The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World

by Dorie Clark

It turns out that we may be deriving hidden benefits from our relentless, short-term “execution mode.” Research from Silvia Bellezza of Columbia Business School and her colleagues showed that being busy, at least in the United States, signals high social status. “Individuals who possess the human capital characteristics that employers or clients value (e.g., competence and ambition) are expected to be in high demand and short supply on the job market. Thus, by telling others that we are busy and working all the time, we are implicitly suggesting that we are sought after, which enhances our perceived status.”7

Conversely, when you start with parameters like “I’m going to take all of July off,” or “I’m going to finish work by six o’clock every night,” it forces you to be creative in the systems you develop. You can spot inefficiencies—whether it’s a slow-running computer or an awkward scheduling system—because you can’t afford not to. And you’re compelled to ask big-picture questions: Should I be doing this task at all? Could I delegate it to someone else, or stop doing it altogether? Where should I focus my effort in order to get the biggest return?

For instance, you could say, “I’d love to see if I can be helpful. Can you tell me a bit more about what you’d like to discuss, and how I can be useful to you in particular?” THIS REQUIRES THEM TO EXPLAIN: What they’d like to talk about. This eliminates the need for many conversations. They might want your advice about breaking into the public relations field, but it turns out that’s not really what you do. This is your chance, before wasting an hour of your life, to explain that, unfortunately, you specialize in speechwriting and don’t have useful information to share about the PR field. Or perhaps you’re in the PR field and you’ve previously written an article about landing a job. Instead of meeting with them, you can instead send them the article as a resource. How they think you can help. Some people are hesitant to state their requests clearly—often, because they’re outlandish and inappropriate. (I was once invited to someone’s home for dinner, only to discover during the entrée course that her intention for the evening was to get me to invest in her film project.