 March 3rd 2008
 Productivity
 6 comments
In my weekly recap last Friday I pointed out a Lifehack.org article arguing that the current climate for hyper-productivity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Then yesterday I came across a similar post, claiming that the pursuit of productivity has ended up out of control. It seems to me that there is now an increasing shift toward simplifying our lives. Who needs to be productive when the amount of stuff you have to deal with is cut in half?
How many blogs, online tools, software and books are there nowadays providing the latest, fashionable way to hit the peak of productivity? There is an entire industry dedicated to the issue; a sub-niche of personal development, capable of surviving and even thriving on its own.
It’s understandable this has come about. Our lives are increasingly hectic and we are bombarded by so much stuff on a daily basis that learning to be productive, so as to handle the stresses of modern life, is a wise move. And that’s just for your personal life. When you take into account the current business attitude of doing more with less (all for profits, profits and more profits!) no wonder this culture of getting things done has developed.
At the height of my furore for being an efficient to-do list completing machine, I was regularly finding work to do. If I didn’t have a full day’s worth of tasks to complete I wasn’t being efficient enough. Projects wouldn’t be moving forward and my goals and plans would be lagging behind… or so it seemed. Whether I did hit all my targets was actually what I used to judge my success; what I actually completed was irrelevant. The thing I never bothered to ask myself until recently was whether what I was doing was actually important. I bet a lot of others have found themselves in this situation.
One of the biggest pieces of advice dished out by any personal development source is that you should never wait for the right moment, time or situation to do something otherwise you will always be putting it off. One could also say that you should never wait for the right productivity tools to get things done. Unfortunately there is so much written on the topic that it’s become complex, time consuming and ironically, unproductive. Whatever happened to just getting on with it?
Reader discussion
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You also have to take some time for yourself each day to relax and unwind. Think of the human body as a car. You have to tune it up every so often to keep it rolling. Otherwise, it will break down eventually.
Richard Rinyai
http://www.theprofessionalassistant.net
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I agree with Richard above, you need time to work and time to rest. I think you can cut things down to bare essentials as long as you are ok with the consequences. You should not expect to achieve lots without any effort. My recent discovery is to focus on important things and use “productivity tools” as guides and reference points of what I am committed to do. When I see something that does not resonate any more I delete it.
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Yeah, you definitely need time to rest. So many people into GTD seem to be constantly active, which ultimately wears them down. Down time is critical and I don’t think it’s mentioned enough. For those GTD followers, try making down time a project.
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This is fantastic. Once I figured out that I could get more things done in a day, I learned that this was a pretty lame way of living. Now part of my “productivity” plan is taking time to let my mind relax and reflect on the big picture of what I’m trying to accomplish. Thanks again for the wonderful post!
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