Sharpen the Axe

There’s an old story about two lumberjacks who decided to have a contest to see who could chop the most wood. One was a young, energetic man who could chop relentlessly. He was convinced he would win easily against the older lumberjack who was on the back end of his tree felling days.

The rules were simple. Whoever chopped the most wood during their shift would win. They were working on opposite side of a little ridge, so they could hear each other, but couldn’t see their progress. What the younger lumberjack could, see, though, were the numerous breaks the veteran kept taking.

Sharpen the Axe for Better Results

Over and over, they energetic fellow would see his competition sitting up by the tent, axe on his lap.

At the end of the day, both men climbed the ridge to assess who the victor was.

Much to the surprise of the younger lumberjack, the older many had a pile that dwarfed his own. He was convinced the man cheated.

“How could you have won? I saw all the breaks you were taking!”

The experienced lumberjack chuckled. “You thought those were breaks? I was sharpening my axe.”

The point of this story is that hard work only gets you so far. You’ve got to make sure that you are working as efficiently as possible, and that you don’t waste any effort.

In the most literal sense, this story is about keeping equipment in good working order and taking time to maintain your equipment.

In a more abstract sense, though, and in a sense much more relative to continuous improvement, it is about self-improvement. It is about taking care of yourself. Your body and your mind are your two most important assets. They are the tools that you need to use no matter what job you are doing.

“Sharpening the Axe” has come to mean taking action to make yourself better at your job, both long term and for the task at hand.

Take a moment and think about how to go about the task in a smarter way. Gather up the right information. Get help if you need it. Recharge with a quick meal if you are hungry. Take a nap to get ready for that all-nighter. Take a break.

Just don’t be the young lumberjack, diving into a project with inefficient tools.

Of note, this story is often linked to a few reported quotes from Abraham Lincoln. He supposedly said something like “Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” It is unlikely that he actually said that, and there are also versions that say minutes rather than hours.

There’s also an actual print quote that is similar. It comes from Josiah Strong’s 1901 work “The Times and Young Men.

Time spent in sharpening the axe may well be spared from swinging it.
-Josia Strong. 1901

The point is that there is a lot of passed-down wisdom regarding getting ready for a task before diving into it.