ProdPod, a Productivity Podcast
Business
There was a time when I started first studying psychology and its relationship to my personal productivity when I thought my "productivity system" meant automation. Boy, was I sadly mistaken! It took me a long time (18 months to be exact) to figure out that my productivity system wasn't all about automating my life. It turns out that DOING was a huge part of my productivity system, and *I* had to do the DOING. What a shock to my system this was when I spent all that time setting up this amazing system and planning all day! Nothing got done! So, what is the purpose of your productivity system? I've come to define the purpose of a personal productivity system as a way to facilitate you DOING more consistently and better and KNOWING what you're not able to DO at any given time so you can relax and focus on what it is you can do.
Let me dive into this a little further so I explain this correctly.
The first part of that definition is that your personal productivity system is about doing more and better when you're able to. Doing more means, that by planning out the most efficient ways to get from A to B for any given task or project, you're able to get more done in a focused period of time. This isn't something you can do consistently without a system; believe me, for years, I tried! Next up is the adjective "better." What I mean is, that your productivity system should have a way for you to track what you've done and review what has been done to create as accurate a historical record as possible. Therefore you can match or increase your output sustainably from there. Again, no system equates to not only allowing in subjectivity about "better" but also about using potentially your fuzzy memory to recollect what you accomplished, or didn't. What does better look like for you?
Finally, one of the great, rarely spoken truths about personal productivity is the fact that you can't do more of anything without doing less of something right now. Your productivity system needs to be able to help you track when you can do things and when you cannot. Do you know what you can't do right now so you can start doing the one thing now that you can? If so, you likely have a system. If you don't, now you know why you need a system, and what a system really is.
How do you define "personal productivity system?" I'd love to hear from you in the comments or via email.
ProdPod: Episode 118 — Pondering Minimalism vis-à-vis Personal Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 117 — Getting More Resilient (Resilience and Productivity)
ProdPod: Episode 116 — Resilience and Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 115 -- Thinking INSIDE the Box! (Part 2)
ProdPod: Episode 114 -- Thinking INSIDE the Box! (Part 1)
ProdPod: Episode 113 -- Limiting Resources for Greater Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 112 -- Overcoming Burnout: Rest and Rejuvenation for Sustainable Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 111 -- Overcoming Procrastination
ProdPod: Episode 110 -- Overcoming Indecision
ProdPod: Episode 109 -- Overcoming Distractions
ProdPod: Episode 108 -- Overcoming Overwhelm
ProdPod: Episode 107 -- Managing People for Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 106 -- End of Workday Routine
ProdPod: Episode 105 -- The Power of Daily Routines: Morning, Midday and Evening Productivity Routines
ProdPod: Episode 104 -- The Myth of the Left and Right Brain
ProdPod: Episode 103 -- Managing Up for a More Productive Organizational Culture, Part 2
ProdPod: Episode 102 -- Managing Up for a More Productive Organizational Culture, Part 1
ProdPod: Episode 101 -- Software Review: Mind42 - Free Web-Based Mind Map Productivity Software
ProdPod: Episode 100 -- Mapping Your Productivity Using Mind Maps
ProdPod: Episode 99 -- Be the Superhero of Your Own Life
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Aligned Money Show
Gorse Culture PODcast : The H.R. Detective Agency!
HCI Leadership Revolution
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money