Hallmarks of Professionalism: Speed

 Is how fast you do a given job considered a positive example of being a professional?   There are a LOT of people who would swear by it.  

I'm here to tell you why they are wrong.

It not really about how fast they job gets one that makes it professional.   A skilled, experienced person often gets to a point where thy are able to do things quickly.  Routine and repetition often lead to that result.

But... that usually is not the goal of those folks.  The true "Masters" of their craft will often say it has less to do with how quickly it gets done as to that it gets done the right way.  So it's not really a matter or doing things fast.  It's about doing thing expediently to the intended results.

It's more about unwasted efforts.   Doing things, but doing them with the least errors. Using techniques that don't waste energy or resources. And of course it making use of the accumulated knowledge one has gained in learning the task to their maximum benefit.   

In the long run, that's what makes them fast. Not that just being fast really has anything to do with intentions.   It just comes with being really good at it.

If you do something fast, but not necessarily good, that's not very professional at all.  Or even doing things fast and just "good enough:.  Because the emphasis still isn't on the best quality result.  It's doing it fast enough to get to the next thing you'll get paid for.  People who think doing things that way are numerous but still wrong.

Don't worry about being fast.  Be expedient instead. Learn to move intentionally,  with least wasted effort and resources.   Do that enough times, you won't have to even think about being fast.  It will just happen because you have the muscle memory,  experience, and knowledge already banked.  Being faster at the task will just be a consequence of that.



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