The most overlooked productivity hack that always gets results
A simple outlook that is hindering you from getting on top of it all
At the introduction of computers, we pondered what would become of all our spare time arising from the time saving they would have on our workload. Yet despite getting previous tasks done in a fraction of the time, we are busier than ever. Here is where we collectively went wrong and how we can right it.
The simple math equation we oddly continue to overlook is that the more you do, the more there is to do.
Consider ‘Inbox Zero’ as an example, where you work to keep an empty inbox most of the time, aiming for daily, if not weekly. The idea is to respond to emails upon first reading, to get us out of the habit of holding off on actioning emails, resulting in having to go back and re-read old emails repeatedly before actioning them. Whilst this change has an obvious time-saving strategy, it ignores responses that need consideration, research or other party involvement. But the glaringly obvious main issue is that the math doesn’t add up. Inbox Zero requires an inbox that only allows in emails that will generate the specific amount of work you can fit into each day. Whereas an inbox has no such parameters, and its storage limit, in workload terms, is excessively large. Compounding this problem is that the more emails you send, the more will come back. For example, if you send 50 emails a day and 40 need responses, then that is 40 actions to return. Suppose you suddenly power yourself up to address all 100 emails that come in. In that case, you suddenly have 80 reply actions coming back to you in the same time period where you once got 40. And, if you become known as someone who answers emails promptly, people will soon become more likely to send more to you, hoping for your quick action, in turn creating an efficiency trap you have made for yourself.
The very reality we turn from is that each of us has more Should Dos than we Can Do. Yet, with insanity, we push ourselves as if our 24-hour day will magically expand if only we knuckle down.
The societal pressure to act as though it is possible to push through, to bunker down, to cram it in comes with a crushing intensity leading us to avoid the reality of our ignorance. Ignorance of the life we are unenjoyably living as a result. We have our heads stuck in the cloud of tomorrow, thinking that one day after we get on top of it, we will get to that life we are working so hard towards. Whereas, in fact, we are living our life now in this denial of what it actually is.
There is an unlimited number of tasks to do at home and at work. There is an unlimited number of places to visit and things to experience. However, there is a very finite amount of things we can do and enjoy well in this life. If we continue to ignore our finitude, we are at risk of fritting life away on a lot of small things, and fewer meaningful things can do intentionally well.
The challenge that stands in our way of living in the now is the ability to be ok with what we don’t do. For it is in letting things pass us by that, we stay focused on the few things that fit into our day. It is in the truth of what cannot be done we find ourselves in the life we have been reserving for the tomorrow that never comes.
Today is all we have. If you want to work on or do something, you can only really do it today. You are here now, and if you want to do it, you simply have to. That is how you find your focus in this ever-propelling storm of efficiency traps that will keep your feet firmly on the ground of life and not swept up in sacrificing it to those that yell the loudest, for they won’t stop. It is your job to say no uncomfortably, time and time again, to be able to say yes to the few things you choose to do well.
The only person who can stand up for what you want to do is you doing it at the sacrifice of everything else you could be doing.