Four Productivity Killers

When it comes down to it, “productivity” seems to be all about how we spend our time.  We want to spend our time in a way that best brings about the things we care about.  Here are four things that can get in the way of productivity:

Doing an excellent job… on things that aren’t very important

It might seem that the most effective person would be the one who made sure things were done right.  After all, a great job is always better than a mediocre job, right?  This is true up to a point.  However, there is a fatal flaw in this reasoning, which is that it doesn’t consider that there is often a cost to doing a great job, which is often… spending more time on it.  Time isn’t free, and spending more time on something doesn’t just mean you’ll do a better job on that thing — it also means you’ll do something else less well, or not be able to do something else at all.  Bottom line:  spend a lot of time where it counts, and do an adequate job where it doesn’t count so much.

Doing things that improve our lives… a little bit

Doing things to better your life is of course a good thing, everything else being equal.  But again, there is a cost associated with doing something to improve you life, which is the time spent doing it.  Doing something that gives you a positive but small return may actually stand in the way of doing something that gives a bigger return.  Of course, some things we have no choice about — they must be done, even though we don’t get much out of them (unloading the dishwasher, for example).  But where we have a choice, not doing things that improve our lives a little may actually make time for doing things that improve our lives a lot.

Doing things we enjoy… a little bit

Continuing with our theme, anything that takes time has a cost.  Doing something you enjoy just a little bit can take time away from something you enjoy a lot.  For example, I enjoy checking the news online often during the day.  I’ve found that each time I check the news, I end up spending ten minutes or so reading news stories.  Over the course of a day, this adds up to a lot of time, and all I get out of it is… a very mild enjoyment.  This isn’t to say that taking a break isn’t important — it can be very useful to stop working and do something relaxing or unimportant for a bit to “recharge your batteries”.  But if something isn’t helping you be more productive later, and it’s not that enjoyable now, it might be hurting your productivity with little to show for it.

Doing things for others… because of social obligation and because we’re not assertive

Relationships are very important, and doing things for others can be among the most valuable things we do.  We may do things for others because we care about the other person, we get something valuable out of doing it ourselves, or because it’s a necessary part of our life (such as doing things for your boss at work).  These all make a lot of sense.  But there are other things that we do simply out of a sense of social obligation, because someone has asked us to do something (that may not even be important to them), and it can be difficult to say no without feeling uncomfortable or “looking like a jerk”.  Sometimes, you just don’t know how to say no without looking bad in an important relationship, and in such cases you may just have to give in.  But if the relationship isn’t especially important or (importantly) if you’re able to say no without coming across as a jerk, then being assertive can give you more time to do things that are important (for yourself or others).  So improving your skill at saying no without “looking like a jerk” can help you be more productive.

The bottom line may be that we should, but often don’t, take “the time it takes” into consideration when deciding what to do.  Additionally, we should probably consider the other things we won’t do in addition to the thing we’re currently considering doing or not doing.  The choice is often not between “doing a great job” and “doing a mediocre job” but rather between “doing a great job” and “doing a mediocre job PLUS getting something else done”.  Similarly, instead of a choice between “doing something I enjoy little” and “not doing something I enjoy a little”, there is instead a choice between “doing something I enjoy a little” and “not doing something I enjoy a little PLUS doing something I enjoy a lot”.