Quit Repeating Yourself!

One of the biggest time wasters occurs when we repeat work that can be easily automated or duplicated (think: copy and paste.) This is true in every industry and position. Amongst coders, work repetition was so prevalent that it inspired the creation of the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” technique (or DRY Principle,) which discouraged the recreation of reusable code. While DRY, was made famous by coders, it is easily applicable to non-programmers as well.

Many of the things that we do often – such as replying to emails, crafting correspondences, writing articles, briefs, or proposals – unnecessarily take up large chunks of our day. At its core, DRY is about saving time by reusing work that’s already been done and materials that’ve already been prepared so that you don’t have to continually repeat the same work time and again.

Do you know what your values are?

We noted in a recent post how important our values are in helping us to make decisions. As leaders, we have many opportunities each day to choose between possible actions and reactions. Oftentimes, we tap into our core set of principles to make those selections. Though the choices that we make are typically not of the life-altering variety, we can use the example set by Sousa Mendes to decide how we will align ourselves in the event of conflict. Such selections may include:

Preserving character and integrity over the company’s bottom line.
Prioritizing the needs of an individual employee above company policy.
Maintaining a collaborative approach despite our personal agenda.

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