In the classic productivity book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey tells the story of a woodcutter trying to cut a tree with a blunt saw.

Instead of taking time to sharpen the saw, the woodcutter works hard but doesn’t make much progress due to how blunt the saw is.

Covey explains how the woodcutter could cut the tree faster if he simply took time to sharpen the saw.

Personal productivity techniques are the modern-day saw for white-collar workers. However, these techniques are a blunt instrument when you are:

🤔 Frustrated you're not achieving more
🤔 Finding there aren’t enough hours each day/week to get everything done
🤔 Working long hours
🤔 Faced with conflicting priorities and demands for time
🤔 Feeling overwhelmed
🤔 Sensing there must be a better way

Personal and team productivity needs to be improved when any of these instances occur on a repeated basis.

Fine-tuning productivity is like sharpening a saw.

It doesn’t mean everything you know about productivity needs to be replaced, but it might require refreshing from time to time or be re-engineered to keep up to pace with changes as they take place in the work environment.

Don’t’ for one moment think you’re inept if you feel the need to get help because you might be surprised with the number of high performers who seek support on an annual basis to ensure they remain at the top of their game to deliver even greater results than the year before.

I’d love to know what you’ve done to sharpen your saw recently.