Why repetition saves time

- When I say the word repetition, what comes to your mind? For many people, it's going to be a feeling of annoyance or boredom. However, repetition is a powerful principle of productivity. We understand that it's necessary for great performers and athletes to repeat. They practice again and again until they reach automatic mastery. Jerry Seinfeld is arguably one of the greatest entertainers of all time.

In 1981, he got his first opportunity to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. How many times do you think he practiced his five-minute set before he got up on stage and was broadcast into millions of homes across the United States? If you guessed in the neighborhood of 200 times, you'd be correct. That's how many times he went to various New York nightclubs and practiced that same five-minute set over and over.

Why? Because he understood that mastery comes through powerful repetition. And yet, in the workplace, it's something that most of us try to avoid. Or we think that we should just give someone direction one time and they'll do it properly from that point forward. I sometimes see this with leaders. They have employees who don't perform the way they want them to perform. They go to that employee and they say, why aren't you doing it? I told you how to do this.

I showed you how to do it. But what the employee really needs is repetition. Sometimes I'll see feedback on a course like this, or my other time-management courses and someone will say, he repeats himself too much. However, that's by design. I firmly believe that conditioning is more powerful than discipline, and conditioning, learning a new pattern of behavior so that it becomes automatic, can only be achieved through repetition.

Think for a moment about one skill that you want to master to the point that it's automatic. What's your perfect five-minute set, like Jerry Seinfeld? Consider for a moment, are you getting enough reps? If not, look at your calendar and schedule some time to practice. This time is just to repeat that moment over and over and over until that skill is magic and automatic.

Repetition may not be a pleasant experience, but it's certainly your friend when it comes to productivity.