Productive Resistance?

In any productivity system, you have a certain level of added friction and resistance that is introduced by the system itself, i.e. you have to carry a planner, spend time writing/typing, recording, marking complete, etc.  All of these tasks would not exist if it weren’t for the system.  Daily and weekly reviews, etc. also often add several hours to your week of unproductive (directly unproductive) minutiae.  So why, in our pursuit of efficiency and effectiveness would we add a book of practices that simply add resistance?  Well, obviously we think the added resistance will be accompanied by a higher level of productivity.  We are willing to welcome the increased resistance in an effort to achieve improved results.  Compare it to giving up gas mileage on a car for increased speed and power.  It may require a bit more fuel to push through the resistance of a more powerful engine, wider tires, etc. but the increase in performance is worth it to us so we buy the car.

So the question is now raised… and I will illustrate with the car comparison:

If you are choosing between 2 cars, the 1^st gets 30 mpg and goes 0-60 mph in 6 seconds (pretty fast…), the 2^nd gets 10 mpg and goes 0-60 in 5 seconds (even faster), which do you choose?  Again, it depends… Is the added performance worth a loss of 20 mpg in fuel efficiency?  Maybe you’re a racer, now that increased performance is essential to compete.  Maybe you drive a considerable amount for work but appreciate a powerful vehicle, that performance-efficiency trade off may not be worth it.  After all, the other car is still quite fast.  It is, in reality, a simple cost-benefit analysis of these two factors, performance and efficiency.

In personal management systems, you may note these same characteristics.  Some systems require a substantial amount from their users, however yielding near-perfection in time use and accomplish-ability of tasks and projects.  Other systems may be very minimalist in operative nature, yielding, in some cases, proportionately minimalist results.  On this spectrum, the objective of any system ought to be that of the car, maximum performance AND maximum “fuel efficiency”.

Tricks to maximum efficiency AND maximum performance

Make it natural. Many systems may take you far from your beaten path, adding technologies you don’t care about and increase the “inconvenience” of personal management.  The more natural and convenient the system is to use, the more likely you are to use it and the more personally efficient it becomes.  If it is something you “ought” to be doing anyway, then maybe the inconvenience is more accurately stated as “overcoming a challenge”.

Leverage Automation. For some, this may simultaneously increase the inconvenience.  Many solutions are technology related and for the tech-averse, it may be more difficult.   Through the use of auto-responders, voicemail and call management services, smart phones, netbooks, and much more,  many tasks can be successfully automated or simplified to increase your effectiveness.  WARNING: sometimes we overwhelm ourselves with tech and it becomes a new resistance so be careful!

Adopt only the most effective techniques.  Some systems and philosophies provide so many ideas, tools, and tricks that you spend your time doing ideas, tools and tricks and not actually getting anything done.  Often, these systems have a few extremely impactful concepts that provide substantial results for little input or action.  The idea here is to look for these impactful concepts and only adopt those, leaving the others behind.  You likely would not do them anyway, especially with any effective consistency, so don’t worry about those.

Take one step at a time.  Many attempt to completely jolt their productivity habits with a complete overhaul.  This is like binge dieting, you become a productivity yo-yo.  As with the above point, pick the most effective techniques and begin implementing them.  As each becomes habitual, and I mean part of your soul, move to the next technique.   As each technique, tool, concept, or strategy becomes natural, its productive resistance is decreased, allowing you to add yet another.  Always manage the resistance.

Routine can be your greatest resistance. If you follow the above steps among others in your pursuit for higher productivity, you will likely develop some sort of routine.  This is often a morning or evening routine but may extend throughout the day (i.e. morning coffee with paper, read such and such book, write for 30 minutes, workout, prepare for day, etc.).  This routine may be revealed as a great resistance due to inflexibility.  You become attached to it and are unable to effectively function without it. You are enslaved by your own productivity system (not by productivity itself but by the system).  This is not an admonition against routines themselves but against the lack of flexibility they may exhibit.  The flexible your habits and daily routine, the easier it will be to maintain productivity.  You may create backup plans and activities that are more easily done out of your normal element.  Technology can assist in this (e.g. blogging from a smart phone when traveling versus the typical morning blog session in your home office, etc.).

These are just a sampling of ideas and strategies to assist in maintaining maximum productivity with maximum efficiency, i.e. the least resistance.

Analyze your own system and develop a list of effective techniques you’d like to implement.  Begin with the first and work your way down, focusing on the path of least “resistance.”  Do you have any ideas or strategies regarding productivity resistance?

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