There are two main categories of workers: Web Weavers and Busy Beavers.
Knowing the distinction between the two can help you boost your productivity and enjoy more time off!
Web Weavers
Spiders tend to spend some time carefully weaving their web in order to catch their unsuspecting prey. But once their web is weaved, they no longer need to work at it. It works on its own. This means that they can, technically, do whatever they want while the web takes care of their next meal.
With human beings, a Web Weaver is someone who sets up a system (or systems) to handle his work, so he can free himself up for other tasks, or even take time to rest, knowing that his systems are handling the work for him. Systems can involve other people, softwares, services, policies, processes, etc.
Busy Beavers
Beavers are known for their hard work and the effort they put in to constructing dams, canals and being involved in other tasks that keep them busy. While the outcome of their work helps them a great deal, they have to put in a lot of effort to get it done.
Busy Beavers, in the human kingdom, are those who are constantly involved in work, and are ruthlessly expending their effort and their time in getting their work done. They are not known for their outputs (i.e. results) as much as they are recognized for their inputs (i.e. time and effort).
The Difference
Web Weavers can get the same (if not more) results as a Busy Beaver, but with much less effort. They can then move on to pursue other tasks or to leverage their existing systems in order to boost their results exponentially.
By relying on systems outside of themselves, Web Weavers can get results with ZERO ongoing effort! Their systems do the work for them.
They can enjoy more time off, pursue their interests, do high-level thinking, etc, knowing that the day to day activities are taken care of, and that they can handle their inputs more effectively.
Making the Transition
In order to become a Web Weaver, you must accept the fact that value isn’t determined by how much effort you put in, but by the results you get out.
Busy Beavers are proud of putting in more hours into their work, and often feel jealous of those who seem to be working less, but getting promoted faster: “How come he gets the promotion when I’ve been working so hard?”
But in order to make sense of this seeming unfairness, you have to accept that results matter more than effort. Effort is often needed to get results, but it’s not what you strive for. You want to get more results for less effort.
Think of your work habits and see which type of worker you lean towards.
Find out what you can do to set systems up that can support you in your work in order to free more of your time.