The Woodcutter Who Stopped to Sharpen the Axe
An old story for a person who has been working hard and getting less done.
A woodcutter was hired to clear a small forest. The pay was good. He worked from sunrise to sunset, and on the first day he cut down twenty trees.
The second day he cut down eighteen.
The third day he cut down fifteen, and slept badly.
By the seventh day he was cutting down only seven trees, though he was working harder than he had on the first day. He swung the axe more times. He ate less. He slept less. The forest was not co-operating, he thought.
The owner of the forest came to inspect the work and saw the woodcutter, exhausted, hacking at a tree.
"My friend," the owner said. "When was the last time you sharpened your axe?"
The woodcutter looked up, surprised. "I haven't had time," he said. "I've been chopping."
What the story is for
Most of us, at some point in any given week, are the woodcutter. We are working harder, producing less, blaming the trees.
The thing we have not had time for is, almost always, the very thing that would let us do the work properly: sleep, the morning sit, the slow walk, the actual lunch break, the half-hour with the difficult feeling, the conversation we have been postponing.
These are the sharpenings of the axe.
The economy you live in does not believe in sharpenings. It believes in chopping. It will reward you, briefly and visibly, for sustained chopping. It will not warn you about the diminishing returns. It will let you cut down seven trees for the rest of your life.
A small practice
This week, pick one thing that has felt impossible to fit in. The sleep, the walk, the sit, the conversation, the rest.
Do it. Skip something else to make room. Do not work harder. Sharpen the axe.
You will find, on the day after, that the trees go down faster than they had been. You will be tempted to take the new productivity and pour it back into more chopping. Don't. Take it as proof. Sharpening was the work all along.
The owner of the forest, in the story, was kind. He did not fire the woodcutter. He just asked the question.
The question is the practice. When did I last sharpen the axe?
Ask it on Sunday night.