Slaying your productivity dragon
The first whole week of January has come and gone, and with it has come the usual hum of the knowledge worker. Knowledge work, a term I first heard from Cal Newport, describes roles that require thinking and problem-solving rather than manual labour. Within these roles, the return to normalcy has meant emails, meetings, and instant messenger notifications galore. But what if there was a better way? What if this new year, we, as knowledge workers in the digital age, sought out a better, deeper way to engage with our work?
I've heard three interrelated expressions that get to the heart of this incessant need to be connected and respond to the deluge of digital communication.
The first is “productivity raindances”, by Chris Williamson, which essentially captures the notion of carelessly working to create more inputs that look useful without considering whether they are driving your desired outcomes. If you want to see whether you are succumbing to these rituals, Williamson suggests you ask:
1. “What do I do that I think is productive but isn’t?”
2. “What do I do that I don’t think is productive but actually is?”
In the linked blog post, he provides some examples from his life, which include:
“Sitting at my desk when I’m not working, being on calls with no actual objective, keeping Slack notifications at zero, sitting on email trying to get the Unread number down.”
“Saying yes to a random dinner when someone is coming through town, organising meet-ups with friends from different social groups, walking without anything in my ears, reading, visiting new places.”
The second is Cal Newport’s “pseudo-productivity”, which he outlines in his book Slow Productivity. This also gets to the route of the problem, which as Newport puts it is “busyness for the sake of busyness”. Knowledge workers are cranking out these digital widgets, with a semblance of achieving something, without critically considering whether they help move the needle forward on the things that matter.
The final idea, “facing the productivity dragon”, again by Newport recommends that knowledge workers ditch the rituals and busywork and confront the reality of what is actually on their plate.
In my view, the first step to slaying your own dragon is to understand the things getting you bogged down.
Knowledge workers today are succumbing to “the efficiency trap”, which I first heard from Oliver Burkeman when he appeared on a podcast — but I can't quite remember the exact episode. Email is a classic example of this common pitfall. The sooner you reply, the more emails you are likely to get. People will come to know you as the person who replies quickly and will come to you more often than they might seek their desired outcome through other means.
Similarly, we all give in to the affect heuristic, which I first read about in Thinking, Fast and Slow by the late Daniel Kahneman. We all make judgments based on our first emotional response. This shortcut means that emotions (e.g., pleasure or pain) drive our decisions instead of careful consideration.
These are just some of the many common pitfalls (happy to write more of them down if that is of interest to you). Next, here are a few tactical strategies to fight back against the dragon — these are by no means the only options. Take what inspires you and discard the rest.
Set a specific block for answering emails/instant messages. The worst thing you can do is constantly switch tasks, which is what having email and instant messenger open all the time is encouraging. Close these applications during bouts of work that matter. If needed, set an out-of-office message with the times you will be checking, and give the would-be messenger a phone number to call in an emergency. This will quell most of the concerns of people who work with you and will significantly improve your focus as you dive deeply into a project without the constant hum of messages — and most people will not call, as this takes more work on their end than sending a quick email.
Pick the right tool. For example, Newport suggests using email if a single message can clear the task at hand. If you need to go back and forth, by email, to get the job done, consider getting on a call or meeting in person (with a clear agenda) to complete the task. Another common pitfall is using email to go back and forth to schedule a meeting. Set up a booking page (most email providers have one directly built in now), or when you send your message, suggest a few times and dates that work for you if it is only with one other person.
Accept that you will never attain complete control. Inbox zero is not a good goal. It can never be accomplished; either you would need everyone to stop emailing you for good, or you will be plagued forever trying to keep your inbox clean. Read the messages and determine whether you will respond. Just because someone emails you does not mean you owe them a response. Even though inbox zero is not sustainable, Jesse Itzler put forward this great idea of deleting all the messages in your inbox to start the year fresh. Be warned, this has risks —as in his case, he didn't read the messages, and something could fall through the cracks — but if you are buried under a mound of emails, this could be the needed rescue.
Shifting gears, my humble contribution to these great ideas is to think of your dragon as a Hydra. In Greek mythology, the Hydra is infamous for its ability to regrow two heads for each one you cut off. Email, instant messenger, and meetings may be some of the heads of the current iteration of your Hydra — but if you are not mindful, others will pop up as you slay them. Unless you fill your time with what you find meaningful, your Hydra is likely to reappear armed with new heads to pull you away from what matters.
“What’s one thing you could do today that would constitute a good-enough use of a chunk of your finite time?”
I love that question by Burkeman as it centers my focus on what matters. Hopefully, you can use it to vanquish your productivity Hydra, too.
Take care,
Emanuel