Last week, we pointed out that rainforests have a job. They are the lungs of the planet, exchanging Oxygen for Carbon Dioxide and sustaining life on this planet. We can’t afford for the rainforest to be inefficient, to fall down on the job or to be ineffective. Fortunately, we do not have to worry about the rainforest defaulting (as long as we don’t cut it all down), because it operates by a series of laws or processes that make it very efficient.

When we understand what makes the rainforest efficient, we can apply those same principles to our lives and garner similar results. Last week, we talked about the first law of productivity… Eliminate the Unnecessary. Today, I want to talk about the second law… Automate the Mundane. In short, systemize those things that must be done routinely and in a precise way.

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We are concluding our series on the 7 natural means rainforest plants have to protect themselves from pests so they can grow fast and produce much. This one is about getting help. - recruiting others to run defense for you. In nature, it’s called the “ant defense”. It’s where plants sometimes offer ants nectar in exchange for defense from leaf eating pests like caterpillars, ladybugs, etc. The ants value the nectar more than eating the leaf so they protect the leaf from other leaf eating insects.

It’s a protection racket, but it’s initiated by the plant. Do you have an assistant or someone who can run defense for you and screen your calls, even answer or clear away nuisance emails? It might be worth the investment. Too often, I have been guilty of assigning a task to my support team, then going back and getting involved, even doing it myself. That’s pathetic. If I have the wrong staff, I need to replace them. If I simply have bad habits, I need to change those!

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Let me help you recall the premise of this series of 7 lessons for increasing your productivity… On Barro Colorado, in the heart of the Panama Canal, a test was done with 35 pairs of young plants. Half were protected from pests and half were not. The protected half grew 10 times faster and was already 5 ½ times larger in just twenty months. The only difference was being sheltered from pests.

We have already discussed four natural strategies rainforest plants use to minimize the impact of pests. Today, we look at the fifth. It’s called, “leaf production when plants are rare” and it is highly effective. Some types of plants actually delay putting out new leaves (which are the most vulnerable) until the dry season when many of the pests have died off or gone elsewhere. With fewer pests, they have faster and more complete growth.

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