The following series try to take a look at what productivity means for the modern human and what can you do to improve yours. Be warned though this is not a clickbait-y type of deal where you can read “The top 5 ways to boost your productivity” or rewording on some other BS. Newsflash, being productive is hard! The bulls**t detector is now on!
What is productivity anyway?
vocabulary.com defines productivity as:
If you’re productive, that means you do a lot — you create or produce large amounts of something. A productive worker makes more widgets than the shirker who keeps sneaking out to gossip and drink coffee.
The important thing here is that there is some result, something to show for after you are done being productive. This definition works great for factory workers or those that produce some quantity of something. What if you’re not? Here is a bit more from the same definition:
Productive can be used more broadly to describe something that produces a positive result.
For our purposes “positive result” means something that brings you closer to your goals. Then, we can define productivity as:
Being productive — doing things that progress you towards completing your goals
Ultimately, result is the thing that counts! Now that we have a working definition let’s take a look at an example:
Let’s say your goal is to become a surgeon. You have to choose from two tasks that you can do right now:
- Watch the new Deadpool movie
- Do a practice surgery
Which one should you choose? Well, the truth is nuanced… Doing the surgery is more likely to improve your surgery skills. Thus, you will be productive. Does watching the movie help you be productive? We don’t know. I will leave it at that for now.
Making progress
Based on our definition, you are productive if completing a task takes you closer to your goal! So, if you can’t measure your progress, you can’t say you’re productive. That is, you may or may not be productive when completing tasks for which you don’t know whether or not they contribute to progress toward your goal.
Remember, the paradox of progress might bite you, choose what you want to progress on wisely! More on that later.
Should you trust scientism or your grandmother?
Ok, but there must be some tips & tricks you can use to be more productive! And you know, the only way to get to them is to trust science! Unfortunately, there is too much scientism and a lot less science. And yes, most of those “science-based productivity tips” are a load of BS.
You can read more about recent efforts for replication on social-behavioural findings here:
The team found a statistically significant effect in the same direction as was observed in the original study, for 13 of the 21 papers. But the strength of the effect was often smaller than what was originally reported: by about 50%, on average.
We live in the real world where our resources are limited and the strength of the effect matter a lot. Scientism fails us once again. If you want to play a fun game, try it out here:
https://80000hours.org/psychology-replication-quiz/
So, you can’t trust some or most of those studies. What or who can you trust? Your grandmother!
The productivity expert
Wikipedia defines the Lindy effect as:
The Lindy effect is a concept that the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things like a technology or an idea is proportional to their current age, so that every additional period of survival implies a longer remaining life expectancy.
That is, “productivity tips” that survived the test of time (still around today) are more likely to be actually useful than some new BS journalling system with pretty sketches and beautifully crafted empty pages that will stay that way forever.
So, who is the real productivity expert? Some charlatan in a white coat, a self-proclaimed expert good for writing click-bait articles or your grandmother? You know who you need to talk to about productivity now!
Up next
Good, we covered some ground. In the next part, we’ll explore our common biases backed by your grandmother knowledge and how they might affect your productivity. Further, you’ll find out about a practical framework for tracking progress towards your goals and a bit more :)
