What does this quote mean?Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the

Question

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe

What does this mean?

Answer 1

The underlying message is that preparation is a key ingredient to success.

cinemave- lol, I'm in construction too and you hit the nail on the head with that one.

Answer 2

It only takes him two hours to chop down a tree, meaning he's productive, or arrogant.  I'm really not in the mood to delve deeper into that, sorry.

Answer 3

http://www.mynewcompany.com/blog/busines...

I had not heard of it myself but i found this link that explains it

Answer 4

It probably is a reference to procrastination. I'll try putting it in a more modern-day example:

Give me 6 hours to take my SATs and I'll spend the first 4 sharpening my pencil and staring at the page.

Give me 6 hours to write a report and I'll spend the first 4 procrastinating and not getting any work done.

Procrastinating means putting off work or something important purposely because you don't want to do it.

Answer 5

A job will expand to fill the space alloted to it.  If you are given two weeks to do a term-paper it will be done then.  If you are given six-weeks to do the same paper, it won't be ready in two, it will take six weeks.  This is especially true in construction work.

Answer 6

I have a little different take on the quote.

I think it means that if you are fully prepared (you ax is sharp) works goes easily.

I have chopped a lot of wood and having your ax in perfect condition does make a huge difference.

Answer 7

It refers to the value of preparation.  I often do little handyman jobs around the house.  Most of them take twice as much time to prepare (gather supplies, measure, put out drop cloths, etc) as to actually do them.  

It might be more obvious with another analogy, a boxing match.  A boxing match may last about ten minutes, but the preparation took weeks.

It means a wise person doesn't start in on a task right away, they plan and prepare first.