Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/874/
Obligatory link to The Ultimate Productivity Blog: https://productiveblog.tumblr.com/
What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
21–30 of 54 posts
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#22That's the thing about productivity - it's a very meta word since the human brain works non-stop since birth (some even say that before being born, the brain is still working).
Dossing about, loafing, or idling are not the work of the devil, they are necessary to getting things done since we need to pause and reflect, and conjure up ideas typically in silence.
My favorite phrase regarding this matter is as follows:
"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time".
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#23I'm at a stage in my life where I have a true love/hate relationship with productivity. I have a business, a job, two young children and there's this thing going on in the world that makes everything kind of strange and our of our control. Every time I read an article like this one, and this one isn't particularly good, if I may add, I feel like saying, yes, right, you go ahead and try that calendar blocking thing wi…
That, and being kind to myself when I have unproductive days, which is almost every day. I suffer from Insomnia, I have for many years, I'm up at 1am after a day which I let me discipline slide. I didn't feel as productive as I should've been today, So you know what I did? I worked till 8:30pm. I punished myself. I broke my new golden rule of getting off the computer by 6pm, which was working so well for me. Then wha…
Thanks for sharing. I think everyone here will recognize themselves, at least occasionally, in what you just wrote.
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#24If you want to try time-blocking: https://crushentropy.com/ It's like markdown for planning.
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#25IME the single greatest yes simplest productivity tip that can be applied in almost any situation or context: "If it's not a definite yes, then it's a no." Everything else I've found is noise.
My greatest "productivity" improvement over the years is exactly this. Learning how to tell others (and myself) diplomatically "no". I used to take on, and create for myself, endless projects to "work on" and felt like I never accomplished anything. Paring down to the most important and fulfilling projects (and not trying to be everything to everybody) has improved things significantly.
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like individual productivity is a pretty much solved problem and comes down to sitting on your ass and doing the actual work (yes, I sometimes have trouble doing that, but in the end 'just sit down and start doing it' is the best advice to listen to).
For me the harder problem with productivity is often picking the right work to do, and balancing that with analysis paralysis.
The GTD method got me past this problem. Don't get overly complicated with it -- just do the basics, and add/subtract as you see fit. Changed my life.
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#27That's the thing about productivity - it's a very meta word since the human brain works non-stop since birth (some even say that before being born, the brain is still working). Dossing about, loafing, or idling are not the work of the devil, they are necessary to getting things done since we need to pause and reflect, and conjure up ideas typically in silence. My favorite phrase regarding this matter is as follows: "…
Or in the words of John Lennon " Time wasted is time well spent"
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Productivity was something I struggled with for many years. At times I was the best employee, and others the worst. Have a tricky problem to solve? Or a complicated architecture. I was the right guy for the job. Need to build 200 variations of the same feature. I was horrible. Chief problem being that anything boring was physically painful to me. Pair programming helped a lot, but those gigs are hard to find. Eventua…
Would you say that with the help of medication you learned to focus?
Yes.
It’s still hard without it. If I could tolerate the side effects I would continue to take medication. But I at least now know what it feels like to stay on task.
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
That, and being kind to myself when I have unproductive days, which is almost every day. I suffer from Insomnia, I have for many years, I'm up at 1am after a day which I let me discipline slide. I didn't feel as productive as I should've been today, So you know what I did? I worked till 8:30pm. I punished myself. I broke my new golden rule of getting off the computer by 6pm, which was working so well for me. Then wha…
Thanks for sharing. I think everyone here will recognize themselves, at least occasionally, in what you just wrote.
No. This is just basic life skills. Taking care of yourself is your highest priority. This means keeping your company life and your personal life completely airgapped, using a specific work phone and a specific work computer so nothing bleeds over.
At 5 pm or earlier you stop working. Then you focus on relaxing as much as possible to recharge. If you have kids, it's harder but it's even more important you learn to relax and recharge because they depend on you.
Re: What I Learned About Productivity by Writing About Productivity
#30"Productivity" has been fully productized to the extent that there are paid tools built around methodologies like bullet journaling, lists, zettelkasten, spaced repetition, pomodoro timers, stoicism etc.
The end result of which is an ocean of SEO blogspam written by the the purveyors of such tools, reducing the signal-to-noise ratio the well below the threshold of usability.
I find that in my 30s, the solution for productivity woes is much the same as the ancient wisdom of my parents' computer-free generation:
(i) ensure decent nutrition and sleep
(ii) step away from the screens periodically
(iii) spend time outdoors
(iv) review your goals at the start of each day
(v) perfection is rarely necessary