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Anyone who has ever read any productivity books knows the phrase “Sharpen your saw”. Off the top of my head I can’t remember who it was who first coined the phrase (Franklin Covey?) but for those who, unlike me, haven’t read every productivity book ever thrown at them, the phrase refers to taking time to yourself to keep your mind sharp. This is something I feel very strongly about, and whether it is doing an official course to learn something new, or taking a long walk on a sunday afternoon to give yourself time to sort through all of the thoughts you have had during the week, sharpening the saw is something that should never be neglected.

This weekend I was reminded of a family story about sharpening saws, and I think it nicely demonstrates what can happen when you don’t keep your own saw sharp, and stop and think about what you’re doing before you’re doing it (Please bare in mind this actually happened).

My Uncle P was working at a builders merchants. One of his jobs in this role was sharpening the industrial saws; these saws were about 5 feet long, with tiny teeth down the length. Each saw took 2 hours to sharpen, by hand, filing each tooth in turn.

After some weeks of doing this job Uncle P, being a little lazy and not enjoying the job, found a way to skive that he was sure the boss would never spot. Each time he got to the end of a saw blade, rather than replacing the saw, and sharpening 4 a day, he would go back to the beginning and sharpen the same saw over again, thus skiving out of 3 saws a day!

So next time you decide what you are doing for the day, please make sure you leave a little time to keep your saw sharp, and do try and sharpen a different saw each time!