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Habit 7: Why It’s Important to Remember to Sharpen the Saw

Author: Tara West September 25, 2019

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw®

Timeless principles. Timely results.

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Habit 7: sharpen the saw, the habit of daily self-renewal.

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw  is about taking time for self-renewal. It makes all of the other Habits possible. When you sharpen the saw, you preserve and enhance the greatest asset you have – yourself.

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.

“What are you doing?” you ask. “Can’t you see?” comes the impatient reply. “I’m sawing down this tree.” “You look exhausted!” you exclaim. “How long have you been at it?” “Over five hours,” he returns, “and I’m beat! This is hard work.” “Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?” you inquire. “I’m sure it would go a lot faster.” “I’m too busy sawing!”

“We must never become too busy sawing to take time to sharpen the saw.”  – Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Habit 7 is about taking time to sharpen the saw. It surrounds the other habits on the Seven Habits paradigm because it is the habit that makes all the others possible. It’s renewing the four dimensions of your nature: physical, spiritual, mental, and social/emotional.

Physical – exercise, nutrition, and stress management.  The essence of renewing the physical dimension is to sharpen the saw, to exercise our bodies on a regular basis in a way that will preserve and enhance our capacity to work and adapt and enjoy.

Spiritual – value clarification and commitment, study, and meditation.  This dimension is your core, your center, and your commitment to your value system. It’s a very private area of life and an important one. It takes an investment of time and is a Quadrant 2 activity.

Mental – reading, visualizing, planning, and writing.  Most of our mental development and study discipline come through formal education. As soon as we leave the external discipline of school, many of us let our minds atrophy.

Social/Emotional – service, empathy, synergy, and intrinsic security.  This dimension centers on Habits 4, 5, and 6 – principles of interpersonal leadership, empathic communication, and creative cooperation.

“Renewal is the principle – and the process – that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement.”  – Dr. Stephen R. Covey

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Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw – How To Get Balance in Your Life

We all know that we need to take care of ourselves and stay sharp, so we can be effective in our work. But what does it actually mean to use habit 7: sharpen the saw? In this guide, we’ll uncover how to do it effectively, so you can get balance and happiness.

What is Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw?

Sharpen the saw – renew yourself, the physical dimension, mental dimension, tips to get into spiritual shape, how do you sharpen a saw emotionally, how to find the time to sharpen the saw, start small.

Sharpen the saw is the last habit in Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of Highly Effective People. Covey splits sharpening the saw into 4 dimensions of your life. Each one must be worked on regularly, in order to ensure all areas of your life are in optimum state of being and that you are enhancing the greatest asset; you.

The 4 dimensions are: spiritual, emotional, physical and mental. This regular focus helps you create growth and change for the better in your life and allows you to follow a balanced program of self development and happiness.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

In the 7 Habits book, Covey exemplifies this view by giving us an example of a tree cutter and a man walking in the forest.

The man walking, hears the tree cutter cursing to himself, whilst attempting to chop down trees. He asks the tree cutter why he’s cursing.

The tree cutter replies, “I have all these trees to cut but not enough time.”

The guy asks, “Why?”

The Tree cutter replies, “Because my saw is blunt and it’s slowing me down.”

“Why don’t you sharpen your saw?” He replies

“I don’t have time to stop,” The tree cutter abruptly answers.

This is the idea of the need to sharpen the saw. We are often so busy chasing our day-to-day commitments, that we lose sight of the need to take care of ourselves.

• Some people are involved so much in their work that they neglect their family time;
• Others may work hard on family time and work, but don’t have the time to eat correctly and exercise;
• Yet, others may be obsessed with relationships, but miss the opportunity for personal growth and development.

In all these examples, there’s an imbalance – an area of our life that needs attention and balance.

When we feel imbalanced, we can often feel like something is missing or that we’re not totally fulfilled. We can even get depressed and unwell.

This habit allows us to plan time around other commitments, to ensure we stop and work on taking care of ourselves.

The 4 Dimensions to Taking Care of You

Covey identifies that in order to be at your best and most productive, you need to spend time in, nurture and develop the following four areas:

• Social / Emotional.

The physical element consists of your physical health and wellbeing. You need to feel vibrant and healthy to take on life’s demands, but if you’re tired or constantly struggling with sickness, then it doesn’t matter how much work you do, nothing will get done.

How to Improve Your Physical State – Ideas to Get Started

Experiment with the different techniques below, until you find what works best for you.

• Power Naps – Science shows us that taking regular naps is a good way to quickly recharge your mind, improve reaction time, cognition and logical reasoning;
• Cold Showers – A research study by Plos One demonstrates that people who take cold showers are 29% less likely to call in sick to school or work. They conclude that although they didn’t see any correlation between cold showers and reduced sickness, their studies point to the fact that those who take cold showers, could be less effected by sickness than those that don’t;
• Meditation – Meditation can have a host of benefits . It can reduce stress levels, anxiety, anxiety related illness, improved concentration and improved self awareness, to name a few;
• Massage – This is proven to help reduce stress, pain, skin conditions and a number of other illnesses, too;
• Saunas – Taking saunas can have a plethora of positive benefits . Sitting in a sauna can improve blood circulation and has the same affect on increased heartrate as moderate exercise does;
• Exercise – Research supports the notion that regular exercise can reduce the risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease;
• Good night’s sleep – Sleep is fundamental to repairing cells, and resting the brain. It goes without saying that we all need the right levels of sleep (averaging 8 hours per night). If you’re terrible at getting a good night’s sleep, Healthline.com has 17 ways to try ;
• Eat Healthy – We all know that we must eat healthy food. This means cutting out the sugar and fast food. Self.com have 15 tips to eat healthy, even if you’re busy .

Nowadays, most employees are constantly using their brains. They find it difficult to get a break. After a long day of mental activity, it’s hardly surprising that we don’t want to stimulate our minds any more. We’re tired. We just need to rest.

Watching TV or surfing the internet is usually what takes place after work, because these activities allow our minds some escape and peace. However, this isn’t really enough!

As Covey explained in First Things First, watching TV, endlessly surfing the internet and being on social media are activities which are largely non-productive.

You often take on other people’s agendas and worries, concerns and filters. These activities don’t actually improve your mind, repair it or rest it in a progressive way. They add to the burden.

How to Improve Your Mental State – Ideas to Get Started

The best way to rejuvenate your tired mind, is not by turning it off and sticking it in front of the latest soap box.

Instead, you need something fresh to think about. Something totally different, which will stimulate the unused parts of your brain. This helps rest the part of your brain that you’ve been constantly flogging at work, whilst developing other areas that don’t get used much.

You’ll find that this approach can provide you with new insights, deepen your thinking and help provide additional improvements in your career and working life too.

For instance:

• Read a self help book on how to learn new topics fast, after a hard day’s work crunching numbers and calculating spreadsheets;
• Tired because you’ve facilitated an improvement project all day long? Why not watch a few videos on how to develop successful habits or how to write a book?
• Been dealing with staffing problems all day? Why not learn a new language or totally different skill?

Obviously, these are just ideas and examples. The point is, use your brain to unwind by resting the part that’s been used all day, and stimulating another unused part of the brain, proactively.

Here are some other examples to get you thinking:

• Read a novel;
• Write an article on something you’re passionate about;
• Listen to a podcast on a topic that you love;
• Watch some videos that can teach you a new skill;
• Take a part-time course;
• Watch a documentary;
• Learn a totally new skill which has nothing to do with work;
• Go to the theatre.

Spiritual Dimension

The spiritual side represents who you are inside. It’s a stamp or marker on your values and gives you a sense of purpose.

It also gives the answer to why you do what you do. If you neglect your spiritual dimension, you can become out of touch with what you want and also everything around you. This often leaves you with the typical symptoms:

• A feeling of lethargy;
• Bored and unfulfilled;
• Reactive to the world;
• Not knowing what you want and where you’re going in life.

Deeper connotations of spiritual neglect can also be seen in depression and despair.

The problem is that it might seem easy to neglect our spirituality because there is no way to see its tangible effects on a day-to-day basis; however, this aspect still affects us deeply even though we don’t notice it happening.

Ever been in a position where you or a friend questions their existence? “Where am i going in life?”

“What am i doing with myself?”

“There’s got to be a better life than this?”

Often, it can come out of the blue, when you’re in a dead end, soulless job, or when you’re given bad news that makes you stop and think about the deeper meanings of life.

The Benefits of Being Spiritual

When you attend to your spiritual side, you awaken something inside you:

• You know your principles and values (Habit 1) ;
• You know what you’re ultimate goal is (Habit 2) ;
• You know what life means to you and how what you’re doing now, is getting you to your future goals;
• You have a deep sense of calmness and positivity;
• You value things more and live with gratitude.

You can’t expect to run a marathon without any training. The same is true for your spiritual blade. It can’t work for you if you don’t train it.

