Gretchen Rubin says that just like in the fable, there are dangers of being the hare in your work habits.
Are you a tortoise or a hare?
I love paradoxes, parables, koans, aphorisms, fables, and teaching stories of all kinds.
One of my favourites is the Fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.
In the familiar story by Aesop, the tortoise and the hare run a race.
The hare is so confident he’ll win that he takes a nap.
While he’s asleep, the tortoise’s regular, plodding pace allows him, the slower competitor, to cross the finish line first.
I’m not using ‘tortoise’ and ‘hare’ exactly as Aesop did, but it’s a handy frame of reference.
Here is my question: Are you a tortoise or a hare when you approach a large task?
A tortoise prefers to work more days, for fewer hours.
Three hours a day for seven days. Slow and steady.
A hare prefers to work fewer days, for more hours.
Seven hours a day for three days: Bursts of effort.
There’s no right or wrong way, but just whatever system works better for you.
I am a tortoise.
I like working every day, but I don’t like feeling that I have to get a huge amount done in any one session.
I like having distant deadlines that I approach slowly and steadily.
I love writing books, but I could never work for a daily paper; the crush of constant deadlines would make me crazy.
On the other hand, I never miss a deadline.
A friend is a hare.
She allows herself to take a day off here and there, but she makes up that work.
She doesn’t mind the pressure of needing to accomplish a lot over a short period.
She feels energised by deadlines.
One problem with being a hare is that to be effective, you really do need to catch up.
You can’t sleep through the entire race.
Often, I see quasi-hares fall into the trap of the ‘tomorrow problem’.
“I didn’t work today, but I’ll work seven hours tomorrow.”
When tomorrow becomes today, they don’t feel like working the seven hours.
If that’s a challenge you face, you might try a tortoise approach.
Don’t try to do too much on any one day, but push yourself to be very, very consistent.
How about you? Are you a tortoise or a hare?
*Gretchen Rubin writes about happiness and habit-formation and is author of New York Times bestsellers, Better Than Before, The Happiness Project, and Happier at Home. She can be followed on Twitter @gretchenrubin
This article first appeared on Gretchen’s blogsite.
