by putting off the necessary street-smarts acquisition we need and ironically leads to more effort overall—kind of defeating the purpose of LOLE.  

In closing… 

To apply the law of least effort effectively, spend time clarifying your goals. Then embrace the idea that there is—necessarily—a path of least effort to achieving them.  

Seek that path through learning, action, iteration, and experimentation. Know that work is necessary and while a vicious laziness is destructive, a virtuous laziness will carry the day!  

Let me leave you with this thought—life is too precious and your resources too valuable to waste. 

Until next time, be your best and do your best.