How often do we do something and then redo it again? Too often it's easy to pass over doing more now because we think "oh, I'll get to that later".

But later is a trap.

Take email for example. If you don't have a good system for processing email, you can end up spending much more time handling the email than if you'd just responded the first time or added something to your todo list.

I regularly see people who open emails a lot of times (sometimes over 100).

Why are they opening an email over and over again?

It's because they don't have a good way to deal with something the first time. Think about how much time is wasted opening emails multiple times, reminding yourself about what it is, then saying "ah, yeah, I need to do that sometime … but not now". Inbox zero (Merlin Mann's term, and his talk is the one I keep linking here) is a powerful tool because it's about handling email in your inbox once.

Other times that doing something right the first time pays off:

  • When you're reading, capture highlights
  • When you're building a new product, talk to users upfront
  • When you're putting things away, pick two things away
  • When someone on your team doesn't know how to do something, show them how
  • When you have a small task (less than 2 minutes), do it now (David Allen's two-minute rule, which is about finishing now, not James Clear's version about starting a habit)
  • When someone needs to be corrected, tell them
  • When something is broken, fix it

There's a universal truth here: it's easy to think we will return and take care of something, but the reality is that's difficult to do.

Doing something right the first time can actually be a great shortcut.

What have you been learning about? I ask this of my kids every dinner and love to hear from other avid learners.