Productivity: Myths, Laws and Powers that will help you understand it better 🧠
What is Productivity? What are the myths, laws and powers of productivity?
Hi, Ravdeep here. 👋
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With the advent of the ‘hustle’ culture, it is important to dissect productivity from just being busy. I personally have spent a lot of time understanding this during the last 3 years of working on my own. What seemed like work at one point of time was just forced productivity with no end in sight. From 2019 onwards, I was determined to fix this and understand more on how the code of productivity can be cracked and I can make it work for myself. Here is my take on productivity supported by writings from other individuals.
What is Productivity? 🤔
In general terms, Productivity is “a way to measure efficiency”. In an economic context, productivity is the way to measure the output that comes from units of input. For example: one acre of land that produces 50 watermelons does not seem that productive. But one acre of land that produces 2000 watermelons, now that’s what I’m talking about.
But how do we calculate productivity in our lives? We’re not a farmland or a factory where supply chain management can be tweaked to make us more efficient.
Writer Charles Duhigg defines productivity as “making certain choices in certain ways” that moves us from being “merely busy” to “genuinely productive” in his book Smarter Faster Better.
Productivity is getting the results you want with less time and effort. When you’re trying to understand how to be productive, what you’re really seeking is a way to achieve your goals while having time to spend on what matters. (This definition can change for everyone depending on what productivity means to them)
I follow a YouTuber called Ali Abdaal who was recommended to me by a friend of mine, linking Ali’s channel here, who has this brilliant take on calculating productivity with something that he calls The Productivity Equation.
The Productivity Equation 🎩
This equation starts from a very basic point:
Productivity = Useful Output / Time
What this means is, the more the useful output in less time, the higher the productivity and vice versa. Now this particular equation does not take into consideration the task that we are doing and how much fun we have doing it. So the expanded equation would look something like this:
Productivity = Useful Output / Time x f (f being the ‘fun factor’)
If you manage to increase the f in everything that you do, it amplifies the productivity immensely and suddenly motivation, willpower, consistency etc. are no longer issues.
Alright, so now we know what productivity is and how we can calculate productivity in our lives, let’s look at what are the various types of myths, laws and powers surrounding Productivity.
Myths of Productivity 🤡
There are a lot of myths around productivity so we’ll go through the ones that are most common and also the ones that have been laid out by Ali in support of his Productivity Equation.
The Time Myth - “I don’t have time.” ⏰
While something like time is an unstoppable and unending notion in general, our own time is within our control. In most instances, it’s not about having time, it’s about making time. Your priorities decide if you spend your time on A or B. I think this is one of the most important lessons I have learnt in terms of time and productivity over the past few years. In the beginning, being busy was something that I looked forward to but now I dedicate my time on priorities which has served me much better than before.
The Motivation Myth 🏋️♂️
As human beings, our actions are conditional to feelings, waiting for the right mood to do a particular task which it turn leads to procrastination. We tend to have the equation the wrong way around. Rather than motivation leading to action, the feedback loop develops from action. So action leads to motivation which leads to more action, more motivation and so on.
The Multitasking Myth 🧘♀️
As much as I liked to multitask, I realised it pretty soon that it was not best way to move forward. The human brain isn’t wired to multitask, and multitasking can actually damage productivity in the long-term. According to Dr. David Meyer, who conducted research into task switching in a 2001 study, “even brief mental blocks created by shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40% of someone’s productive time”. Learning to focus on a single task is more important to increase our productivity than multitasking.
The Early Bird Myth 🦉
Benjamin Franklin used to say “early to bed, early to rise, makes you healthy, wealthy and wise.” and due to this we’re programmed to believe that early birds are virtuous, wise and productive, while the night owls are lazy, lethargic and not productive. This is not true, as research points towards the fact night owls actually are more productive and alert during the entire day whereas early risers lose peak productivity by the middle of the day. I personally believe this is dependent on the lifestyle you’re living. If you’re eating healthy, working out and putting in the right hours of work, waking up early or late does not really matter.
