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Which is better: Consistency or speed?

2021.11.29

If you were forced to choose between being consistent or speedy, what would be your choice? Now, many people might feel compelled to answer, “well, I would choose both.” But besides this being a cheat answer to the hypothetical question, you may want to think about the implications for this preference. In the end, rather than focusing on too many things at once, we should aim for being a dependable, rather than fast, person.

 

Of course, being able to consistently meet deadlines while also finishing tasks well before their deadlines would be great in your future workplace. However, the truth is that we don’t have unlimited time in such demanding environments. There are only so many hours in the day to complete seemingly never-ending work. The implication here is that by choosing to pursue both traits, we place equal importance on them. Why is this troublesome? Well, a professor once told me, “If everything is important, then nothing is important.” Indeed, when we choose everything equally, we are, in fact, choosing not to place higher importance on anything. Realistically, just as some work tasks should have higher priority than others, so too is there higher importance for the traits we decide to develop in ourselves. We must understand that not all attributes are created equally.

 

Now, going back to the question, I ask you once more, which of the two traits would you choose? To give you the answer, let me provide you with a real-world example. Before moving to Japan, I worked for a large corporation in the United States. Within this company, I worked closely with a diverse team of co-workers to complete deadlines together. My fellow workers came from various backgrounds and had many different preferences and work styles. Amongst them, there were people who preferred to power through tasks and finish them as soon as they were assigned. This may seem great, yet these people lacked the consistency to keep this up for long. Yes, some tasks were finished quickly, but others would go unnoticed for weeks at a time. Ultimately, I couldn’t trust these employees to follow through on tasks and had to keep reminding them to make sure that they would meet the deadlines. 

 

Next, there were other types of co-workers who were the opposite. I might have sent them an email and then not heard back from them for several days. For sure, this was not considered fast compared to the abovementioned workers who would respond within seconds. The difference here was that I could always count on these people to meet the deadlines despite completing things at a slower pace. Where they lacked in speed, they most certainly made it up in being dependable.

 

Overall, in your future workplace, you might first strive to portray every positive attribute at the same time. But once you come to the realization that we cannot always do things perfectly, you will adjust your priorities. When this day comes, I hope you will become the type of person that others can depend on.

 

Photo credit: nappy@pexels.com 

Quiz

Q1. What does 'if everything is important, then nothing is important' mean?

 

Q2. What does the author mean by the word ‘consistency,’ and what is the author’s opinion about it?

 

Q3. What does the author mean by the word ‘speed,’ and what is the author’s opinion about it?

 

Scroll down ↓ for the answers

 

 

 

 

 

 


























A1. By placing equal importance on everything, we do not distinguish one thing from another. Therefore, our priorities are spread too thin, and ultimately, nothing becomes important.

 

A2. Consistency is when someone is dependable and always finishes a task in the end. The author believes that, while consistent people do not always complete tasks quickly, knowing that they will follow through on the task is better.

 

A3. Speed is when someone finishes a task quickly. The author believes that, while it is great to finish tasks speedily, many speedy people cannot continue this consistently and sometimes do not finish tasks.

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