N-1, saying “No” and ending the compromise
I was reading a small post (only two paragraphs) over at Seth Godin’s blog about something called N+1; the idea behind it was based on someone’s ability to always find time & resources to add one more thing (to anything).
He then posits that an alternative could be explored, called N-1, where rather than constantly adding one more thing, we repeatedly remove one more thing.
“There are tons of things on your to do list, in your portfolio, on your desk. They clamor for attention and so perhaps you compromise things to get them all done.”
Haven’t we all felt something like that? I for one, as a student, have always felt that after awhile me (teacher’s) ability to always add one more assignment to my workload compromised my ability to do them all to the best of my ability. Other’s must surely feel that if they take on too many tasks/jobs/roles that they’ve effectively had to compromise something (often time spent with family, work quality, sleep, etc) to get it all done, right?
“What would happen if you did one fewer thing?”
I wonder what WOULD happen if I did one fewer thing, if YOU did one fewer thing. Maybe if you pass off an optional report on x, you could do an excellent and well received job on mandatory report y!
In my mind, this crosses over with another post I’ve read recently about saying ‘no’ every now and then, and what powers you have when saying no. The idea being that if you’re constantly saying “Yes, I can do that”, or “Yes, I’ll find a way to do that, too”, then you’re effectively employing the N+1 strategy to life.
By saying “No” when you can (politely of course, make sure to stress why you’re refusing to do something), then you’ve at least not added to your problems, which in the long run will help N-1 occur naturally (when you complete a task).
It’s amazing; if you can take N-1 to heart and just say “No” when you have to, you effectively begin to stop making compromises and create quality pieces of work (and create time for yourself while you’re at it!).
