30 Days of Bottlenecks — What did I learn
I typically run these 30-day trials on things I’m testing out to see if I could use them in my GTD system. Below is what I learned in the past 30 days focusing on my Bottlenecks.
I’m a technician by trade, so anytime someone has a new tool at work all the guys swoon over it especially if they’ve never seen it before. Tool guys know what I’m talking about. So when I heard author Dickie Bush talking about “bottlenecks” on Ali Abdaal’s podcast, I was immediately intrigued. A new productivity tool, swoon.
In the video Bush is using the concept of bottlenecks toward personal productivity and how he uses it to increase his effectiveness.
Definition of a bottleneck — A part in a process where the flow of work becomes delayed or breaks down completely.
Bottlenecks are commonly associated when it comes to production. It’s the part of the production line where things start backing up. If everything on the production line is working at 120% and one machine is only working at 70%, then 70% is the pace of the line. And that machine will be the cause of the bottleneck.
Now a bottleneck doesn’t have to be something you are building.
A bottleneck could be:
- a person
- equipment
- An app
- A process
- Behavior
- Mood
- Habit
Maybe it’s a boss
- An employee
- Or a morning routine
- A slow note-taking app
- A messy house
- Inadequate training
- Sleeping late
The loose definition is the thing that is keeping the pace of your productivity. The question that must be asked daily is, “What or who is slowing down production?”
This was the first thing I tested. I made a list of all the things that slowed down my daily productivity. Watching TV, repeating trips to the market, dealing with ants in the kitchen, over eating, and feeling lethargic. The list was extensive. But I didn’t want to miss anything.
First Discovery
I soon realized that I had to narrow my focus if I wanted to get any benefit from a 30-day trial. So I only focused on my writing. I wanted to see if I could use this concept on my writing workflow.
Looking over my workflow I started timing each section to see what took the longest. Ideas and concepts were easy and weren’t a problem. I could outline fairly quickly. Posting and publishing are mechanical tasks and could be done easily with mid-level mental energy. It’s the actual writing that takes the longest. That was the first bottleneck.
So I asked myself, what is it about the writing that’s taking me so long? And it turns out it’s multiple things that cause the slow down. The first insight was that not all days are writing days. Some days I’m busy in other areas of life and time to write is just not possible. Now I’ll cover prioritizing in another post but for now, the insight was not to count days that were assigned to something of equal or more importance: only count the opportunities you have.
When I do have the time, why wasn’t I taking it?
The second issue was having the time but not taking advantage of it. Things would come up, distractions, procrastination, energy levels and the time to write would come and go.
The problem was with sequencing my work.
I was getting upset with all these things that were stealing my time but in reality, if I just sequenced the work properly, then I’d have the “free time” I wanted. So the problem wasn’t time, it’s clearing your space to do the work.
Distractions — I would touch base with my usual distractions before I sat down to write. A quick call to get current and then something along the lines of, “I got to get to work, I’ll call you later.” This would punt their next distraction until later.
Procrastination —my focus was to write a blog post but instead I focused on another writing project. Still writing but just not for the right thing. If my mind needed to get something down before my muse disappeared then I’d welcome the spark of creativity over the mechanical. It’s a trade-off and as long as the trade is on the positive end, then I count it as a win.
Energy Levels — at the end of my work day, after a workout or after lunch was the worst time to schedule a writing session. I would be too tired or too full to think. This made me think of my time like real estate, some times are more valuable than others. This highlighted the opportunity cost associated with times of the day. The hours right after I wake up are my peak times to get my best writing in. After that, all other times are the same.
Bush explained in the video that the first bottleneck is a kind of “ignorance tax,” that you don’t know what you don’t know. Then after that initial phase, you discover that there are really two questions that you come across:
- You either don’t know what to do or
- You do, but you ask: Why am I not doing it?
Often we know what must be done but for some reason, we still don’t do it.
This led to the current discovery, which was more of a doorway than a destination. The question of, “How to get myself to do what I wanted to do?”
I think that’s the ultimate question as we as productivity enthusiasts are always looking for ways to kick our own butts and get us working on things. One major connection that I made was the similarity between this bottleneck concept and the main question in the book “The One Thing.”
The One Thing vs the Bottleneck Concept
Playing with the bottleneck concept, I see similarities with the book, “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan.
In their book, they also focus on one thing but it’s more so goal setting, whereas bottleneck thinking focuses on the ground-level production line. I see both concepts being used as each creates clean bookends to your productivity system. One that focuses on the front end and one that picks up the back end.
I’ll continue to use this method and see where it takes me.
If you want to learn more here is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYhlnpvCKm8&t=2109s