Just like the entire concept to sharpen the saw, when you make a commitment to your spiritual dimension, it becomes strong when you need it.

It’s the same with fitness; get into shape and your body will look after you.

• Meditate for 60 minutes per day;
• Improve your emotional intelligence – This is the ability to manage your self and others by understanding emotions and their triggers. It’s an important skill to master in order to be a social success;
• Practice gratitude every day – In this one study alone , Berkeley University identified a clear link to practising gratitude daily and having a noticeably more positive and happier mindset in life;
• Work on your mission statement each day ;
• Visualise your ‘future you’ everyday – Athletes are great at this. They spend time to picture what it looks like and how it feels when they reach success. Successful people do this too. Once you have your goals, spend time each day focusing in on visualising your own success;
• Journal your activities as you go, so you can learn from experiences and build on your findings;
• Walk and relax – Take time to unwind. One of the easiest ways to do this is to take a walk in nature.

Social / Emotional Dimension

Did you know that socialising can help reduce stress and improve your mood? Several studies have found that engaging with other people helps us improve our mental and physical health.

Debra Umberson and Jennifer Kara Montez identify in their research study that adults with good social interactions are healthier and live longer than those with poor social connections.

Robert Harste at the University of Tennessee , identifies some correlation between socialising and positive stress reduction.

Medical News Today also identifies a clear link between socialising and improved happiness and health.

The fact is, we are all social creatures. We feel more complete when we have deeper and fulfilling relationships.

So, make sure to spend time around those who inspire you and those that you love.

Focus on relationships and happiness:

• Join a club (sports, or a hobby);
• Socialise more often: it’s as simple as stopping by your local coffee shop for a chat or making plans to hang out after work once a week;
• Arrange lunch with a friend;
• Arrange a physical activity with work colleagues or friends (bungee jumping, snorkelling, climbing, rambling, rafting, etc);
• Take your spouse on a date;
• Get rid of negative and toxic people – It’s a tough call but worth doing in the long run;
• Host a get together;
• Practice active listening skills – learn to listen intently and build deep relationships whilst doing it;
• Practice mindfulness and live more in the present. This helps reduce the chance of worrying about the future;
• Practice deep breathing and reaching alpha brainwaves quickly – This is proven to reduce stress and worry .

This comes with habit and discipline.

Use the framework of habit 3: first Things First . Set time aside both weekly and daily and then commit to them.

Once they are in the diary, never push them aside. Your habits come from your conscious discipline in maintaining what you set out to do.

Funnily enough, the discipline you use is ultimately turned into a habit if you do it enough times. It won’t be easy, especially if it’s new, but sticking to it will mean that eventually, you’ll make it a habit you do with little cognition.

There’s no point jumping in and doing too much in one go. It will probably feel a mammoth task and can result in overload. This in turn makes it harder to commit to.

Start small.

Learn to get into the habit by blocking out a small window of time each day and week to sharpen your saw in all 4 areas.

As you get more comfortable, you can expand the activities in each of the 4 areas.

A sharp saw can cut through anything. In the same way, a well-rounded individual is capable of tackling any challenge that comes their way. The key to being your best self is by making sure you don’t neglect any one aspect of life – mentally, physically, relationships and spiritually.

You need time for each element so make it happen! Start by blocking out some time every day to sharpen your own personal saw, even if it’s just for a few minutes to begin with.

Human Resources

7 habits - sharpen the saw.

January 29, 2024

Habit 7 ensures you take steps to energize your whole self. In Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People , Stephen discusses the importance of finding balance in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. With balance in these areas, you will be able to find the resilience needed to handle stressful situations and challenging relationships. 

"There's no other way you could spend an hour that would begin to compare with the Daily Private Victory. It will affect every decision, every relationship. It will greatly improve the quality, the effectiveness, of every other hour of the day."*

  --Stephen R. Covey

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw. Consistently recharge your batteries in all four dimensions: physical, mental, spiritual, and social/emotional.*

The Daily Private Victory is a practice where you spend time every day renewing and reflecting to build resilience. The goal is to restore your body, mind, heart, and spirit.*

Sean Covey, in his book The 7 Habits on the Go: Timeless Wisdom for a Rapidly Changing World , provides beneficial activities to build resilience in the following areas: 

• Strengthen Your Body
• Renew Your Spirit
• Sharpen Your Mind
• Develop Your Heart
• Take Time for Yourself
• Tame Your Technology

Life can feel complicated, hectic, and overwhelming at times. It might feel like there needs to be more time to practice self-care. However, it is critical to make that time for yourself. 

Congratulations! You have completed the seventh habit. We hope you have found this information valuable to creating the personal and professional life you envision. 

Got time for more? Here are more resources available to you through SumTotal from Steven Covey:

• Course - Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
• Book - An Effective Life: Inspirational Philosophy From Dr. Covey's Life
• Book - A Time Conscious Life: Inspirational Philosophy from Dr. Covey's Life
• Book - The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Snapshots Edition

*Covey, Sean, and Stephen R. Covey. "Sharpen the Saw." The 7 Habits on the Go: Timeless Wisdom for a Rapidly Changing World, Mango Publishing Group, Coral Gables, 2020. 

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Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Sean Walsh , the Co-Founder of 1904labs, explains what it means to Sharpen the Saw, and why it's so critical to living and working at your best.

The funny thing about habit 7 is sharpen the saw and that comes from the thing where a guy walks along the road and he sees this guy trying to saw down this tree. And the guy's working really hard and it's clear that it's a really old saw and it hasn't been maintained, and the guy says hey if you just would take a moment, stop and sharpen that saw, it would go a lot faster to cut down that tree. And he goes I'm too busy I can't stop.

Well we have a lot of people that take the time to sharpen the saw and figure out what problem needs to be done before they just go headlong into solving it, and I think that comes a long way to you know making it true that you can do complex work, under tight deadlines, and under pressure, and at the same time have fun, because if you just drive drive drive, you know it's counterintuitive, we tell our clients we're not focused on the number of hours people work on your stuff. We're focused on the fact that they get the stuff done.

And that's really what the matter is and that's kind of permeates the entire culture, and that's really a basic principle of Covey.

You know you got to be in balance, you can't all work, no play, no family, no health, no keeping your body in the right way, if you will, in health, so it's a balanced approach to things. And it's counterintuitive, but you know if you try to drive too much in one dimension, eventually the wheels are going to come off.

And so I think that comes back to you know your question about how do you do high pressure complicated work at the same time you have a laid-back kind of fun culture? Well one supports the other if you didn't have the laid-back people centric, centered culture it's highly unlikely we could operate at the level of capability that we do, and get the work done that we're doing for our clients.

Because the people would not be in a position where they could do that kind of work. I don't know if that makes sense, but I mean it is a little counterintuitive. Because people are like look if 40 hours is good, 60 hours must be 50% better. It isn't. It's not even as good as 20 hours, because that human is not going to be able to get, you know they're going to be out of balance.

As I said, we tell our clients let's focus on getting the work done, sprint to sprint, or release to release, let's not focus on how many hours are spent. As long as we're getting the work done do you really care how long it takes us to get it done? I mean how much effort goes into getting it done?

Because an hour of really thoughtful effort, it trumps two or three hours of just, you know I'm just gonna go try to solve the problem.

We have people that take time to go on vacation, and you know there's never a good time really to go on vacation from a standpoint of, viewed from getting work done, but when somebody needs to go sharpen the saw and go recharge their batteries, reconnect with their family and friends, depending on who they're going with, we encourage that. And all we ask them is make sure that you give us notice and give your team notice so you can plan for your absence and then go have fun, and don't check in, and you know I've seen many examples of people, you know we're not a culture where even when you're on vacation we want you to check in all the time.

Telling on myself, I do that, so as I said I'm a lifelong learner of The 7 Habits, but we as a company we want people who go on vacation and we want them to check out and enjoy you know what they're doing, and I've seen many of our employees go off and do that.

The other thing we have a very supportive environment of developing your other habits because we think creativity, and we've had several of our employees join TechShop, which is down the street, the maker the new maker shop here in St. Louis, and they've gone and done things and then practically brought things back to the lab because they wanted to give something back. One guy made laser etched keychains on the eclipse day, because we had an eclipse party, that same gentleman put, basically did cut outs, so we could put numbers on all of our conference rooms.

And I just see people going off and sharpening the saw in a dimension then bringing that creativity, or that refreshness, back to the lab.

But it just reinforces how it's so important that a whole person is really balanced, because if you're not balanced you're not going to bring your best self to work when it's time to to work with your teammates and do work for our clients.

ATTRIBUTION: All excerpts are from: https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php and the book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People® .

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Ask.learn.share, book notes: habit 7: sharpen the saw (from the 7 habits of highly effective people by stephen covey).

