Deciding to be less efficient

Efficiency is always good - right?

Maybe.

The real question is: Is it always worth it?

Say I've got a task that takes 5 hours, and an idea to optimize it down to 1 hour.

Should I put aside everything else for a week to make that happen?

Well, if that task only comes up once a year, investing a week of 8 hour days means I'll recoup my investment in 10 years.

So is it worth the time and effort to automate this process?

Here's the thing:

Real efficiency means comparing the overall value to my investment of time, money, and mental stress.

Labor-intensive tasks that come up often are good candidates for optimization. Those that only come up rarely are usually not.

For that kind of thing, the really efficiency is often simply to decide to be less efficient.

All the best,
A.