Here are the more interesting of the productivity articles I’ve read over the past several days:
- David Seah provides a thoughtful writeup on doing the right things versus doing what you want to do. It hit home with me. For years I have been able to spend most of my time the way I wanted to. I know it sounds nice, but it can leave you with an empty feeling. That’s why I sometimes use this blog to preach to myself about doing the right things, instead of doing things because you can do them, or because you want to do them. Of course, the best of both worlds is to enjoy doing the right things (which, of course, requires knowing what the right things are). Anyway, good writeup by David.
- Interestingly, Jonathan Mead takes a sort of different look at this in his The Cult of Productivity & the Art of Purposeless Living. He makes the observation that “The Truth is.. We’re Often the Happiest When What We’re Doing Has Absolutely no Purpose.” Of course one could quip back that what they are doing has the purpose of making them happy. And there is nothing wrong with that. Jonathan is right when he says that there is a “cult of productivity,” and GTD practitioners have often been called members of the David Allen cult. Obsessing about productivity is as bad as obsessing about doing only what you want to do. Both are indications of an unbalanced life. It takes effort to have a balanced life, but it should be what we all strive for.
- A recent topic on Stephen Covey’s blog is Ask Stephen. He’s looking to answer about 10 or so of the most popular questions asked of him, and I think that will be an excellent read. Of all the people who teach productivity methods, he is very possibly the best on addressing the issue of having balance and achievement-based satisfaction in one’s life. So, I encourage you to head over to his blog and ask whatever productivity question is on your mind.
- The New York Times reports that an older brain may be a wiser brain. The article discusses results of research which indicate that older people handle distractions differently (are more attentive to them) and that this may increase the amount of information available to the conscious mind, making older people better problem solvers. Makes me want to buy stock in the NYT, something I would not have considered before.
- The Texas Startup Blog has an interesting read on Tim Ferriss Revisited. I’ve seen an increasing amount of press suggesting that Ferriss is a snake oil salesman, that he didn’t even write on the blog that carried his name, and so on. I’m not going to personally criticize the man. I don’t know him, and I am not big on public criticisms anyway: they make me look like an idiot if I later find out I was wrong. But, the article is interesting and one you may want to read.