The Surprisingly Fun Art of Efficiency

Original publication dated: Aug 15, 2025

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about efficiency — you know, that magical state where you actually finish things.

I hesitated to share my “secrets” at first, but honestly? They’ve been helping me so much while working and healing, I figured someone out there could use them too. Plus, keeping them to myself feels like hiding snacks from a hungry friend... like Rosie…so here we go.

Efficiency, in Plain English

Efficiency is basically:

“Doing the fewest motions possible to get a job done, and still getting the biggest results in the shortest time.”

It’s about using your brainpower wisely — which, by the way, can be improved. Some folks swear you can’t increase intelligence, that you’re stuck with what you’ve got. I say, nonsense. We’re all walking around with untapped “energy outlets” just waiting for the right switch to be flipped.

The Big Secret: Control

Before you picture some corporate overlord breathing down your neck, let me explain:

There are two kinds of control:

1. Positive Control — Keeps things on track, finishes what it starts, and avoids chaos.

2. Negative Control — Bossy, destructive, and about as fun as a paper cut in a salt factory.

Positive control is the good stuff. It’s simply start → change → stop (or create → change → destroy), done with intention.

The Missile Story

I spent a good chunk of my career working in missile systems, where “positive control” wasn’t just a nice-to-have — it was a matter of national safety.

If a missile goes off course for too long, there’s a protocol: send the destruct tone sequence. This isn’t a dramatic movie-style self-destruction — it’s a precise, coded signal that tells the missile: “Mission over, stand down.”

Why? Because if that missile keeps flying into the great unknown, it could end up somewhere it really shouldn’t be. The destruct tone ensures it stops in a safe, controlled way — protecting people, places, and peace of mind.

Same idea works for your life and tasks:

If a project is veering wildly off target, apply your own version of a “destruct tone” — not blowing it up in frustration, but ending it cleanly, with control, before it causes more chaos.

Find Your “Stable Datum”

When your brain feels like a spinning browser with 47 tabs open, do this:

• Pick one task that’s closest to you in time or importance.

• Finish it completely.

• Ignore the temptation to start five others in between.

It doesn’t matter if the task is boring, irritating, or makes you want to fake your own disappearance. Finish it anyway. The rush of pleasure when it’s done is your reward — like peeling the plastic off a brand-new phone screen.

The WEP Trick (Meta-tag your Daily Tasks)

When planning your day, week, or year, label each goal as:

• W = Work

• E = Effort

• P = Play

For example:

• “Wash the Car” — Could be Work, Effort, or Play depending on whether you love it, hate it, or use it as an excuse to spray your kids with the hose.

• “Pay the Bills” — Usually Work, unless you’re into spreadsheets. (No judgment.)

• “Exercise 30 Minutes” — Could be Effort, unless you’re one of those rare creatures who calls it Play.

The goal is to balance all three. Too much Work and Effort without enough Play, and you’ll burn out faster than a cheap candle.

The Pleasure Factor

At the end of the day, efficiency isn’t about being a robot. It’s about finishing things in a way that leaves you with a sense of satisfaction — and maybe a little extra time for the good stuff.

Think of it this way:

If you can master the art of doing things with control, in balance, and to completion, you can scale that up to bigger goals.

And if all else fails, remember — some missiles (and some projects) just need their destruct tone sequence.