Taking Productivity Systems to Excess
It is my observation that productivity ‘systems’ appeal most to people with a certain kind of mindset: process-oriented, rigorous, ordered.
Other types of personality can certainly see the benefits of a certain approach, but in my experience they’re less likely to take it on board fully or to adhere to it slavishly. More for them the buffet approach, a dollop of this and a splodge of that.
For a long time I thought the first bunch had it right, without doubt. If you’re considering something that’s going to have a massive positive impact on the way you run your affairs, logically the more fully you embrace it the better your results will be.
Going too far
But what I hadn’t considered was the possibility of overdoing it.
One of the key benefits of ‘getting organised’, having a ‘system’, Getting Things Done, whatever you call it, is to release time. Time you can spend getting more things done or going home earlier or spending more time with your kids. Releasing minutes and hours you would not otherwise have had free.
My question is whether the sort of person to whom productivity systems appeal most is more prone than others to spending this ‘released time’ on nerdy activities like organising their paperclips?
If the extra time is used to indulge little obsessions more thoroughly than they could have been otherwise, that’s a debit against the total productivity gain. If alphabetising the recycling is genuinely something important to do, or brings great happiness, or has some other significant benefit, then maybe it’s ok. But I can’t escape the nagging feeling that the discretionary activities this group might choose to pursue in the time successfully released are just pointless tinkering.
I see a risk of somebody of an obsessive nature releasing extra discretionary time as a result of ‘getting organised’ but not using that time wisely. Instead they may use it to indulge the obsessive tendencies that helped them implement their ‘system’ so effectively, resulting in no net benefit in terms of output. Unless you count the paperclips.
So what?
So there’s a fine line to tread. Between going far enough in taking steps to boost your productivity to actually see a significant benefit, and going so far that you spend your released time on trifling activities that bring little or no benefit.
A balance must be struck between sufficient rigour in applying a methodology that will give you more time and retaining sufficient perspective to make good decisions about how to spend that time.
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