How I Harness the Power of Productivity
The key to productivity
The concept of productivity is an elusive one. Everyone has theories about productivity. What hinders it? How to increase it? Other than the usual, get enough sleep, etc, etc. There is one constant that is spoken about time and time again. Yet, it is considered poor practice when students do it. Leaving a task to the last minute.
Teachers and lecturers always said ‘this isn’t an assignment you can do on the day it’s due! Don’t leave it to the last minute’. However, everyone would have tried at least once. Often people report feeling more productive when they do leave it to the last day to complete a task.
Many of my friends from university would purposely leave their assignments to the last day because they work better under pressure. This got me thinking. Why is it that we feel we work better under pressure? Why do we more often than not choose to complete tasks at the last minute?
Is it because we are lazy?
Is it because we have poor time management skills?
Is the sense of urgency we feel near the end of the deadline the pressure we need to complete the task? As they say, diamonds are a chunk of coal that did well under pressure.
So, if it is the pressure aspect that enables us to get things done. How do we harness it?
Setting a timer
After, an accidental discovery — much like penicillin — I found out setting a timer gives the same sense of urgency as a deadline.
The amazing part was, it did not matter what the task was. It also did not matter I knew it was a self-set timer. Even knowing there were no consequences if I did not meet the deadline. It still worked.
I began to use it for University work, I would set a timer and let myself do as much of the assignment as I could in that time. When the timer was up, so was my time to do the assignment. As the timer rang, I would save my work and leave the computer to do something else.
I then wondered if it would work the same for other things, not just study.
Yes, it did. I started to use the timer for cleaning up around the house, reading a book, sorting out my budget. It worked. Every. Time.
When doesn’t the timer work?
However, I did find the timer works best when it is for short stints of time. Throughout my schooling, I would block out hours at a time to study. Every time I would sit down to study, I would end up procrastinating. Having this large amount of time of say 4 hours, felt like I had all day to get the study done.
Instead, if I set a 30-minute timer (even though I had 4 hours free to study) I found I was more focused. I even felt more determined. The sense of urgency from a shorter timed deadline made me type like mad.
Why does setting a timer work?
A lecturer of mine once said ‘this assignment will take you as long as the time Igive you to complete it. So, it is due this Friday’.
At first, I was confused by this statement. I knew all my previous lecturers gave us weeks to write a 1200 word essay. Yet, this lecturer was enforcing a deadline in a few days.
So, what happened?
Well, he was right. I completed the assignment by that Friday as he said I would. But why? Why can we complete a task in a few days that normally takes us weeks?
It comes down to the psychological perspective of the deadline.
I perceived the assignment could be done within that time because the lecturer told me so. Just like, when I was given assignments with a two-week deadline, it took me two weeks to complete.
The same was found at exam time. Some of my exams were held online and were open for 24 hours as a result of the Corona virus restrictions. The exams themselves were no longer but the lecturers were trying to be accommodating at this difficult time. All students were told that they were not expected to spend more than the 3 hours normally allocated to complete the exam.
However, it turned out students were spending more time on the exams that were open for longer than 3 hours. The lecturers advised this was likely because of the student’s perception of what was required. Students thought if the exam was open for 24 hours then they must spend that amount of time completing the exam. Even after being explicitly told to only spend the normal 3 hours on the exam.
If setting a timer can change your perspective about a task and possibly give you the power of productivity, will you give it a go?
Remember, it needs to be a short amount of time — 20 or 30 minutes. No longer or it will not work.
