The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey

Author:Chris Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2016-01-04T16:00:00+00:00

TAKING PRODUCTIVITY TOO FAR

Since being inspired by Getting Things Done a decade ago, I’ve found that there is a line that’s relatively easy to cross, after which you begin to spend too much time managing and planning what you have to do instead of getting real work done. Working more deliberately is at the heart of productivity, but it’s possible to take the idea too far. This is a trap I think a lot of people fall into when they become interested in productivity—and I include myself in this group.

From what I’ve found, the most productive people are the ones who strike a balance between the two extremes, who understand the power of capturing and organizing what they have to get done, but who also don’t sacrifice real work in favor of being productive about productivity.

Research shows that the simple act of making a to-do list makes you less likely to get work done, because creating a task list simulates getting actual work done, even though it doesn’t lead you to accomplish anything. To carve out more attentional space, I think it’s crucial that you perform a brain dump of everything on your plate and capture open loops as they grab at your attention throughout the day. But it’s also important you’re mindful that you don’t take things too far. Just because you feel productive doesn’t mean you actually are—and this is something to keep in mind as you round up and organize everything on your plate.

Getting Things Done sits proudly on my bookshelf to this day, turned to face outward while only the spines of the other books I’ve acquired are exposed. I think it speaks volumes that over the last decade the system has become so integrated into the tapestry of my work and life that I don’t notice that I’m practicing it.

That being said, I’ve never adopted it in its entirety. The system is pretty complex, and it’s too easy to take it too far. To his credit, David has said many times that the crucial part about the Getting Things Done methodology isn’t that you follow it to a T; it’s that you externalize and organize everything you have to get done. You can take the parts that work for you, and leave the rest.

“Give yourself a couple of hours and literally grab every single thing that has your attention,” he told me. “You don’t have to go very far—just start to notice what has your attention.”

The pros of externalizing everything on your plate outweigh the cons by a massive margin, but it’s important to be mindful that you don’t take this tactic—or any other tactic in this book—to the extreme. Productivity techniques exist to help you work smarter. But they’re only useful when you still do the work.

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