Are Your Productivity Hacks Built on a Lie?

It seems easier and quicker to complete tasks that take less than an hour than it is to tackle even a single step forward in the bigger projects.

It seems easier because it doesn’t require emotional engagement or a considerable investment of your time and energy. It seems quicker because you’re focused on the short-term tactic instead of the long-term goal. It seems productive because you get to bask in the addictive sugar hit that comes when you check things off your list.

But what if you’re co-opting productivity by disguising it as busy-ness?

I think of this self-defeating phenomenon as “diluted efforts.” Steven Pressfield calls it Resistance.

Diluted efforts are self-designed obstacles. When we design them, they are individual tasks that seem like important boxes we get to check on our path to productivity. However, if we look at these tasks more closely, they’re obstacles we’ve place directly on the path to our bigger goal.

So, here’s a challenge—for both of us. (After all, I frequently choose to organize my files, my pantry . . . almost anything when I really need to sit down and write.)

Ready?

Step 1: Acknowledge one thing you’ve already done today that’s diluted your efforts.

Step 2: Look at your to-do list and delegate or delete at least two things you know are really distractions diluting your efforts to achieve your most important goals.

Step 3: When something unexpected pops up during the day, take a lesson from President Eisenhower’s important vs. urgent matrix. 

P.S. I appreciate the irony of this post, especially if reading blogs is one way in which you dilute your efforts. I suggest you schedule a time for it. Read blogs on a break, on the train or bus, or while waiting for your dental appointment. Also, consider the volume or quality of blogs you read.

What can you do to focus on content that will help you achieve your goals better, faster, and most enjoyably?