Table of Contents

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

3 main ideas, 5 key takeaways, the physical dimension, the spiritual dimension, the mental dimension, the social/emotional dimension, how to apply habit 7, recommended reading, read the whole series.

from  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People  by Stephen Covey (1989)

• To “sharpen the saw” is to have a balanced program for self-renewal in the four main dimensions of our nature – physical, spiritual, mental/intellectual, and social/emotional – in order to maintain and improve our personal levels of production capacity.
• Renewal is the principle, and the process, that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement.
• mental/intellectual
• emotional/social
• Sharpening the saw is a Quadrant II activity . It is important, but not urgent, so it won’t just happen by itself. You need to be proactive and make it a priority to make it happen. The return on time and energy spent on sharpening the saw is exponential.
• We need to invest in ourselves, and engage in a program of self-renewal across the four main dimensions of our nature: physical, spiritual, mental, and emotional/social.
• We must be proactive about our continuing education after we leave the external discipline of school. Exercise the mind like you do the body: read, write, learn new skills, and organize/plan ahead.
• The Daily Private Victory – a minimum of one hour a day in renewal of the physical, spiritual, and mental dimensions – is the key to the development of the 7 Habits. It is also the foundation of the daily public victories of effective interdependence.
• Rule your technology. Don’t let your technology rule you. To find time for the important Quadrant II saw-sharpening activities, you must spend less time on things that are not important and not urgent. A lot of television watching, phone usage, web browsing, and social media usage falls within this category. Lets not allow our screens and technology to consume us.
• This is the single most powerful investment we can ever make in life—investment in ourselves, in the only instrument we have with which to deal with life and to contribute. We are the instruments of our own performance, and to be effective, we need to recognize the importance of taking time regularly to sharpen the saw in all four ways. (377)
• Education—continuing education, continually honing and expanding the mind—is vital mental renewal. Sometimes that involves the external discipline of the classroom or systematized study programs; more often it does not. Proactive people can figure out many, many ways to educate themselves. (385)
• As you become involved in continuing education, you increase your knowledge base and you increase your options. Your economic security does not lie in your job; it lies in your own power to produce—to think, to learn, to create, to adapt. That’s true financial independence. It’s not having wealth; it’s having the power to produce wealth. It’s intrinsic. (395)

The last habit, Habit 7, Sharpen the Saw, is the habit of self-renewal. It is the habit of ensuring that your personal production capacity (PC) is continually refreshed and renewed by paying attention to your physical, spiritual, mental, and social/emotional health.

Covey uses the story of a man cutting down a tree with a blunt saw. It’s been several hours, and the task would go faster if he took a break to sharpen the saw. But he refuses to take a break; saying that he is too busy sawing the tree to sharpen the saw.

Habit 7 is the practice of ensuring that your mind, body, heart and soul are regularly refreshed and renewed so that we can continue to achieve our values and goals. It is taking intentional and proactive time to do the things that are important, but not urgent; those Quadrant II activities that help to maintain and improve the mind, body, and soul. It is taking the time to exercise, eat healthy, to read a book, spend quality time with family and friends, to meditate, to go for a hike, or take a vacation.

Because sharpening the saw is a Quadrant II activity, it won’t happen unless you make it a priority. These things usually come with no deadlines; there is no pull activity that reminds you to do them. You might think that you do not have time to take care of yourself. But, the truth is that you don’t have time NOT to take care of yourself.

You must proactively take the time and set the intention to perform these activities. If you neglect these important, but not urgent activities, you will likely end up with health issues, out of shape, tired, depressed, unfulfilled, and with poor relationships.

Make it a priority in your life. Schedule time to sharpen the saw. If you don’t have an hour, spend 10 minutes. Start small, and work your way up. You might need to examine your habits and routines, and see where your time is being wasted, and cut it out. Maybe you’re spending too much time scrolling Instagram or Twitter, or watching television. See which parts of your schedule can be eliminated or reduced so that you can find the time you need to sharpen your saw.

Even taking 30 minutes a day to go for a walk, read a book, write in your journal, pray or meditate will go a long way towards helping you to accomplish the rest of the goals you’ve set for yourself that day. After a morning walk, for instance, you will be clear-headed and refreshed, and more likely to get things done in the day ahead.

Habit 7 states that we must regularly renew and invest in ourselves across the four main dimensions – physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional/social. And, all these dimensions are interconnected; each has a positive impact on the other, and can synergistically allow you to accomplish more things in less time.

Being in good physical shape has a positive impact on your mental health. Good mental health helps us to build good social and emotional relationships. Good social relationships motivate us to contribute and be of service to others. And so on. Sharpening the saw across the four dimensions becomes a virtuous cycle of synergy.

We must engage in a program of constant renewal across these dimensions, so that we can more effectively attend to our self-declared values, desires, and goals.

Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal

• Habit 7 is personal PC. It’s preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have—you. It’s renewing the four dimensions of your nature—physical, spiritual, mental, and social/emotional. (376)
• perspective (spiritual),
• autonomy (mental/intellectual),
• connectedness (emotional/social),
• tone (physical). (376)
• “Sharpen the saw” basically means expressing all four motivations. It means exercising all four dimensions of our nature, regularly and consistently in wise and balanced ways. (376)
• To neglect any one area negatively impacts the rest.
• You must be proactive in order to make the time to “sharpen the saw”. It’s a Quadrant II activity.
• The physical dimension involves caring effectively for our physical body—eating the right kinds of foods, getting sufficient rest and relaxation, and exercising on a regular basis.(377)
• Most of us don’t exercise consistently because it isn’t urgent. Eventually, we develop health problems (Quadrant I emergency) that we perhaps might have avoided if we hadn’t neglected our health.
• 3-6 hours a week – or a minimum of 30 minutes a day, every other day – will bring huge benefits in terms of the impact on the other 162–165 hours of the week.
• is one you can do in your own home
• flexibility
• comes from aerobic exercise, from cardiovascular efficiency—the ability of your heart to pump blood through your body.
• considered minimally fit if you can increase your heart rate (HR) to at least 100 beats per minute (BPM) and keep it at that level for 30 minutes.
• Ideally you should try to raise your heart rate to at least 60 percent of your maximum pulse rate, the top speed your heart can beat and still pump blood through your body.
• e.g. If you are 40, aim for an exercise heart rate of 108 (220 – 40 = 180 × 0.6 = 108).
• Training effect: generally between 72% & 87% of your personal maximum rate.
• comes through stretching.
• Most experts recommend warming up before and cooling down/stretching after aerobic exercise.
• Before, it helps loosen and warm the muscles to prepare for more vigorous exercise.
• After, it helps to dissipate the lactic acid so that you don’t feel sore and stiff.
• comes from muscle resistance exercises – like simple calisthenics, push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups, and from working with weights.
• You’re making a conscious choice to act based on the value of physical well-being
• You’re not reacting to all the forces that prevent you from exercising
• Your sense of integrity, self-esteem and self-confidence improve
• The spiritual dimension provides leadership to your life.
• The spiritual dimension is your core, your center, your commitment to your value system. It’s a very private area of life and a supremely important one. It draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to the timeless truths of all humanity. And people do it very, very differently. (381)
• Immersion in great literature, art, or music
• Spending time in nature
• When we take time to draw on the leadership center of our lives, what life is ultimately all about, it spreads like an umbrella over everything else. It renews us, it refreshes us, particularly if we recommit to it. (383)
• If we have a deep understanding of our center and our purpose, we can review and recommit to it frequently.
• In our daily spiritual renewal, we can visualize and “live out” the events of the day in harmony with those values. (383)
• We must be proactive about our continuing education after the end of the external discipline of school. Many of us stop learning after the end of formal education; we let our minds atrophy. We don’t do any more serious reading, we don’t explore new subjects in any real depth outside our action fields, we don’t think analytically, we don’t write anything serious. We spend our time watching TV and on social media.
• It’s OK to watch television, but you should be selective about what you watch, and “select the informing, inspiring, and entertaining programs that best serve and express your purpose and values”. (384)
• Start with a goal of a book a month, then a book every two weeks, then a book a week.
• Read quality literature that helps to expand our paradigms and sharpen our mental saw, eg. autobiographics, non-fiction, classics, etc
• Keep a journal of your thoughts, experiences, insights, learnings
• Promotes mental clarity, exactness, and context
• Writing good letters—communicating on the deeper level of thoughts, feelings, and ideas rather than on the shallow, superficial level of events—also affects our ability to think clearly, to reason accurately, and to be understood effectively. (385)
• It’s beginning with the end in mind and being able mentally to organize to accomplish that end. (Habit 2)
• It’s exercising the visualizing, imagining power of your mind to see the end from the beginning and to see the entire journey, at least in principles, if not in steps. (Habit 2 & 3) (386)
• It is extremely valuable to train the mind to stand apart and examine its own program. That, to me, is the definition of a liberal education—the ability to examine the programs of life against larger questions and purposes and other paradigms. Training, without such education, narrows and closes the mind so that the assumptions underlying the training are never examined. That’s why it is so valuable to read broadly and to expose yourself to great minds. (385)

