Being more Productive isn’t Always Helpful
You will never have enough time.
To do truly meaningful work you need to say no more often.
Saying yes feels like we’re being helpful and productive.
However, being more productive isn’t always helpful.
Take this example from Oliver Burkeman author of “Four Thousand Weeks: Time management for mortals”…
- you get quicker at responding to emails
- people realise that
- they send you more emails
You now have to get even quicker to stay on top of things.
There’s always more to do.
Our modern world of convenience and disruption has made us believe that being productive means doing more and doing it faster.
According to Cal Newport in his latest book, Slow Productivity, most knowledge workers are not only finding themselves doing more, but much of what they’re doing feels meaningless.
We’re so scared of being left behind that we’ve forgotten how to be discerning.
We mindlessly do because doing is a simple measure of success.
As a midlife entrepreneur I don’t have enough time left to spend being busy with stuff that doesn’t matter.
I need to be able to focus on the transformative tasks.
The things that I do that will make my life better and the lives of people around me better.
On our Happy Entrepreneur podcast Oliver Burkeman said “spending more of life in this mental space of coming to terms with finitude and being OK with our imperfections, and acknowledging that stuff does not mean resignation or mediocrity. It’s actually the basis for doing cool, exciting, and interesting things in life.”
Being more productive requires acceptance.
With an ever decreasing number of years left it’s important to enjoy the being as well as the doing.
And to learn how to do less but make more impact.
You are a scalpel, not a Swiss Army knife.
Your blade has been forged in the furnace of life, which has made you highly effective in a very specific way.
Do that thing and say no to everything else.
Do work that makes you come alive.
Focus on quality not quantity.
Take it slow.
You’ll then make impact by being you.
And you’ll have time to experience life the way you want to.