You don’t have to be productive. Here’s why.
This is a story about counter-productive nature of our desire to be productive all the time. I realized how draining the obsession with productivity is and I remembered my college days and realized something amazing…
10 years ago
I was doing my undergrad in civil engineering in Belgrade. Most of the written exams were 4 hours long. So I trained.
I would set a 4-hour chunk of uninterrupted time, give myself the set of exam-like problems and I worked. 4 hours, straight. Multiple times before each exam. It was hard. But it was the best way to prepare. People who practiced in shorter chunks, or who only read problems typically lost their focus during the 4-hour time period. But not me. I trained hard.
At a certain point, I was not only able to sustain my focus during 4 hours but to solve problems and calculate without errors, double-checking or correcting anything. It is amazing what a well trained human mind can do.
All of this was right before the fast Internet and smartphones became widely available (at least in Serbia), before Facebook, Twitter and other social networks became crazy popular, before our inboxes became way too cluttered. I had my 4-hour chunks of time when I worked diligently on solving hard problems.
6 months ago
I graduated, worked in a few companies, decided to come to the US for grad school. In a meantime, the world has radically changed: economic crisis hit, technology became more affordable and widely available than ever, job market changed substantially, the world became more connected than ever. And all of the changes radically shifted the way we live, think and work.
I forgot about 4-hour chunks of the uninterrupted time. Instead, I was multitasking.
As soon I tackle something important, an urgent email would pop into my inbox and I would quit whatever I’m doing to respond. Other times, colleagues would ask me something and I would drop everything to help them. Because that’s what good coworkers do, right? I would make a huge list of tasks and jump from one to another, hoping to finish all of them within a day. Often, I would do something aside from my to-do list and would add it to my to-do list anyway, just for the pleasure of crossing it off.
I wanted to be productive. I wanted to have the reputation of getting the shit done. I think I was already pretty good. Except…
My attention span became narrower and narrower. Soon enough, I was unable to focus on anything for more than 5 to 10 minutes.
Everything became boring and I tended to ease the boredom by email checking or jumping onto the next task. I tried to finish everything as quickly as possible because that is what productive people do. I installed the work email on my phone so that I could check it quickly and feel relieved realizing that no one is asking anything of me. I was involved on multiple projects and I was juggling the best I could.
I was trying to be busy a whole day long. And then at home, I could not get a good rest. Obsessive social network checking was part of the reason. I felt that I should work more (in grad school we are told that we have to work 24/7 (how?), which probably means that however much we work is not enough).
I felt torn between the ever present message to work more and my undeniable tiredness. Emails were a big source of my anxiety. Because of the lack of focus, I started making mistakes. Deep down I knew that my busy work was not a quality work. So I knew had to work more. But I needed rest so desperately. I hit a horrible crisis and I needed help and change. Here is what I realized:
My desire to be productive made me hate my work
Because I wanted to get EVERYTHING done, I started observing my tasks as a bunch of undesirable items I should get rid of a quickly as possible. As if these were never supposed to be there. Full to-do list looked disturbing and invoked panic. So I did everything panicky. Emails added up to that feeling.
I stopped enjoying my work. I wanted to find quicker ways, hacks, I wanted it all to magically go away so I can go home. Alas, it was not possible.
I had to change my approach to work. Here are a few solutions that worked out.
Solution 1: Deep work
When I first heard about Cal Newport’s work, I became obsessed. I realized how we all started working in a wrong way as the technology became an essential part of our lives. We let emails, texts, and notifications interrupt the flow of our thoughts. And it takes us 20ish minutes to go back to the old task, while still having “the attention residues” from the interruption, as Dr. Newport says.
Big, important, revolutionary work has to be “the deep work”. The work that has the value. Shallow work will help you not to get fired, while the deep work will help you advance and get promoted. Deep work is a focused, meditative practice when you work on something challenging and you dive deeper and deeper, despite the boredom and discomfort. That is the hardest and, ultimately, the most valuable type of work. Cal Newport says that the skill of deep work is becoming rare because people are more distracted than ever. Deep work will not only take you far, but it will also make you satisfied and proud.
We all work in different environments, but we can all do a little something to incorporate a bit more of a deep work in our lives. For instance:
1) Remove the notifications from your phone
2) Try Facebook diet
3) Kill yourself on one social network
4) Check emails on predetermined times during the day, don’t have it open all the time
5) Don’t start your day with emails and social media
6) Don’t end your day with emails and social media
7) Start with short deep work sessions and then extend them
8) Embrace the boredom
9) Work focused and then rest without guilt
10) Stop being too available to everyone
Solution 2: Focus on process, not on the outcomes
I am a researcher, which may sound fancy, but actually, means that I don’t know what I am doing most of my time. I am trying to do things that people have never done before. If you are an artist or an entrepreneur, you are on a similar quest. We can not follow blueprints, step-by-step procedures because there is no such a thing. That’s why it’s not easy to measure our productivity and put our daily tasks on a to-do list.
Sometimes hours of my literature review don’t yield any results or new ideas. Does it mean that I am not productive? Does it mean that my work was worthless because I did not “get the shit done”? No. It may seem so, but the work process, with straying, failing and hitting the walls is precious. And the fact that I did not get the shit done might mean that the problem is really difficult and that I have to come back again.
I recently heard an interview with Tom Sterner on UnmistakableCreative, and he said that we have “a taught bottom line mentality”. We are obsessed with the goals and final outcomes so much so that we consider the process of working on the goal as a nuisance, a frog we have to swallow to get to what we want.
Ironically, the process of working on the goal is where all the value is coming from, because it involves an expansion of our skills and abilities. Screw the productivity. Focus on the work process itself. Work diligently, with devotion and come back the next day.
Solution 3: Love the process
We are anxious and nervous when we’re frantically trying to juggle too many plates. We feel inadequate. We have the need to prove ourselves, to have the productivity as our badge of honor. On the other hand, we are truly happy when we are challenged and immersed into something deeply.
Course in Miracles says: “Shower your problems with love.” I say do this to your work, too. The program does not work? Say: “Hmm, OK. That’s interesting. Let me try something else.” Don’t know how to finish the post? Instead of just scribbling whatever and hitting ‘Publish’, give yourself a break, give your thoughts time to marinate, try to write 10 ideas. Writing challenge is not your enemy, but your lesson. Be curious, be devoted, be determined, believe that there is a solution. Allow yourself to immerse, to be challenged,dumb, unproductive. Love your work. (I still remember my 4-hour sessions with a sense of peace and joy.)
When we love and enjoy something, we are much more likely to work just a little bit longer, push just a little bit harder, call one more person, open up something magical, go to the places people did not go before because they gave up too soon. That is how you will make big and important things happen. That is your mission, my dear.
Action
Now is your turn. Do you have an experience of the desire for productivity being counter-productive? Do you think we should focus on other things rather than productivity? Let me know in the comments below.
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