Daily Private Victories

• Spend one hour every day doing it – 1 hour a day for the rest of your life.
• It will affect every decision, every relationship.
• It will greatly improve the quality, the effectiveness, of every other hour of the day, including the depth and restfulness of your sleep.
• It will build the long-term physical, spiritual, and mental strength to enable you to handle difficult challenges in life.
• the source of intrinsic security you need to sharpen the saw in the social/emotional dimension.
• gives you the personal strength to focus on your Circle of Influence in interdependent situations – to look at others through the Abundance Mentality paradigm, to genuinely value their differences and to be happy for their success. (395)
• The social and the emotional dimensions of our lives are tied together because our emotional life is primarily, but not exclusively, developed out of and manifested in our relationships with others. (387)
• If our personal security comes from sources within ourselves, then we have the strength to practice the habits of Public Victory. If we are emotionally insecure, even though we may be intellectually very advanced, practicing Habits 4, 5, and 6 with people who think differently on jugular issues of life can be terribly threatening. (388)

Three Sources of Security

• [Intrinsic security] comes from within. It comes from accurate paradigms and correct principles deep in our own mind and heart. It comes from inside-out congruence, from living a life of integrity in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values. (388)
• Peace of mind develops when your life is in harmony with true principles and values
• Intrinsic security that comes as a result of effective interdependent living.
• security in knowing that Win/Win solutions do exist, that life is not always “either/or,” that there are almost always mutually beneficial third alternatives. (Habit 4)
• There is security in knowing that you can disagree with others, but value their differences; that you can really, deeply understand another human being. (Habit 5)
• There is security that comes when you authentically, creatively, and cooperatively interact with other people and really experience these interdependent habits.(Habit 6)
• Work when you see yourself in a contributive and creative mode, really making a difference.
• Anonymous service/Volunteering – the concern is improving the lives of other people. Influence, not recognition, becomes the motive. (389)
• The late Dr. Hans Selye, in his monumental research on stress, basically says that a long, healthy, and happy life is the result of making contributions, of having meaningful projects that are personally exciting and contribute to and bless the lives of others. (389)

Scripting Others

• We can choose to assume the best of others and good intent, and treat them as such (with imagination, as opposed to memory)
• In response, they are likely to rise to the level of these high expectations
• The more we can see people in terms of their unseen potential, the more we can use our imagination rather than our memory, with our spouse, our children, our coworkers, or employees. (392)

Synergy in Renewal

• Everything is connected. Sharpening the saw in one dimension has a positive impact on another dimension. Your physical health affects your mental health; your spiritual strength affects your social/emotional strength.
• Although the habits are sequential, improvement in one habit synergistically increases your ability to live the rest.
• The more you improve in any of the habits that lead to independence (Habits 1, 2, and 3), the more effective you will be in interdependent situations (Habits 4, 5, and 6). And renewal (Habit 7) is the process of renewing all the habits. (394)

The Upward Spiral

• Renewal is the principle – and the process – that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement. (396)
• If we do not align ourselves with correct principles, we will reap what we sow; our inputs will produce our outputs. We will lose our self-awareness, and lead basic, reactive, unfulfilled lives.
• Once we are self-aware, we must choose purposes and principles to live by; otherwise the vacuum will be filled, and we will lose our self-awareness and become like groveling animals who live primarily for survival and propagation. (397)
• Make a list of activities that would help you keep in good physical shape, that would fit your lifestyle, and that you could enjoy over time.
• Schedule downtime, clear your schedule, and go on vacation. Rest, relax and clear your mind so you can come back refreshed and restored.
• Get into the habit of reading good literature.
• Get into the habit of keeping a journal or writing frequently
• Take an online course
• Watch an educational documentary
• Get into the habit of organizing, anticipating, and planning ahead for things.
• Go hiking, spend time in nature
• Read inspirational memoirs and biographies
• Attend a religious service
• Study philosophy or scripture
• Regularly touch base with friends and family
• Keep a journal
• Take a trip with your friends
• Take your spouse out to dinner
• See a therapist
• Commit to write down specific “sharpen the saw” activities in all four dimensions every week, to do them, and to evaluate your performance and results.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Overview: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Habit 1: Be Proactive Habit 2:  Begin With the End in Mind Habit 3:  Put First Things First Habit 4:  Think Win/Win Habit 5:  Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Habit 6:  Synergize Habit 7:  Sharpen the Saw

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Sharpening The Saw

Of all the habits in Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , the one that has resonated with me the most is Sharpening the Saw. To illustrate this habit, Covey tells the story of a man who was walking through a forest when he came across a frustrated lumberjack.  

The lumberjack was trying to cut down a tree with a saw and was swearing and cursing as he labored in vain. “What’s the problem?”  The man asked. “My saw’s blunt and won’t cut the tree properly.”  The lumberjack responded. “Why don’t you just sharpen it?” “Because then I would have to stop sawing.”  Said the lumberjack. “But if you sharpened your saw, you could cut more efficiently and effectively than before.” “But I don’t have time to stop!” The lumberjack retorted, getting more frustrated. The man shook his head and kept on walking, leaving the lumberjack to his pointless frustration.

When I read this story, it made me think about what it feels like to be an educator these days.  We are the lumberjacks and our skills, knowledge, and resources are our saws.  I have been the lumberjack when I felt like I couldn’t possibly be away from my students for another day to learn anything else.  I have also been the man walking through the forest as I see so many great techniques and ideas that would make the time we do spend with students more effective.

I don’t pretend to have the perfect answer, but I realize that both people in this story have something valuable to contribute.  While we should spend as much time with students as possible (lumberjack perspective) we should also take time to improve so that classroom time is as valuable as possible (man walking through the forest perspective).

What resonates with you about Covey’s story?  How do you balance the perspectives of the lumberjack and man walking through the forest?  Please let me know in the comments.

17 Comments

Robert, This is such a timely and ironic post for me to read. Thank you. As you know, you are speaking here next week and for almost a year since you told me I’ve been planning to attend. As the workshop has gotten closer I’ve had some questions about it. First, I’m a weenie and it took me forever to ask my principal for permission. Finally I did and he said it was fine. Since then I’ve been trying to deal with our public school district to get the funding through Title 2. It’s been a pain. Along the way I’ve also decided to add 2 days to my NCTM trip so I can also attend NCSM. All of this has made me wonder, should I just skip the wksp, even though I’ve literally been looking forward to it for a year?

So that’s the background and here’s how this story resonates with me… I have missed one day of school this year. It was to go to Asilomar. I know that taking 2 days for the workshop is not awful since I’m always at school. Even with the week in San Antonio following 2 weeks later, it doesn’t worry me too much because that week our 7th and 8th grades will be on trip and so I won’t miss them (that was a huge part of why I’m trying out both conferences this year). However, thinking about the fact that finding subs is really hard (and we have to find them for ourselves) and the quality of sub I can get in, makes me worry. It’s no surprise that even the best subs we have usually aren’t super comfortable with 8th grade Algebra 1, right? So I worry – more than I should. I think to myself, ok, well I’ll make sure to leave a test for them one day so it’s not so bad, but…. And I find myself talking myself out of attending because more than anything, my desire is always to be with my kiddos and I feel guilty leaving them with a sub.

BUUUUT… Then there’s the other side. There’s a lot of negativity surrounding me at school. Generally, I feel like me against them, as in, I love teaching math, and my perception is they tolerate it at best. I spend a lot of my time thinking about how I can engage the K-5 teachers to try something new and engage in some interesting problems with me. I’ve spent a lot of the year frustrated that they don’t think about teaching math with enthusiasm. It gets to me. So for me, the “sharpening of the saw” is more than just learning from you, because I’ve done that. I’m lucky. Sharpening the saw in this case also relates to my need for some self care. I need to be around people who want to be better and who want to learn from the best! I need to be around people who want to sit and try out some math together. I need to feel that excitement from people other than my students. I also need to hear different perspectives from people, because maybe I spend too much time in my own head, focused on the same “why can’t they…” questions and be reminded of ways that other people engage with their staffs. Granted, if I wait 2 weeks I’d get a lot of that at NCSM/NCTM. And that’s a lot of the reason I’ve been going back and forth so much. Do I just wait to recharge my teacher batteries? I mean, 2 years ago in Boston at NCTM was one of the best weeks of my entire life, so i know it’s coming and will be there for me. But I still think that your workshop IS the right choice because maybe I will have a chance to interact with people from my area with whom I can interact more off line. I will learn a ton from you. That’s not even a question. You’re one of the most thoughtful and thorough presenters I’ve seen.

Ultimately, what I will take back to my kiddos > 2 days of them being with a sub. I have to remember that and it’s time to focus on sharpening that saw of mine.

Thanks, Robert, for letting me think this through. Sorry for the epically long comment 🙁 See you next week!

