The Napoleon technique is a productivity technique that involves postponing dealing with something if it’s likely to get resolved without your immediate input.
For example, based on the Napoleon technique, you could decide to wait a day before replying to emails that ask for your advice on non-urgent issues, if you believe that by then the people who send the emails will likely figure out how to resolve those issues.
The Napoleon technique can be highly beneficial, but there are some considerations that you should take into account when using it. As such, in the following article you will learn more about this technique, and see how you can implement it yourself as effectively as possible.
History of the Napoleon technique
The origin of the Napoleon technique lies with the following story about Napoleon:
“It was a whimsical economy of the same kind which dictated [Napoleon’s] practice, when general in Italy, in regard to his burdensome correspondence. He directed Bourrienne to leave all letters unopened for three weeks, and then observed with satisfaction how large a part of the correspondence had thus disposed of itself and no longer required an answer.” — From “Napoleon; or, the Man of the World”, by American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his collection “Representative Men” (1850)
This, in turn, is based on the following story from the memoirs of Napoleon:
“During the time when the preliminaries of Leoben suspended military operations, Napoleon was not anxious to reply immediately to all letters. He took a fancy to do, not exactly as Cardinal Dubois did, when he threw into the fire the letters he had received, saying, ‘There! my correspondents are answered,’ but something of the same kind. To satisfy himself that people wrote too much, and lost, in trifling and useless answers, valuable time, he told me to open only the letters which came by extraordinary couriers, and to leave all the rest for three weeks in the basket. At the end of that time it was unnecessary to reply to four-fifths of these communications. Some were themselves answers; some were acknowledgments of letters received; others contained requests for favours already granted, but of which intelligence had not been received. Many were filled with complaints respecting provisions, pay, or clothing, and orders had been issued upon all these points before the letters were written. Some generals demanded reinforcements, money, promotion, etc. By not opening their letters Bonaparte was spared the unpleasing office of refusing. When the General-in-Chief compared the very small number of letters which it was necessary to answer with the large number which time alone had answered, he laughed heartily at his whimsical idea. Would not this mode of proceeding be preferable to that of causing letters to be opened by any one who may be employed, and replying to them by a circular to which it is only necessary to attach a date?” — From “Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte”, by French diplomat Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne (1891)
Examples of ways you can implement the Napoleon technique
As we saw so far, one way you can implement the Napoleon technique is by waiting before responding to non-urgent requests for help, with the hope that by the time you do so, the related issues will have already been resolved.
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