I’ve been thinking about productivity and what it means a lot lately. By chance, this morning I came across this video by Cal Newport (sorry, they’ve disabled the embedding of their videos).
Here are the important takeaways and further thoughts I have about them.
Old Productivity Doesn’t Work in a New World
I do believe as people we want to feel proud of the things that we do. Not everything necessarily but there is something that we put our efforts into that we want to look back and smile.
But this becomes frequently harder to do today because the term productivity is skewed. We continue to view productivity as output instead of outcome.
It’s the difference between how much did you do and what did you achieve?
Is it better for the salesman to make 50 calls with 1 sale or 10 calls and 3 sales? The answer should be obvious but what happens when the person who does 10 calls finishes them all before lunch?
In a traditional sense, he is viewed as less productive and he should spend the afternoon working on another 10 calls! Because the idea is that if you’re going to be useful then we’re going to measure this by your activity.
This is why a number of companies hate people working from home. You can’t watch over their shoulders to view their activity so then what can they look at?
- Emails sent
- Meetings scheduled
- Time talking in Slack
- Code commitments
This causes us to put on a performance of busyness because we are viewed through a lens of activity instead of outcome.
Slow Productivity
Slow productivity is a way of measuring useful effort that is now much more focused on the quality of things you produce over time as opposed to your visible activity in the moment.
This is based around 3 principles:
- Do fewer things
- Work at a natural pace
- Obsess over quality
Do Fewer Things
Right away this feels like the opposite of productivity and that’s part of the problem. When we shift from activity to outcome then how much of the stuff that we do needs to be done to achieve the results that we want?
This goes back to the 80/20 Rule in that 20% of the things will produce most of the results.
There is also a cost from continually switching between different tasks. Each time we switch it takes our brain time to fully adjust. While it’s easy to switch it doesn’t mean we are putting our best work because of it.
As someone with ADHD who is constantly switching I don’t think this is one of the things that doesn’t apply to me. I can do well switching between two tasks as sometimes I need my brain to switch gears and let the subconscious do its thing. But when switching between tons of tasks that have little meaning besides checking off a box, then I always get lost.
There is also something called Attention Residue where we bring over fragments of our last activity to the new one when we continuously switch.
Because we continuously switch and we bring the residue with us, it’s hard to produce high-quality work within a reasonable time so we continue to push which leads to frustration and burnout.
When we work on fewer things there is less opportunity for switching and Attention Residue. This leads to higher quality work which can be done quicker.
Work at Natural Pace
Our bodies and minds are seasonal. When we continuously try to push our minds to produce then the quality of work drops over time.
We are built for different levels of work based on the season that our minds are in. It will do it’s job and let us know if we pay attention to it.
There will be seasons of hard work and seasons where you take it easy. Over the long run this leads to a greater body of quality work.
Obsess Over Quality
This isn’t perfectionism. This is about being able to put in the best work on the right things.
It requires you to find those things that produce the most value so you can put your focus on them.
- Does the thing that you are working on now have a big impact on the output that you desire?
- What things will lead you closer not only to achieving the outcome that you desire but also to achieving it at the level that helps you most stand out?
When you follow this line of thinking the other 80% of tasks start to look like obstacles to the outcome instead of items of progress.
Quicker Output & Better Outcomes
Following these principles leads to helping you achieve the important things quicker. You’re clearing the path that allows you to get where you want sooner.
Because you’re focused on less, the quality that you’re producing is going to go up but this requires you to be strict about what you let into your life.
When we create quality things, our happiness quality goes up. When we are proud of the journey we feel better about ourselves.