The Wrong Approach to Getting Things Done and How to Fix it
The worst productivity advice you’ll ever receive!
Have you ever heard productivity tips from experts that sound cool, look logical, and make sense, and then you tried it, and then you are like no this doesn’t for me there are some ways around it?
Don’t worry, Today we are going to break down why this advice doesn’t work and what to do instead.
1. Eat That Frog
It is an analogy that came from Mark Twain. He once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day”. Which means ‘to be a productive person do the thing which you least wanted to do first.’
Sure it sounds reasonable strategy. But the problem is that sometimes the hardest to do can take you back time-wise and off the track. This might decrease your hopes of a productive day.
The FIX
Instead of tackling the most daunting task first start building momentum with smaller and easier tasks and then plug in the hard things later.
Bonus: Have a specific blocked hour for such hard things it doesn’t matter whether it gets completed or not, have a resistance hour dedicated to all the boring tasks, just take baby steps and chip it away.
2. Batch Everything
Batching means doing all similar tasks together. you might batch your homework, emails, etc.
This is a piece of good advice that gets worse when you try to apply it to bigger tasks have more steps and are complex because that’s when it stops working.
The Fix
To batch consider cutting that difficult project into smaller bite-sized to-dos that you can tackle individually and then batch those steps. For instance, “writing a book” is too daunting.
So, breaking that big task up into smaller ones like, “research ideas,” “make chapter outlines,” and “contact agents.” is totally doable. You are in the same state of mind as you outline those videos so your brain gets used to similar tasks and with less effort, it does more work in less time. So you are not switching contexts.
3. Have a System not Goals
This advice came from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, in an article in which people missed the caveat that goals are stills pretty relevant and you don’t want to focus on them, just shift your attention.
Goals are still relevant, they are still necessary. Systems are just an accompaniment to goals. They support your goals they are not the replacement for the goals. if you are setting up systems, and making all the resources available but if you don’t have the purpose to achieve any end results then I don’t think there is any use in building that system.
The Fix
I understand goals are sometimes intermediating and discouraging so here is an alternative to it. Create an area of focus, not goals, so this is like you allocate your time to maybe friendship, finances, traveling and then you can create those systems to support those areas of focus. what it does is that it detaches you from the outcome but it gives you a direction You’ll get there how you wanna get there.
4. Stop Multi-Tasking
Multi-tasking means doing more than one thing at one time. Many experts say that it reduces productivity but for some people stress actually pushes you to become productive. For example, have you ever noticed how if you know you need to get a certain amount of stuff done in a short time, you’ll figure out a way to do it? Research has shown that multitasking also increases creativity.
Multitasking –> Activation –> Cognitive flexibility –> Creativity
The Fix
Be selective with complementary tasks. For Instance, commuting is a great time to listen to your favorite music or podcast, or audiobooks, or have a call with your friends and family.
Sure, this is technically doing two tasks at once. But you don’t need the same resource for both. This means walking or driving and listening is a productive ways to multitask because these two tasks complement each other.
Alternatively, something like talking on the phone and writing an article like this isn’t a great multitasking pair because it’s just too hard to split your brain across those two things.
Wrap Up
Don’t believe everything you Read, Watch, or Hear. Try it yourself and then figure out, Is this advice actually for you?
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Have a nice day!