One of the (many) things I’ve learned this past year that has done wonders for my productivity and sanity is:
Oftentimes, inaction is the best action.
The seeds of this idea were sown in the Asian Winter of 2020 when I was neck-deep in the process of arranging my entry into border-closed Vietnam via starting a company and getting an investor visa.
I was working with a law firm which had successfully set up my partner’s company. So I knew that they could get the job done. But somehow I still didn’t trust them to and constantly nagged them for clarifications and updates.
And drove myself nuts in the process.
I’d agonise over each email that went without a response, each question left unanswered, each application gone quiet. I’d follow up with polite yet firm “nudges” to the staff unfortunate enough to be handling my case to let me know what was going on, to “please respond to this email I sent 3 days ago.”
I was in this state of mild-to-moderate anxiety for months.
It wasn’t pleasant.
I was feeling anxious at not hearing from my lawyer, but at the same time hassled when I did hear from them because I was convinced each email would announce that the process had spectacularly burst into flames.
So I started doing something as a last-ditch attempt to save my sanity that turned out to revolutionise how I view efficiency: I started scheduling my email responses instead of sending them immediately.
Whenever I had an email from my lawyer that I needed to action on, instead of replying immediately, I’d schedule a reply for the next morning, or the next Monday—depending on how urgent the matter was and when I felt I wanted to deal with it next—and then let the matter rest.
This did wonders. Suddenly I had breaks from the incessant emailing, the constant worry. I had days when I didn’t need to get (unnecessarily) anxious at receiving an email from my lawyer that might spell doomsday.1
That was the beginning of the idea that sometimes it’s better to wait.
I see myself as an uber efficient person, and that identity used to dictate I’d respond immediately to everything—email, text, feedback, request, question, answer, joke, reprimand, praise, etc.
But when I felt the joyous reprieve in that stressful winter from giving myself space between emails to deal with, I began to change my mindset.
Maybe I didn’t need to respond immediately to everything. Maybe it can wait.2
So I changed my strategy:
It’s late in the month and my accountant hasn’t sent me company invoices to check before issuing? I’ll wait until they do. (They always do, eventually.)
The ditzy sales rep from the company I’m leasing my office from still hasn’t sent me a new lease contract two months after the old lease has expired? I won’t email them about it. They will eventually reach out because otherwise the leasing company (who pays their salary) doesn’t get the rent (and maybe won’t pay their salary?).
I get feedback on my work that it needs correcting near the end of the day? I leave it until the next morning when I’m fresh and fast.3
I ask for a piece of work from a colleague who’s in a later time zone and they don’t acknowledge my request when they get up in the morning? I don’t ask them if they’ve seen my request. I trust that they’ll deal with it in their time and check the next day if it’s done. (It always is.)
I have a question for my colleague at the end of their workday? I schedule the message for the next morning their time when they’re getting ready for work rather than thinking about dinner.
I get asked to do a task that I don’t want to do? I sleep on it and by the next morning my initial resistance has invariably vanished and I happily take it on.
A prospective client goes quiet after receiving a quote for my freelancing services? Let them be. If they want my service, they'll come back. If not, they won't. There's nothing for me to do.
And I’m happy to report that since changing my strategy, I’ve not only saved myself the constant worries and pain, I’ve drastically improved my productivity.
I’ve saved the time I would have spent hassling people for things, chasing down stuff, worrying, working inefficiently when I wasn’t in the right mindset.
And by learning to wait, I’m implicitly learning to trust the people I work with or who work for me that they’ll do their job, in their own time.4
This strategy may not work for everyone. But it certainly has worked for me, so I wanted to share it with y’all.
How about you? Are you the type of person who responds immediately and chases people for things they owe you? Or are you the type who waits? And what happens when you wait? Do the puzzle pieces miraculously fall into place, or do things not get done and you end up pulling your all hair out in frustration?
Let me know in a comment, send a reply. But I won’t chase you down if you don’t.
Oh, and share this with someone you think can use a bit more waiting in their life.
Until next Friday… Stay cool, stay safe, stay thoughtful,
Val
It was a very stressful process. I do not recommend trying to enter a border-locked country.
When you really think about it, a lot of things in life can wait.
I’m the ultimate early bird. By 4pm I’m barely able to string sentences together. It’s 9am as I’m writing this and words are shooting out of my fingertips.
This trust hasn’t backfired… yet.