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Productivity Angels & Demons, Part 1

Written by: Donna Ann Peck 807 views

We know what it’s like to work hard all day without accomplishing much. Imagine, on the other hand, a morning filled with productivity with 100 percent of your focus on creative work. My clients tell me they envy people who can do this every day. My advice? If you want to overhaul your work schedule, intent on becoming more productive, first recognize your arch nemeses.

Whether you work at an office, a home office, or on the road, distractions stand between you and what you want to accomplish. You are in their grip when you feel you are accomplishing something, yet are curiously unmotivated to meet your deadlines. Distractions are like demons that fool you into thinking you’re productive when you are, in fact, entertaining yourself. Whether you call it “being inspired,” or “staying informed,” you are less productive without appearing to be so.

Productivity killers, time suckers—by any name—rob you of your creative spark.

Activities that make you feel like you are getting work done, but aren’t

The more online resources dominate your work routine, the less value they have. You could send hours reading RSS articles, squirreling away information that you never look at until it’s obsolete. One client spent four hours a day reading an average of 40 RSS articles in his email inbox. “It was quite a waste of time,” he said. The RSS demon tricks you into believing you’re being productive. When I first discovered RSS feeds, all the information I received made me a bit crazy. I’m interested in everything, so I kept checking my RSS folder for new articles.

Youtube and other forms of entertainment also trap your attention. The latest crop of games available for your smartphone can be dangerously hypnotic. Check out the Line Rider, a crude line-art game, to see what I mean. You draw a track, then send a rider along the ramps, hills, slopes you just created. Line Rider has a developed a cult following and users post  tracks on Youtube. Yes, having that Youtube button right in front of you can be more tempting than a mint julep on a hot summer’s day.

Stopping and starting all day means you are not going to get much done.

Any tool you use to communicate with others can easily squelch the creative spark. Cell phones, email, and instant messaging and other tools interrupt your workflow. Aside from the urgent message from a client, replying to emails as they come in is counter-productive. So is chatting online with colleagues.

Has your industry embraced social media? If Twitter and Facebook have become indispensable for networking with potential clients, you may leave them open all day. You are inviting distractions. If you spend all day intermittently reading posts and leaving comments, the only thing you’ll miss is your deadline.

Multitasking is a clever ruse to get you to think that by doing two things simultaneously, you win brownie points. If you multitask you are more likely to lose track of the next thing you are planning to do. Read the blogs at Zen Habits (posted by Zen to Done author Leo Babauta) and you’ll never multitask again.

What brings your productivity to a sputtering halt? What don’t you have the will power to resist? Share your demons, then read the post on Productivity Angels.

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