Thinking Better

For centuries, the Swiss Alps have created a challenge in international trade. In the 13th century, the Gotthard Pass was established as an essential trade route between the north and south of Europe. The problem is that it is a 2,106m-high (6909 ft) mountain range.

This pass is the shortest route between the navigable Rhine and the Po. It used to take days to traverse in the summer before modern transport, and much longer in the winter with the snow.

In 1882, the Gotthard Railway Tunnel was opened and it reduced the time from days to just hours.

On the 1st of June, 2016, the Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) officially opened. It became the longest and deepest railway tunnel in the world at 57.09kms and the first flat low-level route through the alps.

The GBT’s main advantage is time, environmental damage, and safety. The tunnel further reduces transit time, it reduces the load on heavy trucks which decreases emissions because freight can be more easily moved on trains. Finally, having fewer heavy trucks on the mountain pass has reduced fatal crashes.

What does a tunnel in the middle of a European mountain range teach you about your own process?

Value

The whole point of the tunnel is to reduce time doing the thing you don’t want to do. The businesses make money getting goods from point A to point B. The transport is the boring job, the game is to make the goods rather than to get them to the people buying them. Making that transport simpler is a win.

Spending more time on the things that create value and minimising the time-sinks of valueless work will make you more productive. To do this, you need to identify what is important or valuable to you.

• Where do you add value to your business/organisation?
• Who do you want to spend your time with?
• What do you want to be doing more of?
• What do you want to be doing less of?

Work on your tunnel

The GBT helps save people time doing something they don’t want to do. How much easier is a 45-minute train journey than a 4 or 5-day trek through the snowy mountain pass?

Technology can solve lots of business processes work. What admin tasks do you do because you have always done them? Can you automate those tasks away? Would an hour of set-up save you 10 minutes every day for the rest of your life? Doesn’t that sound worth it?

Can you stop doing things altogether? I spend too much time watching youtube rather than creating or working through ideas.

Would your health improve if you removed bad food from your house? How do you make it easier to work out or move?

Who would you spend more time with if you had more time? Do you want to see your friends more? Spend time with your kids? Make a meal for your parents?

We have a limited time on this floating mostly wet orb, try to figure out how to use that time wisely and make some sweet tunnels.