Maximising Every Moment Myth 🌎
One of the most persistent myths is the idea that working well is about maximising every waking moment of the day, to complete as much as you can, as fast as you can. In fact, trying to be a perpetual achievement machine just isn’t in tune with human nature. According to research, we have about three to four highly productive hours each day.
Setting the Big Goals Myth 🏗
It might seem that people who set the most ambitious goals are the most successful. Setting up goals like “I want to get my company listed on the Stock Exchange” as a motivation to start up or “I want to get my novel published” as a motivation to start writing, is good but very soon it can get overwhelming which can in turn stop you from taking the necessary first steps. Start with very small but consistent habits, complete one task before moving on to the next, keep BIG goals but break them into tiny goals which you can achieve daily. Momentum of achieving these little tasks leads to achieving the big ones in due time.
The Visualization Myth 👁
Have you heard of the saying “If you can dream it, you can achieve it.” It means if you can see yourself reaching your objective, you will be able to achieve it. But in reality, positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy from us. Visualization in a way does not inspire us to jump higher, but rather causes us to become complacent. To overcome this, we should use our imagination for sure, but realistically. Do dream about the finish line but also realistically pan out the obstacles, the things that might not happen and consider alternative strategies to keep your journey consistent.
Laws of Productivity 👮♂️
Parkinson’s Law 💬
This is one of my favourite theories which I fully stand by. Parkinson suggested that as the time allocated to a particular task was shortened, the task became simpler and easier. That is why it is always good to allot yourself time for all the tasks that you do. “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”
Pareto Principle 🥃
Also known as the 80/20 rule, it states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. There is an unequal relationship between inputs and outputs. Identify what 20% of your work drives 80% of your outcomes which further helps you to extract the most value from your time and improves productivity.
Newton’s First Law of Motion 🍎
"Every body remains in a state of constant velocity unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force". What remains at rest will remain at rest and what is in motion will continue to be in motion. Procrastination is a state of rest and motivation will not get the ball rolling, only ACTION can do that for you. Once you gain momentum, the feedback loop develops and it actually becomes harder to stop thus helping you get the motivation to do the tasks effortlessly.
Powers of Productivity ⚡️
Power of Habits 🔁
As James Clear (Author of Atomic Habits) says, "Habits are the compound interest of self-development", they don’t seem to make much difference on a given day but the impact over months or years can be huge and immensely powerful. Habits help us reduce our dependence on motivation and willpower to get several tasks done. This leads to increased productivity and the ability to make substantial changes to our lives over a longer period of time.
Power of Productive Downtime 💤
Downtime is the most important thing in today’s fast-paced, hyper-connected life in my experience. Social media and the hustle culture makes us believe that breaks are not good for progress but I strongly believe it’s the other way around. If you want to succeed in the long run, proper downtime, saying no more often and having focus like a horse wearing blinders is very important. But this also does not mean that downtime becomes the only thing you do! 😅
Power of Productive Procrastination 🙌
All the procrastinators in the house, raise your hands up! Procrastination to a certain extent is healthy and required. It is just a way of your body showing you a glimpse that it can do the task later as well. This research is not supported by any papers, it’s just my take on it because I procrastinate a TON. But there’s something that I’ve figured out, it’s that I can productively procrastinate. When I feel like procrastinating, I read, I watch some tutorials on YT, write my newsletter, post something on Twitter, or just watch a sync-heavy TV show that helps me figure out how music is more effectively used in various situations. But this is totally dependent on you, I do not recommend doing something all the time, taking a nap is always the better thing to do.
I hope you enjoyed reading this issue. I am 2 days late on sending this out and it had to be the Productivity issue that goes out late 😅 but this has been something that I have been researching a lot over the past few years, specially since I started on my own because it was difficult to get myself to work in the first few months. How do you keep yourself motivated? Reply back to this email and let me know.
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