Productivity Tricks
I've read lots of "time management" books over the years, and there are two that stand heads above the rest: Getting Things Done by David Allen and Put More Time in Your Life by Dru Scott. Neither of them deals with the traditional strategies of writing a to-do list every day or prioritizing things as A-B-C (an approach that never seemed to work for me). I've tried time-logging, using daytimers, and so forth, but such programs never deal with the real problems around getting what all of us really want, i.e., peace and results, outcomes which are often presented as options between which we have to choose. I've never accepted that dichotomy. I've always believed that there is a way to have them both.
Dru Scott came into my life long before Allen. What I learned from her was that the real source of a lot of our productivity issues is the illusion that when we stopped being six years old, we also stopped being a six-year-old. Just because we have this bigger, stronger body doesn't mean the "inner child" (my apologies to all who had WAY too much of that in the 70's and 80's) has just gone away. That little kid keeps showing up, and he WILL have his way. So we learn to take care of the kid, to negotiate just like we do with the small six-year-olds, so that we can get some adult stuff done. It's not useful to punish that child or to make stern demands. It's not even about "discipline." It's more about finding ways to get real needs met so we can more effortlessly get stuff done.
Allen addresses the pitfalls created by unnatural systems that just don't work. Things like A-B-C prioritization SEEM to make sense, but they miss the essential way that people naturally get things done. How do you "A-B-C" 250 plus emails a day? How do you "A-B-C" the kid's recital, the boss's demands, and your love life? Life just doesn't work that way. The stress is still there. Some of Allen's genius is developing organic and natural ways of sorting things as they come in so that you can deal with them in the way you actually live your life. It requires some serious rethinking of how things work; but, when you get it, things are totally different.
When I've introduced new ways of thinking like Scott's and Allen's to people I work with it's both fun and amazing to see them change. Sometimes it's like watching someone age backwards as the stress falls away. Often they are simultaneously giddy and puzzled as they find themselves moving faster, more easily, and more enjoyably though projects and goals. More than once I've done a summary of what someone accomplished over a three month period and their jaw has dropped visibly.
That's really fun!
Dru Scott came into my life long before Allen. What I learned from her was that the real source of a lot of our productivity issues is the illusion that when we stopped being six years old, we also stopped being a six-year-old. Just because we have this bigger, stronger body doesn't mean the "inner child" (my apologies to all who had WAY too much of that in the 70's and 80's) has just gone away. That little kid keeps showing up, and he WILL have his way. So we learn to take care of the kid, to negotiate just like we do with the small six-year-olds, so that we can get some adult stuff done. It's not useful to punish that child or to make stern demands. It's not even about "discipline." It's more about finding ways to get real needs met so we can more effortlessly get stuff done.
Allen addresses the pitfalls created by unnatural systems that just don't work. Things like A-B-C prioritization SEEM to make sense, but they miss the essential way that people naturally get things done. How do you "A-B-C" 250 plus emails a day? How do you "A-B-C" the kid's recital, the boss's demands, and your love life? Life just doesn't work that way. The stress is still there. Some of Allen's genius is developing organic and natural ways of sorting things as they come in so that you can deal with them in the way you actually live your life. It requires some serious rethinking of how things work; but, when you get it, things are totally different.
When I've introduced new ways of thinking like Scott's and Allen's to people I work with it's both fun and amazing to see them change. Sometimes it's like watching someone age backwards as the stress falls away. Often they are simultaneously giddy and puzzled as they find themselves moving faster, more easily, and more enjoyably though projects and goals. More than once I've done a summary of what someone accomplished over a three month period and their jaw has dropped visibly.
That's really fun!
Labels: Productivity, Tool Bag