Thanks for being so open and thoughtful with your reflection. These are complex choices where you have to weigh seemingly equally important choices. I think it is natural to feel like prioritizing students is the most important. I hope that this metaphor gives more of a balanced perspective to these choices though.

Personally, I am biased and am glad you are coming to the training. I think it will be fun. It’s hard to say how many people you will be able to continue to interact with off line, but I’m sure that your interactions with other participants while you are there will be helpful too.

See you in a week.

Hi Casey, i’ve been to nctm annual mtg last year and the year before. I can’t go this year and I am gutted. Your concerns about leaving (i.e. finding your own supply) make going difficult, stressful, and require investment of time and resources to resolve. My situation is not thatdifferent from yours. It majes it super tough. I don’t downplay it at all, but my experience is they pale in comparison to the investment; what you’ll learn; and who you meet. Now that ive been, I hope this is the last year I ever miss the conference. I pay out of pocket to go, flying in from Canada. Worth every penny. (well, nickel… we don’t have pennies in Canada anymore.) Enjoy yourself.

I don’t know if the following applies to this story, because the lumberjack will come back after sharpening the saw. What about going to buy many saws and give them away to other lumberjacks? I would love to become a teacher trainer, to reach more students, but without having direct contact with them. Don’t you miss having groups (all through the year?

One word for you Casey.

Your ‘epically long comment’ resonates with me. I couldn’t have articulated your struggle any better, even though it is exactly the same struggle I have for any day away from students.

I do think we need to know when enough is enough, though, and we need to take the time to use the saw we have sharpened instead of feeling there is always a better tool out there to sharpen more and more. The advice to only change up to 10% of your practice each year is solid and sustainable. I think that is the source of the huge increase in stress on teachers AND parents this year. This is like our first year of teaching when it was ALL new. We are forced to change more than 10% this year because it is what it is, a new world. For those who were already providing a flipped class, the change may not be as big or stressful, but we are all dealing with new expectations from administrators on one side and parents on the other who ALSO are new to this. No wonder we want to pull out our hair, lol.

At the end of the day, I have settled on knowing that I am the expert teaching professional in my classroom with my students. I will try to check off as many required boxes for walk-throughs and observations, but when I do EVERYTHING with the focus on student learning, rather than satisfaction of any other pressure, I can sleep better and defend my choices when they are not respected by well-meaning people who aren’t my students.

Dear Yoda TOSA: Super powerful & wish I knew the words that could make everyone see their value as an educator. Keep them coming, because you always make me think deeply about my choices!

Thanks for the laugh Lybrya. I liked this metaphor for the same reason. It really helped me gain additional perspective on this complex choice.

I know some teachers who will only do PD during the school year and will not do any in the summer. This confuses me. I can get lots of good stuff done over the summer, and on evenings and weekend, especially with all the asynchronous media out there. It’s rare for me to go a whole school year without a MOOC, and the resources I get from the MTBOS are incredible.

That said, I did take 2 days off last month to go to a conference and it was well worth it. I learned a ton and got things that I could bring in to my classroom immediately, so the very kids who missed me for a couple of days will benefit from my learning. I guess it all comes down to how likely you feel the school is to shut down without you. While I certainly feel like I am an important part of my faculty, I know that they can get along just fine if I’m out a day here or there. And what better reason to be out than to sharpen my saw?

Hi Kathy. I can totally relate to everything you said. Scheduling PD in my own school district is fairly tricky too. So many competing initiatives. It’s understandable why teachers would feel burnt out. I also get that teachers want to have summers off so they can be with their family and/or recharge.

Maybe MOOCs or other online courses provide a nice alternative going forward.

Reminds me of a Ted talk from Eduardo Briceño about distinguishing between being in the learning zone and performance zone, with the goal of getting better at what we truly value. Something I’ve been more mindful of after a colleague shared this.

http://www.ted.com/talks/eduardo_briceno_how_to_get_better_at_the_things_you_care_about

That was a really good talk Alex. I can see the connections you made between the two zones and this blog post. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know about it.

Love the metaphor. “Given 10 hours to cut down a tree, I shall spend the first 8 sharpening my saw. “-Abraham Lincoln.

Yep. That aligns well.

This definitely resonates with me! I read the Stephen Covey book about 20 years ago and it is timeless. It relates to all areas of life. I started to play tennis a decade ago and I absolutely love it. Back then, I had more time to take drills and sharpen my saw. It 100% improved my game to invest in that time. Now, being back to work full time as a teacher after being “home” for eleven years, I don’t have the time to invest in both play and drills given the time demands of teaching and keeping balance in my life.

This year marks the 4th year of the second part of my teaching career and I find myself on three committees as well as being a grade level team leader. While I have always dreaded making sub plans and being away from students, I’ve adopted a new perspective. This is a time for me to refresh, refine, discover, uncover, and perhaps restructure. The portion of my time spent on reflection has increased and I hope this translates to better practice in my classroom. Though at first glance, many would describe me as a “seasoned” teacher in years, my mind feels young and energized. I am hungry to learn and sharpen my saw. Perhaps this is because I had a second launch in my career after time away. Perhaps this is who I am due to personality. Either way, I appreciate the professional development more than I did before. I very recently started a math vlog to share what inspires me, to think deeply about math and how I teach. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2thPCClPFgaTnbx8FOHb_w

My experiences with students are a source of sharpening as well! I am not an experienced vlogger so I feel vulnerable and exposed. Maybe a way to sharpen our saw is to put ourselves out there in a new way, to be a bit uncomfortable because we lack expertise in an area. All the while, we are honing this new skill or area with professional development. That reality for each person is as unique as the person is.

Thank you for beautifully articulating your journey towards finding balance between sharpening and sawing. It’s not easy and there is no single right answer. Glad you are realizing that investing in yourself is worthwhile!

A few years ago, I was teaching high school math and physics. I was busy. SO busy that my room became an unorganized mess. Piles of papers on the window sills. Cabinets with no organization.

I decided to set aside 15 minutes every morning to clean up. I set my timer every day for 15 minutes and sorted through things and filed or threw them away. If the timer ended, I stopped. No extensions. I promised myself I would stop after 15 minutes.

Two weeks later, I was running out of things to do during the 15 minutes and my classroom and cabinets were very organized. No more piles on the window sill. Amazing!

I expanded the idea to my home, and it worked there too.

This is a beautiful way to approach it. I’ve done similar, albeit less strict things. For example, when I was writing my book, I often felt like I did NOT want to do any writing. So I told myself I would write for 30 minutes. Some days it was a struggle. Some days I made it. Some days I kept working right past it. But that goal felt attainable and made a difference over time.

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An all-in-one guide to paying federal and state payroll taxes in the U.S.

As you’ve probably learned by now, taxes are an inevitable part of doing business in the United States. While most focus generally lies on federal and state income taxes, there’s also a third aspect—payroll taxes.

What are payroll taxes?

Payroll taxes are taxes on an employee’s gross salary. The revenues from payroll taxes are used to fund public programs; as such, the funds collected go directly to those programs instead of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Even if you’re self-employed with no additional employees, you’re still required to remit payroll taxes on your own salary.

There are 3 categories of federal payroll taxes:

• Social Security . This tax funds the federal retirement program for U.S. citizens. The rate is currently 12.4% of gross wages up to $160,200/year (as of 2023).
• Medicare . This program provides federal insurance for citizens aged 65 and over, as well as younger people with certain disabilities. This tax is currently taken out at 2.9% of gross wages (with no wage maximum). Note that there is an additional 0.9% tax for high-income earners—married taxpayers who make over $250,000 or single taxpayers making over $200,000. There is no employer match for this added tax.
• Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) . Revenues from this tax go toward federal and state unemployment funds to help workers who have lost their jobs. The rate is 6% of the first $7,000/year of gross wages. However, businesses that pay this tax fully and on time receive a 5.4% credit, which lowers their FUTA tax responsibility to 0.6%.

These taxes are listed on an employee’s pay stub, with the first two shown as FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act).

As an employer, you’re responsible for half of the FICA tax amounts for each employee. The remaining half comes from the employees themselves.

If you’re self-employed, however, you’ll need to pay the full 15.3% of FICA taxes due on your salary. FUTA taxes are paid entirely by the employer; there is no employee payment.

How are federal payroll taxes paid?

How your federal payroll taxes are paid depends on the type of tax. Your company withholds FICA taxes (along with their federal income taxes) from your employees’ paychecks. You’ll then transfer these funds, along with your own contributions, via the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS).

Your deposits must be made either on a monthly or semi-weekly schedule—an election you make before each calendar year.

• Monthly payments . A monthly payment must be made by the 15th of the following month.
• Semi-weekly payments . Every other week deposit dates depend on your pay schedule. If your payday falls on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, your deposit is due Wednesday of the following week. If you pay on any other day, it’s due the Friday of the following week.

