productivity

David Allen (the GTD guy) once said there are only 2 things you have to do: what your’e doing right now, and everything else.

The first time I heard it I laughed (you probably did just now too), but as I thought about it really made a lot of sense me. No matter how many things you have to do, you really can only do one at a time. Multi-tasking is a mirage, and “business” is a fictional badge of honor that we give ourselves to justify the fact that we can’t manage our time or our priorities. The human brain was just not wired to sustain this kind of lifestyle (short-tem memory can only hold 5–9 things at any one time). Tony Schwartz wrote an excellent book titled “The Power of Full Engagement” where he talks about how we really need to manage is our energy, and when you’re attention is being pulled in a million different directions your energy is constantly being depleted – it’s very inefficient. It’s like having 25 programs open on your computer at a time. You can only use one at a time, but having them all open will kill your battery pretty quick. You can skip back and forth between your different programs, but you won’t actually get anything done that way.

Jim Elliot, the Christian missionary, once said “wherever you are, be all there”. That is my goal this year – to escape “emergency scan modality” and quit putting out fires so that I can be fully engaged in whatever I’m doing at any given time. I intend to live my life in “Full-Screen mode”, eliminate distractions and focus on what’s really important.

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions anymore, but my 3 words for the year[1] are:

Focus
Order
Fun

All of these (to me) revolve around the theme of being present. I need to focus on what’s important by putting in their proper place, which ultimately will allow me to enjoy my time with my 4 young boys. I don’t want to take them for granted and I don’t want to miss one opportunity to build a fort, read a story, or snuggle at bedtime. I won’t be able to make it happen 100% of the time, but I want to be fully there as much as I possibly can.

an idea I stole from the Productivityist, Mike Vardy – I highly recommend you listen to his podcast “Mikes on Mics”. ↩

I recently read a great book titled Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day by Todd Henry. It’s an excellent read about achieving your potential and doing work that matters. One section that really stood out to me was what he titled “The 7 Deadly Sins of Mediocrity”. Here’s a very brief summary:

Aimlessness – This is for all the talkers[1] out there. You need to have a goal, and you need to have action. There’s a saying that goes “if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

Boredom – My Pastor says that “success is determined by your daily routine.” It may not always be fun, but you need to stay consistent. You become what you repeatedly do, and you have to put in the practice time before you ever see the stage.

Comfort – If things are easy, you probably need to push yourself more. You don’t gain muscle from going to the gym and lifting what’s comfortable. You have to push yourself until it hurts if you want to see growth.

Delusion – You need to know yourself (which is harder than it sounds). You need to know your limitations and what you’re capable of. This doesn’t mean you can’t grow, but you have to be realistic and start with what you have where you are.

Ego – You’re not as great as you think you are! Don’t be afraid to cut your losses and say “I was wrong” rather than go down with the ship.

Fear – Graveyards are full of people who were too afraid to step out and follow their dreams. Don’t be afraid to say “yes” to opportunities. You might fail, but then again you might not! You might find what you were destined to do.

Guardedness – Don’t close yourself off when you start to see success. A lot of companies work hard to get a competitive advantage and then stagnate because they isolate, trying to protect their intellectual property.

I learned a lot from this book and highly recommend it.

Talker: one who likes to talk about doing something but never actually does anything (my definition). ↩

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