More leisure
The secret of leisure is not to do less work, but to organize work so that a greater volume can be handled in less time. No active man wishes to cut down his productive efforts. A great many men, however, are so tied to their business tasks by detail and routine that they have little time or energy left for constructive thought. Frequently they do not get enough recreation and physical exercise to keep them in prime condition. As a result, they are frittering away the best years of their life in handling small details that never bring them anywhere.
To a greater or lesser extent, this is true of all of us. How to escape from the time-wasting energy-absorbing routine and details is a vital question.
Being "swamped with too much detail" is in reality a kind of business disease—and a very dangerous one. It is most likely to attack the officers of rapidly expanding concerns and energetic,
ambitious men who are constantly taking on new responsibilities. Unless one can shake off this disease, it will probably go on eating away more and more of his time and energy until he loses his grip on large affairs and to his chagrin, sees other men of smaller ability rising above him. It is as bad for a man to be "too busy" as for him to be not busy enough.
As a matter of fact, it is unnecessary for any man to be so harassed with details—except as a temporary condition—that he cannot give a reasonable amount of time to recreation, reading and thought. The company burdened by the detail-type of executive is not getting what it pays for. His natural abilities are being diverted to things that cheaper men could do equally well. He owes it to his company, as well as to himself, to reorganize his work.
Cutting out the details
It is necessarily true in all such cases that many of the over-busy man's duties recur day after day. They are of a semi-routine nature and could be made wholly routine by giving the proper instructions to some one else. In other words, this is a problem of organization similar to that of organizing a factory, a store, or a
body of men. The principles that are discussed in the Modern Business Course and Service apply to an individual just as well as to a company. A man can organize his desk very much on the same plan that he would organize a factory. When he does so, he invariably finds that his efficiency is increased, his work is more productive, and he himself has more leisure.
Accordingly, any business man who desires to forge ahead should reduce the details of his work to routine which can be carried on without special thought. The Modern Business Course and Service is a direct and invaluable aid to the man who feels himself tied down by details.