A Word on "Productivity"

Yup. Ok it’s confession time. I am something of a productivity tool junkie. If I had to try to pinpoint when this started I’d have to say not too long after David Allen released “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”. I remember when it came out it was something of a revelation to me particularly the seemingly obvious concept of getting things out of your hear and into a trusted system.

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” - David Allen

Simple as it may seem I can’t stress what an impact this can have on your state of mind. Until you get these things you need to remember into a trusted system your mind is to some degree struggling to hold onto them. This is at best taxing and at worst contributes to stress, overwhelm, and anxiety.

Ok so simple enough - grab a post-it, write it down and get on with things right? Well…not quite. It does have to be “trusted”. You have to actually beleve in this system in order for your mind to truly relinquish the burden of letting it go. And don’t fool yourself, your mind knows the difference. A telltale sign that your trusted system is not in fact trusted is when that thing keeps popping up in your mind. Ok moving on. The point is that finding a trusted system that works for you is not so easy and over the past 20 years or so we have a seen a notable proliferation of systems and tools all promising to help you run your life and get things done.

So the book comes out - I read it - and I’m ready to get started. This is where I met Omnifocus which I used happily for some time. This was just a bit before the whole iphone app explosion so the experience was Mac only and expectations in terms of a what an application needed to be and do were still pretty reasonable. Then “apps” happened followed by an explosion of “productivity” tools, systems, philiosophies and things got really complicated. Now we expect an app to have a seamless experience accross desktop, phone, tablet, and browser. Simple lists and filters are not enough. An app needs to be fliuid, predicitve, intuitive, fast, inviting…you name it. New apps are released on a regular basis. Existing apps are iterating through versions continuously. We have web-based, subscription based, notes and calendar, calendar and tasks, one tool to rule them all, 100 tools for every one and we are all getting taken along for the ride.

…at some point you transition from someone who just wanted a better way to get things done to a productivity app schill caught in a productivity death spiral

Since I originally began using Omnifocus I have cycled through too many systems and tools to list here. Most have been an entirely unnecessary distractions and brought little additional value but a few have proven themeselves to be stalwarts of the productivity world. Omnifocus, Things, and Todoist come to mind. There is no shortage of comparisons of these (and other) tools to be found so I will make little effort. (Here is a decent comparison from The Sweet Setup). I have come to realize that the act of pursuing some kind of tools nirvana is a fools errand and at some point you transition from someone who just wanted a better way to get thing done to some kind of productivity app schill with fragments of lists and notes all over the place caught in a productivty death spiral.

What’s funny is that this post was supposed to be about how I am managing my tasks today but I guess that will have to wait because I think its important to recognize the difference between using the tools and being used by the tools.

Ok so I mentioned the “productivity death spiral” lets dig into it.

The Productivity Death Spiral

1. Shiny Todo App A New app. Clean. Organized. This is going to bring it all together and life is going to be mor manageable. You start dumping your tasks in there. You build a few headings. You think “Oh this is fantastic. FINALLY!”

2. Experience any Friction Ruh-roh. We’ve hit a snag. This app doesn’t have deferred due dates that take into account the (insert ridiculously specific requirement here)? What do you mean I can’t connect this app to (insert obscure app here)!

3. Dissatisfaction You start emailing the devs with your obscure requirements. Is it on the roadmap? How long? Things are starting to derail. This system is not trusted!

4. Watch Videos A few things on this one. It could actually appear anywhere in the cycle because if you’re interested in productivity you likely have a few go-to sources. As soon as you start to experience friction or things get hard you likely take a break and turn here. We all do it. Don’t feel badly about it - but do be ware.

5. Promise of Perfection So you’re watching videos and the person who just last month was praising very app you’re using is now talking about why it’s old news and is showing you this shiny new “game changer” whcih of course is free to sign up and get started. It may even import your tasks from the old! If you aren’t sold at this point you’ll likely find that all of your other productivity sources are suddenly talking about this shiny new app as well. (amazing how that happens isn’t it?) Well if they are all saying it? I mean…you can’t possibly keep using this garbage excuse for a productivity app that can’t handle your super obscure use case.

6. Switch Tool You commit to making the switch. This is going to be the last time of course.

7. Migrate Tasks Ok so two possible outcomes here.

8. You migrate the tasks from the old app resulting in duplicated tasks in 2 places. You likely keep the old app (just for a while to make sure nothing falls through the cracks) and so you are now getting redundnant notifications. Mukltply this by the number of times you’ve gone this route. (dependent of course on how dilligent you are in the transition)

9. You just leave the tasks in the old app and all new tasks go in the new. Now you have tasks across multiple apps. So much for a trusted system. Notifications coming from multiple places. Updates in multiple places. Nightmare.

In both cases the intention is for it to be temporary until you get off the old app and can delete it but all too often the reality can be that you realize the new apps shortcomings much sooner and either go back to the previous or worse a new app entirely.

8. Repeat You keep this cycle going for months…years even. Moving your pile of rocks from one side of the place to another. The pile isn’t necessarily getting smaller. It may in fact be getting bigger. Your have a tasks strewn about everywhere: apps, text files, physical notebooks (from that time you thought bullet journalling was the answer) and you’re anxiety, stress, and cognitive load feels through the roof.

Stop. The. Madness.

Ask yourself. What is my intention here?

Am I a productiivty hobbyist fascinated by trying out new systems, workflows, and tools?

Am I just trying to get my sh** done.

Am I trying to avoid getting sh** done.

There is no wrong answer here - unless you are trying to do the second but in fact are doing the first. With respect to the third I have found that this avoidance occurs when I don’t have a well defined task and desired outcome. This part takes effort and if you are not willing to put in the effort to define and think through the task then there is no way you will put in the effort to complete it.

Here are some tips based on my personal experience.

Ok well this didn’t turn out at all the way the I intended it to. Let me just say that I have definitely fallen victim to tool sprawl and the illusion of productivty. I’ve been lost in the productivity spiral for longer than I care to admit so if this is you you are not alone. The key thing is to take a step back and not let the vast sea of productivity tools overwhelm the very basic requirement of actually being more productive. Good luck!