A Theory Of Productivity
A unique take on what makes “the world go around”.
There are interesting parallels between your high school physics class and the habits and “choices” that control your everyday life.
This post is a fun observation about productivity and mental concepts that I’m sure there are in-depth psychological explanations for but I prefer to sometimes think about them in this way for a more relatable reference point.
Do you ever find yourself reading a great piece of advice but not putting it to use?
Do you ever find yourself trying to remember what it is that you read last year that you know is applicable to a conversation but you can’t quite remember?
Do you ever find yourself re-learning lessons you’ve already learned the hard way?
Memory is an interesting beast. I’m not particularly good at remembering things naturally. At least when it comes to some courses with school I would actually say I’m below average when it comes to memorizing facts and figures. I’m also no neuroscientist — but after focusing on my own productivity for the past two years I’ve found some interesting patterns in how I learn large, complicated concepts and memorize specific facts.
I like to think that memory naturally models the concept of half-life in Chemistry, where the concept or idea that you hold on to conceptually decays over time.
As time (t) increases, the idea decays at an exponential rate.
There are things you can do to both catalyze the rate at which you forget (like poor memorization techniques) and also hold on to concepts and figures for a longer period of time. Below are some of the tactics I use to extend the half life of ideas:
- Provide a web of context to whatever you’re learning: When we tie concepts and facts together we subsequently remember all over a longer period of time because we’re “refreshing” both when we call any single one.
- Cheat Sheet: Short lists, rules of thumb, and omitting irrelevant details can be a good way to eliminate the amount of memorizing you have to do. Making cheat sheets also force you to make your information at hand more concise.
- Nuclear options: re-reading, reminders, and repetition definitely have it’s place within all of this. But there are some great books available to help with memorization via simple and advanced tactics.
Gravity of The Mind & Environment
Gravity is a hard thing to shake off. Quite literally, and in this case, figuratively.
In this case, we’re talking about the impact that one’s environment has on their decisions, habits, and outcomes.
For example:
Who do you think will eat healthier amount: those who live on a campus that has serves food on trays to fit 2 plates or 5?
Who do you think will stay more organized: those who live with a cleaner roommate or messier one?
Who do you think will go to the gym more often? Those who have a car or those who have to walk?
I really believe as humans we undervalue the effect that the initial conditions we create for ourselves have on the outcome of the things we do every single day.
The Butterfly effect isn’t a theory that was drawn up out of thin air. Small details can have a big weight in the outcome of a situation — though it’s often difficult to track. Here’s a cool example, though, from the game EVE Online:
So given that small changes can have a large effect on the outcome of things, what can we do to help combat it to make sure we end up where we intend, or at least in a good place?
Create systems that pull your mind, similar to a pull of gravity, in that the goal is to keep close to your goals by setting up systems and habits that keep you orbiting them.
Gravity is going to force you to take the path of least resistance. You need to create an artificial force that is greater than that to help you swim upstream and keep orbiting the things that are important to you. Maybe, if you create a force that is strong enough, you’ll attract others to do the same.
Nobody ever accomplished great things by swimming downstream.
Newton’s 3 Laws of Productivity
I. A person in motion stays in motion, unless acted on by an outside force. A person at rest stays at rest, unless acted on by an outside force.
II. The relationship between an habits’s weighted importance m, its time that it’s been a habit, a, and the applied impact F, is F = ma.
III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
