What's Wrong with Productivity?: Part II

What’s Wrong with

Productivity?Part II

Tiago FortePowered by Small World Socialhttps://www.smallworldsocial.com/productivitylink/

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• Productivity has historically been so top-

down because it has its roots in executive

coaching, that high-touch, hyper-

personalized, one-on-one service that

generations of C-suite executives have

relied on.

• The lack of alternative models of

productivity instruction (insider knowledge is

passed directly from coach to client)

• The lack of alternative models of

accountability and support, like peer-to-peer

5. It is overpriced and unscalable

Most personalized services areout-of-reach for the average person

productivitylink.smallworldsocial.com

http://productivitylink.smallworldsocial.com/


There are many arenas dominated by

proprietary information and insider

connections, but times have changed.

Productivity is no longer only the concern

of top management. In a world of

alternative employment, of exploding

numbers of people starting businesses,

becoming freelancers, and evolving into

independent contractors, everyone needs

to be able to understand what drives

their productivity. This is what excites me

so much about Coach.me and other

mobile-based behavior change apps. productivitylink.smallworldsocial.com



• In the Get Stuff Done Like a Boss class where I

teach people, step-by-step how to set up a GTD

workflow using specific programs, on their

computer taken by over 10,000 people, the most

common positive feedback is…

6. It ignores technology implementation

“I finally understand how

to implement this system in the real

world”productivitylink.smallworldsocial.com



Many of these people had read and tried

numerous times to implement GTD. Many

of them, judging by their in-class

projects, are avid productivity fans. But

the fact is, most of our tools have not

approached the intuitiveness and ease of

use required for wide-scale adoption.

Developed by and for our tech-savvy

peers here in Silicon Valley, it is all too

easy to forget that even the tiniest

barrier can keep people not only from

using your app, but from implementing

an entire system because they don’t

trust their tools.




Throughout this piece, I’ve treated productivity as an

end in itself. I’ve assumed that the benefits of

more/better/faster are self-evident. But this is

obviously the deepest, and most problematic issue

with productivity — it’s not self-evident at all.

There are real risks to an excessive focus on

improving your own performance. Over-optimizing

your life, paradoxically, makes it harder to enjoy it.

Perfectionism has now been shown to be an under-

appreciated risk factor in suicide. Stories of burnouts

with long-lasting physical and psychological

consequences are slowly becoming more

commonplace.

7. It is inhumane




At some point we will need to redefine the

very meaning of productivity, away from

impersonal statistics and toward more holistic

ideas of wellbeing, satisfaction, and happiness.

We’ll need to acknowledge that our current

definition of the term, and therefore the

implicit assumptions of the tools we build, is

centered on a white, male, affluent worldview.

There are encouraging signs, with the upswell

in interest in mindfulness, meditation, simpler

living, and social entrepreneurship.

I’m hopeful that the increasing awareness

around the importance of diversity will

eventually reach the walled garden of

productivity, changing the very terms of the

debate.



As Albert Einstein purportedly put it,


“You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.”

I think we will find that many of the problems we are facing with our stagnating productivity and wages will not be solved by more technology, nor by improved workflows, but by a deeper reassessment of what really matters in our pursuit of success.


Want to read more about productivity?

Visit: productivitylink.smallworldsocial.com for everything you need to know about

productivity in one place





Want to read more about productivity?

Visit: www.productivitylink.us for everything you need to know about

productivity in one place

http://www.productivitylink.us/

What's Wrong with Productivity?: Part II

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