Comments on: Is Productivity Really Getting You More From Life?

By: The Missing Half of Productivity Advice: Why Women Need to Get Involved

The Missing Half of Productivity Advice: Why Women Need to Get Involved — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:49:17 +0000

[...] my thoughts away from the masculine model of productivity. I’ve written before about the dangers of productivity – especially when we start doing for doing’s sake, and we forget to [...]

By: How to Escape the Dark Mood Spiral In Five Steps | TheHappySelf.com

How to Escape the Dark Mood Spiral In Five Steps | TheHappySelf.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:34:30 +0000

[...] something as trivial as a printer jam … but it was the last straw for you because you were on the productivity treadmill and anxious about getting through everything. On a better day, the printer jam would have been just [...]

By: qblogz

qblogz — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:02:21 +0000

Productivity is giving less time to less interested job than favorites

By: Meeting Your Goals #1: Getting Focused — Aliventures

Meeting Your Goals #1: Getting Focused — Aliventures — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:30:44 +0000

[...] Are you feeling stressed or burned out? Do you have enough “down time”? Or do you feel guilty whenever you’re being “unproductive”? [...]

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:01:44 +0000

I think that pretty much sums it up, farouk! If productivity isn’t bringing you “more of what you love”, then something’s gone awry.

By: farouk

farouk — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:53:49 +0000

thanks for the nice post
i discovered that doing more of what i love is much easier than doing less of what i don’t love

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:20:55 +0000

Thanks Willie, really glad you’re enjoying reading it! Yes, they’re definitely cup-of-tea length posts (I’m glad I’m not the only one who does that with blogs ).

When I was in uni, I found that if I tried to work really hard/productively, I just didn’t enjoy it as much. And since I was taking English Lit, the whole point was to do something I loved! So I’d cut back on the “productive” efforts once I started feeling that way.

Fitting around the day job sucks. I refrained from ever screaming in the corridors at work (it might have bothered Nick and my other nicer colleagues). But there was a couple of months of 5.45am alarms and hammering out blog posts before the day job. Icky.

Patience is a great strategy, and something I defnitely need to work on…

By: Willie Hewes

Willie Hewes — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:38:49 +0000

I subscribe to a number of blogs via e-mail, but yours is my favourite. The e-mails always make me smile (and get a cup of tea, because they take time to read!) Just thought I’d come over to say that.

I’ve played with several different productivity systems, including a GTD-style system, and that thing where you work for 20 minutes, have a set break, work, etc. My experience has been mixed. I do get more stuff done, but I enjoy it less and less. I’ve recently taken the decision to stop micromanaging myself to distraction, and just do what comes to hand occasionally. Even if that is not the most efficient thing to do.

I’m fitting my productivity in around the day job too, and currently my strategy for doing that is called “patience”. This to-do list will take a long time to do. So, I take a long time.

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:37:55 +0000

Hm, good point, Kaizan: it’s one of the things that bugs me about “traditional” workplaces (and one of the reasons I love freelancing!) Have you come across the ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment) concept? It has a lot of of appeal for me, and if I ever did go down the hiring-people route, that’s the sort of workplace environment and ethos I’d like to set up.

By: Kaizan

Kaizan — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:58:36 +0000

Interesting post Ali.

Although, I sometimes suspect that people are less interested in “productivity” and more interested in “activity”.

In other words, the inefficient guy who’s still at the office at 10pm gets called a “hard worker” whereas the efficient guy who gets more work done in a day but leaves at 4pm, gets called lazy.