When Laziness Works
Would you believe that the laziest people can be the most productive?
There I was, stuck processing some data tables (CSVs) for a client. I had to download a table, copy all the contents, and paste it onto a master table. When you have to do this 500+ times, it’s easy to see how cumbersome it is
After copying my 100th table, I decided that there had to be a better way to do this. After all, aren’t computers designed to process oodles of data? And, didn’t my lazy self want to finish this boring, repetitive task as soon as possible, so that I could move on to more enjoyable activities like “creative” work or simply bumming around?
So I took a break, and started googling for the answer. Turns out combining CSVs (the data tables) is as easy as following the instructions here:
- Place all the CSVs you want to combine into one folder
- Go to command prompt (these instructions work for Windows), and go to the folder where you placed all the CSVs.
- Type copy *.csv [file].csv, where [file] is the name of the file you want all the data to go to.
- That’s it!
(Anyone who knows how to do this in Linux or Mac OS, feel free to tell us how by leaving a comment below)
What’s the point? Well, by giving in to my laziness, I forced myself to look for—and use—a better, more productive way of doing things. By using the instructions I found online, I also made full use of my computer, which is all what we want to do, right?
In short, laziness may not deserve its bad rep. Granted, it can lead to the mediocrity that will never lead to anything. But in this case, it saved me time, time that I wisely used to finish other projects on time and to spec.
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POSTED IN: Productivity Drivers
4 opinions for When Laziness Works
Anthony Williams
Jul 16, 2008 at 1:54 am
On Linux and MacOSX you can just write
cat *.csv > output.csv
Rico
Jul 16, 2008 at 2:32 am
Hi Anthony, thanks for the tip! How do you get to Mac OS X’s console though? :)
Anthony Williams
Jul 16, 2008 at 2:42 am
On MacOSX, run the “Terminal” app.
Combine all your CSV files into one
Jul 27, 2008 at 1:44 am
[…] quite time-consuming. But now, you can merge all your CSV files into one file. From his post “When Laziness Works“, he listed the steps on how to do so. Just follow this simple […]
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