FUTA taxes are handled differently. Your company pays these taxes entirely, so nothing is withheld from employee paychecks. This payment must be deposited quarterly to the EFTPS by the last day of the month after the end of each quarter.

However, if your quarterly total amount is less than $500, you can carry it forward to the next quarter. (This carryover can continue over multiple successive quarters if your total amount stays under this threshold. Once you exceed it, your payment must be made by the next applicable due date.)

Penalties for late payroll tax payments

Failure to remit payroll taxes on time can result in serious consequences. Financial penalty amounts depend on the circumstances:

• 2% penalty assessed if your deposit is 1-5 days late
• 5% penalty assessed if your deposit is 6-15 days late
• 10% penalty assessed if you’re more than 15 days late but before 10 days after the date of your first IRS notice
• 10% penalty assessed if deposits were instead paid directly to the IRS or with your tax return
• 15% penalty assessed if any amount is unpaid more than 10 days after the date of your first IRS notice (or the day you receive a notice requiring immediate payment)

Note that you aren’t the only one affected by late payroll tax payments. Your employees could lose future Social Security, Medicare, or unemployment benefits if those funds aren’t paid. So take care of your obligations—and your employees—by making complete payroll tax payments on time.

Don’t forget reporting requirements

Collection and payment aren’t your only tax responsibilities. You’ll also have to report these amounts (and other information) regularly to the IRS.

For FICA tax (as well as federal income tax), you must complete and file Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return . This form is due by the last day of the month following the end of each quarter, although some employers might be considered annual filers.

Note that depending on the type of business you run, you might file an alternate form. For example, a farm uses Form 943 instead of Form 941.

FUTA taxes are reported annually using Form 940, Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return . Each year’s return is due by January 31 of the following year.

And now, a word from the states…

That’s right—payroll taxes aren’t solely the federal government’s domain. States have their own payroll taxes as well. Every state has its own unemployment tax (called SUTA or UI).

This tax rate can vary not only by state but within each state as well. This is because your company’s industry, years in business and unemployment history can all determine the percentage used to calculate the amount due.

There are several other types of non-federal payroll taxes out there. These can cover programs like short- and long-term disability, workers’ compensation, paid medical or family leave and more.

And while we discussed state income tax in a previous article , you should also remember local income taxes. These are sometimes assessed in large urban areas (think New York City, San Francisco, etc.). There are 14 states that allow local governments to collect an income tax.

Finally, the collection, remittance and reporting of state and local-level taxes depend on the governments that levy the taxes. Each entity has its own rules and methods.

Get help from a tax professional

Clearly, the subject of payroll taxes involves plenty of moving parts and covers a wide range of accounting knowledge. A U.S.-based international CPA can draw on expertise in all of these areas when advising you on your unique business setup.

At James Moore , our international tax advisors pride themselves on providing comprehensive accounting, tax and consulting services for multinational companies, individuals and businesses entering the U.S.

Contact us to help you with your foreign tax needs today, and watch your business grow.

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Lean and the 7 Habits: No. 7 “Sharpen the Saw”

Originally published on July 21, 2015

Updated on February 15th, 2024

This post is part of a series discussing how you can apply lean principles to achieve the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Previously, we discussed the first 6 habits:

1. Be Proactive 2. Begin with the End in Mind 3. Put First Things First 4. Think Win-Win 5. Seek First to Understand and then to be Understood 6. Synergize

This week, we’ll discuss Covey’s 7th habit, Sharpen the Saw

Continuous Improvement involves understanding the importance of maintaining an ongoing effort to improve yourself and your business in order to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle and a healthy and prosperous business. It is essential to seek “incremental” improvements over time. Moreover, achieving continuous improvement requires you and your business to come full-circle by returning to step one, as improvement never terminates. The Continuous Improvement imperative succeeds only if it continues to evolve and change, fundamentally creating value. In order to effectively obtain the benefits of Continuous Improvement, you must (7.) Sharpen the Saw.

Sharpening the Saw Sharpening the saw is a definitive way to balance and renew your resources, energy and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle and relationships. It primarily emphasizes exercise for physical renewal and results in mental renewal. This trait also emphasis service to society, and from a business perspective, service to your customers.

Sharpening the saw through continuous improvement goes hand-in-hand with Lean Six Sigma. While Covey’s seven habits focus on self-renewal, Lean Six Sigma looks at self-renewal from the perspective of the value stream and how customers define value. Today’s optimal solution will be tomorrow’s obsolete solution. This approach is cyclical, and starts by looking inward, monitoring progress and setting goals on further improving outward. It is crucial to always be looking to the customer to see where additional value can be added, and then synergizing with team members to devise new solutions for improvement.

Lean practitioners and organizations that become Lean enterprises understand that change never stops. The culture of continuous improvement supports sustainability. There will always be new advancements and practices available that allow room for improvement and innovative thinking.

Series Conclusion Stephen R. Covey’s “ The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People ” presents a framework for living with fairness, integrity, honesty, and human dignity – principles that help us embrace change and take control of life’s opportunities. Achieving these goals requires an increased capacity for both change and improvement.

Throughout this series, we’ve explored how Lean Six Sigma better prepares individuals and organizations for change by using a proven problem-solving model that is designed to improve quality and eliminate waste in anything you do – a way to do things better . Once the underlying principles of the Lean Six Sigma model are embraced by those that practice lean, these principles expand beyond the application in a business process to the personal habits that are practiced each and every day. These principles go hand-in-hand with Covey’s seven habits. By applying Lean Six Sigma to achieve the 7 Habits, you and your company will inevitably become more productive and proactive.

About the Authors

Mike Sibley and Katie Davis are passionate about creating thorough and sustainable systems to help organizations become Lean Enterprises. In addition to writing and speaking on Lean Six Sigma, Mike and Katie work directly with an organization’s members to evaluate an existing process and identify solutions that eliminate waste, as well as build efficiency and quality into the process. Mike and Katie have applied these approaches for manufacturing, construction, professional services, and governmental entities.

All content provided in this article is for informational purposes only. Matters discussed in this article are subject to change. For up-to-date information on this subject please contact a James Moore professional . James Moore will not be held responsible for any claim, loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of any information within these pages or any information accessed through this site.

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May 1, 2024

18 min read

Can Scientific Thinking Save the World?

A physicist, a philosopher and a psychologist are working together to bring better, smarter decision-making to the masses

By Lee Billings

Kislev/Getty Images

A physicist, a philosopher and a psychologist walk into a classroom.

Although it sounds like a premise for a joke, this was actually the origin of a unique collaboration between Nobel Prize–winning physicist Saul Perlmutter, philosopher John Campbell and the psychologist Rob MacCoun. Spurred by what they saw as a perilously rising tide of irrationality, misinformation and sociopolitical polarization, they teamed up in 2011 to create a multidisciplinary course at the University of California, Berkeley, with the modest goal of teaching undergraduate students how to think—more specifically, how to think like a scientist . That is, they wished to show students how to use scientific tools and techniques for solving problems, making decisions and distinguishing reality from fantasy . The course proved popular, drawing enough interest to run for more than a decade (and counting) while sparking multiple spin-offs at other universities and institutions.

Now the three researchers are bringing their message to the masses with a new book, Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense . And their timing is impeccable: Our world seems to have only become more uncertain and complex since their course began, with cognitive biases and information overload all too easily clouding debates over high-stakes issues such as climate change , global pandemics , and the development and regulation of artificial intelligence . But one need not be an academic expert or policymaker to find value in this book’s pages. From parsing the daily news to treating a medical condition, talking with opposite-minded relatives at Thanksgiving or even choosing how to vote in an election, Third Millennium Thinking offers lessons that anyone can use—individually and collectively—to make smarter, better decisions in everyday life.

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Scientific American spoke with Perlmutter, Campbell and MacCoun about their work—and whether it’s wishful thinking to believe logic and evidence can save the world.

[ An edited transcript of the interview follows .]

How did all of this begin, and what motivated each of you to take on such an ambitious project?

PERLMUTTER: In 2011 I was looking at our society making big decisions: “Should we raise the debt ceiling?”—things like that. And surprisingly enough, we were not doing it in a very sensible way. The conversations I was hearing about these political decisions weren’t like those I’d have over lunch with a bunch of scientists at the lab—not because of politics, but rather because of the style of how scientists tend to think about solving problems. And I thought, “Well, where did scientists learn this stuff? And is it possible for us to articulate what these concepts are and teach them in a way that people would apply them in their whole lives, not just in a lab? And can we empower them to think for themselves using the best available cognitive tools rather than teaching them to ‘just trust scientists?’”

So that was the starting point of it. But that’s not the whole story. If you put a bunch of physicists together in a faculty meeting, they don’t necessarily act much more rational than any other faculty members, right? So it was clear we really needed expertise from other fields, too, such as John’s expertise in philosophy and Rob’s expertise in social psychology. We actually put a little sign up looking for people who’d want to help develop the course. It said something like, “Are you embarrassed watching our society make decisions? Come help invent our course; come help save the world.”

