I’m not a very good hard worker. I don’t pull weeds. There is a whole category of hard work that I just won’t do. I don’t really feel bad about it. I avoid hard work, like I avoid most things I don’t like to do.

This doesn’t mean I don’t work hard. I enjoy working hard, just on things that use my brain more than my hands. I avoid not working hard just like I avoid hard work. Fred Wilson recently wrote about mailing it in. I don’t mail it in, if I’m going to do it, I’ll do it. I’ll do a good job.

In fact, I’m going to do such a good job the next time I have to do it, it will be easier. Each subsequent time will be easier and better. This isn’t because I’m a hard worker, though. I’m just lazy, over the long haul. And hard work rarely works in this way. I pull weeds. They regrow. I can’t be lazy there.

Ask me to vacuum, we may end up with new carpet. The old carpet was too hard to get clean!

Every day we have opportunities for this. Embrace them, because in a few short months you can create hours of free time. Just like investing, putting an initial investment up front will yield dividends.

It’s a great feeling to know I get more done in 5 hours than I could last year. Comparing to 5 years ago, it’s not even recognizable. I’ve increased my efficiency so much I built and launched a web application in 3 days.

That one will be hard to top, but in 5 years I’ll look back on that and wonder what took so long.