In reading one of my favorite blogs Lifehacker, I saw this article about Anant Agarwal of edX, a really amazing online platform for MOOCs (or massive open online courses) which are basically those college classes you cheat on, but for free, and not involuntary.
No cheating over here…no sir.
See below for a link to the whole article, but I thought there were two really poignant quotes from Agarwal. When asked about the best time-saving hack he had, the answer was surprising…
“That’s easy! Procrastinate. When it comes to work, my life hack is ‘if it can be postponed then postpone it.’”
Now while you might think this is a crappy way to save time, it actually makes sense. Our busy lives are full of things that don’t NEED to happen today or even tomorrow, and actually might be superseded by a different problem or task later; some low priority tasks can be batch processed with future high priority tasks if you let them stew a little bit.
The other interesting quote he had was regarding professional curiosity.
“The best advice I have ever received is to always act on your curiosity. Throughout my career, curiosity has served me well. The curiosity to start and develop [a local agricultural start-up] helped lead me to create several high-tech startups later on, and the importance of following your inquisitiveness has remained with me throughout my professional life.”
This is something that really resonates with me; in my line of work the projects can range greatly from one deal to the next. One week your looking at a food processing plant in Kentucky, the next a data-center in Portland, but you’d be surprised at how similar the problems and challenges faced by different companies are, and the deals can really blend together. However, if the company really interests you for some reason, be it the field, product, structure or entrepreneur, those are a joy to work on. Being cognizant of what you find interesting and engaging is important to think about when you decide what to be when you grow up.
Still have no fucking idea.
Source: I’m Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX, and This Is How I Work
Employed Millennial 