MacCOUN: When Saul approached me about the course, I was delighted to work with him. Even back in 2011 I was filled with angst about the inefficacy of policy debates; I had spent years working on two big hot-button issues: drug legalization and open military service for gay and lesbian individuals. I worked with policymakers and advocates on both sides, just trying to be an honest broker in these debates to help clarify the truth—you know, “What do we actually know, and what don’t we know?” And the quality of debate for both of those issues was so bad, with so much distortion of research findings. So when Saul mentioned the course to me, I just jumped at the chance to work on this.

CAMPBELL: It was obvious to me that this was philosophically very interesting. I mean, we’re talking about how science inputs into decision-making. And in decision-making, there are always questions of value, as well as questions of fact; questions about where you want to go, as well as questions about how do we get there; and questions about what “the science” can answer. And it’s very interesting to ask, “Can we tease apart facts and values in decision-making? Does the science have anything to tell us about values?” Well, likely not. Scientists always shy away from telling us about values. So we need to know something about how broader effective concerns can be woven in with scientific results in decision-making.

Some of this is about how science is embedded in the life of a community. You take a village—you have the pub, you have the church, you know clearly what they are for and how they function in the whole community. But then the science, what is that? Is it just this kind of shimmering thing that produces telephones, TVs and stuff? How does it fit into the life of the community? How does it embed in our civilization? Classically, it’s been regarded as a “high church” kind of thing. The scientists are literally in an ivory tower and do as they please. And then occasionally, they produce these gadgets, and we’re not sure if we should like them or not. But we really need a more healthy, grounded conception of how science plays into our broader society.

I’m glad you brought up the distinction between facts and values. To me, that overlaps with the distinction between groups and individuals—“values” feel more personal and subjective and thus more directly applicable to a reader, in a way. And the book is ultimately about how individuals can empower themselves with so-called scientific thinking—presumably to live their best lives based on their personal values. But how does that accord with this other assertion you’ve just made, saying science likely doesn’t have anything to tell us about values in the first place?

PERLMUTTER: Well, I think what John was getting at is: even once we develop all these ways to think through facts, we don’t want to stop thinking through values, right? One point here is that we’ve actually made progress together thinking about values over centuries. And we have to keep talking to each other. But it’s still very helpful to separate the values and the facts because each requires a slightly different style of thinking, and you want people to be able to do both.

MacCOUN: That’s right. Scientists can’t tell us and shouldn’t tell us, in fact, what values to hold. Scientists get in trouble when they try that. We talk in the book about “pathologies” of science that sometimes happen and how those can be driven by values-based thinking. Regarding values, where science excels is in clarifying where and how they conflict so that in public policy analysis, you can inform the trade-offs to make sure that the stakeholders in a debate empirically understand how its various outcomes advance certain values while impeding others. Usually what happens next is finding solutions that minimize those trade-offs and reduce the friction between conflicting values.

And let’s be clear: when we talk about values, we sometimes talk as if people are either one thing or another. You know, someone may ask, “Are you for or against ‘freedom?’” But in reality, everyone values freedom. It’s just a question of how much, of how we differ in our rankings of such things. And we’re all looking for some way to pursue more than one value at a time, and we need other people to help us get there.

PERLMUTTER: And let’s remember that we’re not even consistent within our own selves about our individual rankings of values, which tend to fluctuate a lot based on the situation.

I love how our discussion is now reflecting the style of the book: breezy and approachable but also unflinching in talking about complexity and uncertainty. And in it, you’re trying to give readers a “tool kit” for navigating such things. That’s great, yet it can be challenging for readers who might assume it’s, say, a science-infused self-help book offering them a few simple rules about how to improve their rational thinking. This makes me wonder: If you did have to somehow reduce the book’s message to something like a series of bullet points on a note card, what would that be? What are the most essential tools in the kit?

CAMPBELL: This may be a bit ironic, but I was reading somewhere recently that where AI programs such as ChatGPT really go wrong is in not giving sources. Most of these tools don’t tell you what evidence they’re using for their outputs. And you’d think, of course, we should always show what evidence we have for anything we’re gonna say. But really, we can’t do that. Most of us can’t remember the evidence for half of what we know. What we can usually recall is how likely we thought some assertion was to be true, how probable we thought it was. And keeping track of this is a worthwhile habit of mind: if you’re going to act on any belief you might have, you need to know the strength with which you can hold that belief.

PERLMUTTER: We spend a fair amount of time on this in the book because it allows you to see that the world doesn’t come to us with certainty in almost anything. Even when we’re pretty sure of something, we’re only pretty sure, and there’s real utility in having a sense of the possibility for something contradicting what we think or expect. Many people do this naturally all the time, thinking about the odds for placing a bet on their favorite sports team or about the chance of a rain shower spoiling a picnic. Acknowledging uncertainty puts your ego in the right place. Your ego should, in the end, be attached to being pretty good at knowing how strong or weak your trust is in some fact rather than in being always right. Needing to always be right is a very problematic way to approach the world. In the book, we compare it to skiing down a mountain with all your weight rigid on both legs; if you don’t ever shift your stance to turn and slow down, you might go very fast, but you usually don’t get very far before toppling over! So instead you need to be able to maneuver and adjust to keep track of what it is that you really do know versus what you don’t. That’s how to actually get wherever you’re trying to go, and it’s also how to have useful conversations with other people who may not agree with you.

MacCOUN: And that sense of working together is important because these habits of mind we’re discussing aren’t just about your personal decision-making; they’re also about how science works in a democracy. You know, scientists end up having to work with people they disagree with all the time. And they cultivate certain communal ways of doing that—because it’s not enough to just be a “better” thinker; even people well-trained in these methods make mistakes. So you also need these habits at a communal level for other people to keep you honest. That means it’s okay, and necessary even, to interact with people who disagree with you—because that’s how you find out when you’re making mistakes. And it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll change your mind. But it’ll improve your thinking about your own views.

So in summary:

Try to rank your confidence in your beliefs.

Try to update your beliefs based on new evidence and don’t fear being (temporarily) wrong.

Try to productively engage with others who have different beliefs than you.

That’s a pretty good “top three” list, I think! But, pardon my cynicism, do you worry that some of this might come off as rather quaint? We mentioned at the outset how this project really began in 2011, not much more than a decade ago. Yet some would probably argue that social and technological changes across that time have now effectively placed us in a different situation, a different world. It seems—to me at least—on average much harder now than it was 10 years ago for people with divergent beliefs and values to have a pleasant, productive conversation. Are the challenges we face today really things that can be solved by everyone just getting together and talking?

CAMPBELL: I agree with you that this sort of cynicism is now widespread. Across the past few decades we seem to have forgotten how to have a conversation across a fundamental divide, so now we take for granted that it’s pointless to try to convert those holding different views. But the alternative is to run society by coercion. And just beating people down with violent subjugation is not a long-term tenable solution. If you’re going to coerce, you have to at least show your work. You have to engage with other people and explain why you think your policies are good.

MacCOUN: You can think of cynicism as this god-awful corrosive mix of skepticism and pessimism. At the other extreme, you have gullibility, which, combined with optimism, leads to wishful thinking. And that’s really not helpful either. In the book we talk about an insight Saul had, which is that scientists tend to combine skepticism with optimism—a combo I’d say is not generally cultivated in our society. Scientists are skeptical, not gullible, but they’re optimistic, not pessimistic: they tend to assume that problems have a solution. So scientists sitting around the table are more likely to be trying to figure out fixes for a problem rather than bemoaning how terrible it is.

PERLMUTTER: This is something we’ve grappled with, and there are a couple of elements, I think, that are important to transmit about it. One is that there are good reasons to be disappointed when you look at the leaders of our society. They’ve structurally now gotten themselves into a fix, where they seem unable to even publicly say what they believe, let alone find real compromises on divisive issues. Meanwhile you can find lots of examples of “citizen assembly” events where a random selection of average people who completely disagree and support the opposite sides of the political spectrum sit down together and are much more able to have a civil, thoughtful conversation than their sociopolitical leaders can. That makes me think most of the [people in the] country (but not all!) could have a very reasonable conversation with each other. So clearly there’s an opportunity that we haven’t taken advantage of to structurally find ways to empower those conversations, not just the leaders trying to act for us. That’s something to be optimistic about. Another is that the daily news portrays the world as a very scary and negative place—but we know the daily news is not offering a very good representative take on the true state of the world, especially regarding the huge improvements in human well-being that have occurred over the past few decades.

So it feels to me that many people are living in “crisis” mode because they’re always consuming news that’s presenting us crises every moment and driving us apart with wedge issues. And I think there’s optimism to be found in looking for ways to talk together again. As John says, that’s the only game in town: to try to work with people until you learn something together, as opposed to just trying to win and then having half your population being unhappy.

