{"id":2161,"date":"2023-04-02T23:09:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T22:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/es_es\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2023-04-03T03:54:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T02:54:59","slug":"afilando-la-sierra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2023\/04\/02\/afilando-la-sierra\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharpening the saw"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u00b4re into topics like productivity, time management or personal development, I\u00b4m sure that more than once you will have read or heard the idea that one must pause to sharpen the saw<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Manual<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how Stephen Covey explains it in his book, Seven habits of highly effective people<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 What are you doing? \u2013 you ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Can\u00b4t you see? \u2013 comes the impatient reply. \u2013 I\u00b4m sawing down this tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 You look exhausted! \u2013 you exclaim. \u2013 How long have you been at it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Over five hours \u2013 he returns \u2013 and I\u00b4m beat! This is hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Well, why don\u00b4t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw? \u2013 you inquire \u2013 I\u00b4m sure it would go a lot faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 I don\u00b4t have time to sharpen the saw! \u2013 the man says emphatically \u2013 I\u00b4m too busy sawing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This metaphor illustrates really well how we often get too deep into the weeds of our day to day tasks and forget to stop every once in a while, first of all to rest, but beyond that, to be able to take a step back, gain some perspective and find more efficient (and more enjoyable) ways to achieve our goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another great example along the same lines is one of those quotes that appear printed on geeky T-shirts, especially dedicated to IT people: Six hours of debugging can save you five minutes of reading documentation<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u00b4s that well known adage, work smarter, not harder,<\/em> which we know so well in theory, and we find soooo difficult to put into practice... Maybe it\u00b4s partly because our society values super busy people; we associate being busy with being productive, so consciously or unconsciously, we keep looking for ways to stay busy (and then we love complaining about how busy we are, it makes us feel important), Or maybe it\u00b4s because it\u00b4s easier to stay in the momentum we have created for ourselves (which deep down is nothing more than a comfort zone) than to question the way we\u00b4ve always done things, even if there is a benefit hiding behind that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This habit of sharpen the saw<\/em> can be adopted at multiple levels and in different formats. For example, this past week at work, I had the opportunity to get together with my team (in person, bonus points!) to take a moment, celebrate what we\u00b4ve achieved in the last quarter, and plan the work for the next quarter. This is usual practice in Agile methodologies, and it\u00b4s been proven to work really well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And at a more individual level, we can schedule time every week or month to sharpen our very own saw, and that time will be well invested for sure, I remember that one of my very first managers here in Ireland suggested this to me (thanks David!), and for years I kept a time slot booked for myself every Friday afternoon, when the work of the week was already done, and I would sit down in the canteen\/cafeteria with my notebook, look at the trees outside the window, and do lots of reflection and planning, getting my ideas in order... I have to say that I used to get a lot of benefit from that little habit, and now I\u00b4m in the process of restarting it again, be it on Friday afternoons or at a different time during the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, given that it\u00b4s actually impossible to separate our work self<\/em> from the rest of our being, this principle goes beyond the concepts of work and personal life, because at the end of the day, each person is a whole self. Stephen Covey proposes four areas where we must sharpen our saw: physical, mental, social\/emotional and spiritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about you? How do you sharpen your saw? And now that I think of it, wouldn\u00b4t it be easier to explain the metaphor with an axe, instead of a saw? Because I\u00b4m not sure how a toothed saw like the one in the photo can be sharpened...<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Si os gustan los temas de productividad, gesti\u00f3n del tiempo y desarrollo personal, seguro que habr\u00e9is le\u00eddo o escuchado m\u00e1s de una vez aquello de que hay que pararse a afilar la sierra. As\u00ed es c\u00f3mo lo explica Stephen Covey en su libro, Los siete h\u00e1bitos de la gente altamente efectiva: Imag\u00ednate que est\u00e1 en … Continue reading Sharpening the saw<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3116429,"featured_media":2160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"BinaryWords - Afilando la sierra \/ Sharpening the saw","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"\u00bfQu\u00e9 tal va esa sierra? \/ How\u00b4s that saw going?\n\nClick and look for the language flag if you see the post in Spanish...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5007,4990],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-informatica","category-inspiracion-inspiration","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DPtR-yR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9859,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2026\/10\/26\/sesgos-instintivos-transmitir\/","url_meta":{"origin":2161,"position":0},"title":"Instinctual Biases: Transmitting","author":"binarybea","date":"26\/10\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Completamos hoy el recorrido por los tres sesgos instintivos de Awareness to Action (Conciencia en Acci\u00f3n) que empezamos hace dos semanas y continuamos la semana pasada (si no sabes de lo que hablo, te aconsejo que empieces esta serie de art\u00edculos por el principio, leyendo aqu\u00ed, aqu\u00ed y aqu\u00ed). 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