I actually found myself getting annoyed the other day, reading a post on productivity. The author was telling me I needed to audit and account for every single hour of my day and ask myself If I really should be doing this.
No.
Honestly if you were to work like this you may as well work for a big corporation where you can save yourself the hassle of having to audit your time – as some jerk of a manager will do it for you.
If you’re boring, predictable and don’t enjoy having fun, then you should follow this advice. But i’m sure your not. Come on guys, isn’t this taking productivity too far? You’ll end up spending your entire day “being productive” without actually achieving anything.
I think people often get a little carried away with productivity and getting things done. But at the end of the day, if you’re not enjoying yourself whats the point!
You can still be productive while having fun – and you definitely don’t need to constnatly audit yourself. In fact I actively encourage, what you may call procrastination. I find I work best at night, so I spend the day on Twitter, power napping, reading and at the moment, playing Christmas Tree Pinball (tis the season and all). I then churn through my work at night, with ease.
If you force yourself to account for every single minute of your waking day, instead of being productive you’ll probably have the opposite effect. Chill out a bit. Rather than this stupid auditing crap, come up with 3 tasks that are most important to your success. Do each one first thing in the day (my day is backwards btw, as in my day starts at around 9pm at night, im a bit wierd). Take a break in between each task and then feel free to procrastinate after.
I guarantee that if you follow this laid back approach for 6 months, you will have achieved more than the anal productivity nerd who is constantly fighting with him/herself to audit time.
Let me know in the comments if you think i’m wrong
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Couldn’t agree with you more.
It’s hard to be creative when you have boxed your life into tasks..
I with you Anthony. I’m all about ways to improve the way we work – including ways to enjoy it more, but the incessant productivity mantra is probably perpetrated by bored people killing time.
“Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things”
~ Robert Heinlein
PS. It’s slightly ironic that you’re the founder of a web based reminder tool….I hope it doesn’t remind me to be more productive!
Theres nothing wrong with being productive….i’m just against taking it to far.
btw. Task.fm is a lazy mans productivity tool
I am one of those guys working for a jerk manager. Every morning I spend time on the most important task, for the rest of the day I can ‘procrastinate’ (thanks for the new word, now my hobby has a name).
At home I spend 20 minutes a day on stuff that needs being done. After that I procreastinate again.
You’re only wasting time if you forget to enjoy it!
“You’re only wasting time if you forget to enjoy it!”
couldn’t agree more Mark!
I always felt like that advice was only a good idea for people with real time management issues, who truly have no idea where their time goes – much like the similar advice of tracking every penny for people with serious money management problems. If you’re already reasonably productive and just looking for another 10% (or whatever), the ROI on auditing just isn’t there.
I always fight with the thought of productivity apps for this reason. I like to act in the moment. The days when I have the most fun are the days that I am the most productive.
Great post.
I disagree. When you quantify and track your life, you will capture patterns and themes that you will not notice in present.
http://quantifiedself.com/
You may be very surprised. When you review to find out lessons that have slipped right under our noses, due to the nature of short-term memory that forgets most experiences we don’t deem to be important.
I believe there is a big difference between reflecting on your life and auditing your time. I’m big into data – as a UI designer data is all I look at each day. But if you get caught up on it, you forgetting about living.
One could spend their entire lives, gathering as much data as they can, analyzing patterns and trends in order to find happiness. Or one could stop the chasing, and just enjoy the moment right now – whether its the most efficent, or best thing you could be doing, it doesn’t matter.
No amount of data will make you happy (in fact it probably has the opposite effect).
A mechanical managed life makes you a narrow-minded paper pusher. Killing excitement really kills productivity (achievement).
best productivity advice for me is “Rest more”
<3
Definitely go with the more laid back approach. Yeah if you’re working on a big project 24/7 focus may be needed at times but if you get to focused in on something all day every day I find that it becomes monotonous and you actually loose your focus and creativity. Anyway sometimes you just get more done by getting away from it all! Things just come to me when I’m off enjoying myself or relaxing not thinking about whilst I could be stuck in a thought rut for hours getting nowhere if I’m at something 24/7!
Good post btw!
Enda
Anthony, thanks for setting our minds straight again – life is about living and not about accounting. Or as Lennon said “Life is what happens, when you are busy making other plans”. Physiology knows that muscles are most effective when they are coming from a relaxed state. A cramped muscle is indeed very ineffective. And it is the same with the mind and our productivity capacity. From a relaxed mind can come focus and the joy to work. Or why is it proven that most workers in cubicle nation only do real work 10% (or less) of the time – it doesn’t feel right to be there for most of them.
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