CAMPBELL: We are maybe the most tribal species on the planet, but we are also perhaps the most amazingly flexible and cooperative species on the planet. And as Saul said, in these almost town-hall-style deliberative citizen assemblies you see this capacity for cooperation coming out, even among people who’d be bitterly divided and [belong to] opposite tribes otherwise—so there must be ways to amplify that and to escape being locked into these tribal schisms.

MacCOUN: And it’s important to remember that research on cooperation suggests you don’t need to have everybody cooperating to get the benefits. You do need a critical mass, but you’re never going to get everyone, so you shouldn’t waste your time trying to reach 100 percent. [Political scientist] Robert Axelrod and others studying the evolution of cooperation have shown that if cooperators can find each other, they can start to thrive and begin attracting other cooperators, and they can become more robust in the face of those who are uncooperative or trying to undermine cooperation. So somehow getting that critical mass is probably the best you can hope for.

I’m sure it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that as we discuss large-scale social cooperation, we’re also in an election year in the U.S., ostensibly the world’s most powerful democracy. And sure, part of the equation here is breaking down walls with basic acts of kindness and humility: love thy neighbor, find common ground, and so on. But what about voting? Does scientific decision-making give us some guidance on “best practices” there?

PERLMUTTER: Well, clearly we want this to be something that transcends election years. But in general, you should avoid making decisions—voting included—purely based on fear. This is not a time in the world where fear should be the dominant thing driving our individual or collective actions. Most of our fears divide us, yet most of our strength is found in working together to solve problems. So one basic thing is not to let yourself be flustered into voting for anyone or anything out of fear. But another is to look for leaders who use and reflect the scientific style of thinking, in which you’re open to being wrong, you’re bound by evidence, and you’re able to change your mind if it turns out that you were pursuing a bad plan. And that’s something that unfortunately we very rarely see.

CAMPBELL: At the moment we have an abundance of free speech—everyone can get on to some kind of social media and explain their views to the entire country. But we seem to have forgotten that the whole point of free speech was the testing of ideas. That was why it seemed like such a good thing: through free speech, new ideas can be generated and discussed and tested. But that idea of testing the ideas you freely express has just dropped out of the culture. We really need to tune back in to that in how we teach and talk about free speech and its value. It’s not just an end in itself, you know?

MacCOUN: And let’s be mindful of some lessons from history, too. For a lot of these issues that are so polarizing and divisive, it’s probably going to turn out that neither side was completely right, and there was some third possibility that didn’t occur to most, if any, of us. This happens in science all the time, with each victorious insight usually being provisional until the next, better theory or piece of evidence comes along. And in the same way, if we can’t move past arguing about our current conception of these problems, we’re trapping ourselves in this one little region of conceptual space when the solution might lie somewhere outside. This is one of very many cognitive traps we talk about in the book. Rather than staking out our hill to die on, we should be more open to uncertainty and experimentation: we test some policy solution to a problem, and if it doesn’t work, we’re ready to rapidly make adjustments and try something else.

Maybe we can practice what we preach here, this idea of performing evidence-based testing and course correction and escaping various sorts of cognitive traps. While you were working on this book, did you find and reflect on any irrational habits of mind you might have? And was there a case where you chose a hill to die on, and you were wrong, and you begrudgingly adjusted?

MacCOUN: Yeah, in the book we give examples of our own personal mistakes. One from my own research involves the replicability crisis and people engaging in confirmation bias. I had written a review paper summarizing evidence that seemed to show that decriminalizing drugs—that is, removing criminal penalties for them—did not lead to higher levels of use. After writing it, I had a new opportunity to test that hypothesis, looking at data from Italy, where in the 1970s they’d basically decriminalized personal possession of small quantities of all drugs. And then they recriminalized them in 1990. And then they redecriminalized in 1993. So it was like a perfect opportunity. And the data showed drug related deaths actually went down when they reinstituted penalties and went back up again when the penalties were removed. And this was completely opposite of what I had already staked my reputation on! And so, well, I had a personal bias, right? And that’s really the only reason I went and did more research, digging deeper on this Italian thing, because I didn’t like the findings. So across the same span of time I looked at Spain (a country that had decriminalized without recriminalizing) and at Germany (a country that never decriminalized during that time), and all three showed the same death pattern. This suggests that the suspicious pattern of deaths in fact had nothing to do with penalties. Now, I think that leads to the correct conclusion—my original conclusion, of course! But the point is: I’m embarrassed to admit I had fallen into the trap of confirmation bias—or, really, of its close cousin called disconfirmation bias, where you’re much tougher on evidence that seems to run counter to your beliefs. It’s a teachable moment, for sure.

CAMPBELL: It takes a lot of courage to admit these sorts of things and make the necessary transitions. One cognitive trap that affects many of us is what’s called the implicit bias blind spot, where you can be really subtle and perceptive in spotting other people’s biases but not your own. You can often see a bias of some sort in an instant in other people. But what happens when you look at yourself? The reaction is usually, “Na, I don't do that stuff!” You know, I must have been through hundreds and hundreds of student applications for admission or searches for faculty members, and I never spotted myself being biased at all, not once. “I just look at the applications straight,” right? But that can’t always be true because the person easiest to fool is yourself! Realizing that can be such a revelation.

PERLMUTTER: And this really informs one of the book’s key points: that we need to find better ways to work with people with whom we disagree—because one of the very best ways to get at your own biases is to find somebody who disagrees with you and is strongly motivated to prove you wrong. It’s hard, but you really do need the loyal opposition. Thinking back, for instance, to the big race for measuring the cosmological expansion of the universe that led to the discovery of dark energy, it was between my team and another team. Sometimes my colleagues and I would see members of the other team showing up to do their observations at the telescopes just as we were leaving from doing ours, and it was uncomfortable knowing both teams were chasing the same thing. On the other hand, that competition ensured we’d each try to figure out if the other team was making mistakes, and it greatly improved the confidence we collectively had in our results. But it’s not good enough just to have two opposing sides—you also need ways for them to engage with each other.

I realize I’ve inadvertently left probably the most basic question for last. What exactly is “third millennium thinking?”

PERLMUTTER: That’s okay, we actually leave explaining this to the book’s last chapter, too!

MacCOUN: Third millennium thinking is about recognizing a big shift that’s underway. We all have a sense of what the long millennia predating science must have been like, and we all know the tremendous advances that gradually came about as the modern scientific era emerged—from the practices of various ancient civilizations to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, all those shifts in thinking that led to the amazing scientific revolution that has so profoundly changed our world here in what, until the end of the 20th century, was the second millennium. But there’s also been disenchantment with science, especially recently. And there’s validity to concerns that science was sometimes just a handmaiden of the powerful and that scientists sometimes wield more authority than they deserve to advance their own personal projects and politics. And sometimes science can become pathological; sometimes it can fail.

A big part of third millennium thinking is acknowledging science’s historic faults but also its capacity for self-correction, some of which we’re seeing today. We think this is leading us into a new era in which science is becoming less hierarchical. It’s becoming more interdisciplinary and team-based and, in some cases, more approachable for everyday people to be meaningfully involved—think of so-called citizen science projects. Science is also becoming more open, where researchers must show their work by making their data and methods more readily available so that others can independently check it. And we hope these sorts of changes are making scientists more humble: This attitude of “yeah, I’ve got the Ph.D., so you listen to me,” that doesn’t necessarily work anymore for big, divisive policy issues. You need a more deliberative consultation in which everyday people can be involved. Scientists do need to stay in their lane to some extent and not claim authority just based on their pedigree—the authority comes from the method used, not from the pedigree.

We see these all connected in their potential to advance a new way of doing science and of being scientists, and that’s what third millennium thinking is about.

CAMPBELL: With the COVID pandemic, I think we’ve all sadly become very familiar with the idea that the freedom of the individual citizen is somehow opposed to the authority of the scientist. You know, “the scientist is a person who will boss you around, diminish your freedom and inject you with vaccines laced with mind-controlling nanobots” or whatever. And it’s such a shame. It’s so debilitating when people use or see science like that. Or alternatively, you might say, “Well, I’m no scientist, and I can’t do the math, so I’ll just believe and do whatever they tell me.” And that really is relinquishing your freedom. Science should be an enabler of individual power, not a threat to your freedom. Third millennium thinking is about achieving that, allowing as many people as possible to be empowered—to empower themselves—by using scientific thinking.

PERLMUTTER: Exactly. We're trying to help people see that this combination of trends we’re now seeing around the world is actually a very fertile opportunity for big, meaningful, positive change. And if we lean into this, it could set us in a very good position on the long-term path to a really great millennium. Even though there are all these other forces to worry about at the moment, by applying the tools, ideas and processes from the culture of science to other parts of our lives, we can have the wind at our back as we move toward a brighter, better future.