Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Shortcuts have always led to more work for me, not less. The past two weeks have emphasized that to me. They have also taught my a new definition to “shortcut.” Sorry, there is no magic here.

Wiktionary.org: A path between two points that is faster than the commonly used paths; A method to accomplish something that omits one or more steps

dictionary.com: shorter or quicker way. A method, procedure, policy, etc., that reduces the time or energy needed to accomplish something.

The past couple of weeks I was working on a short project. We took many short cuts on the project. The result was that we had to do that work that we short cut around two and three times to correct all the mistakes we made while short cutting. Our short cuts were not

• paths between two points that were faster
• shorter or quicker
• time and energy reducers

Contrary to these fine definitions, our shortcuts

• were frustrating
• cost us time
• led to screaming, yelling, pained expressions, pulled hair, and red faces

In fact, after almost every short cut, we asked ourselves, “How many times will we fool ourselves into thinking that short cuts save us anything?”

Here is my definition of shortcut:

A newly discovered method of work that produces the same result with the same high quality

When I have less of a product in less time, I haven’t taken a shortcut; I have changed the work. When I have to do the work over again, I haven’t reduced the time or energy required; I have delayed the work. My definition tells me that if I discover a way to do the work with the same quality, I have done just that: discovered a better way to do the work. I will try to use that better way for all cases in the future.

This is all sort of discouraging. There must be some way to skip a few steps and not have any pain. Yes, there is, and that is a new and improved method for working. It is not a shortcut.

This all shouldn’t be surprising. It has always been this way. Cheating on something catches up with me eventually.

But, there are exceptions to everything. There must be an exception to shortcuts that aren’t short cuts. Sorry. I have yet to see that exception. If you see one, please let me know. I am always interested in new methods of accomplishing the same work.