The productivity lie

And the curse of the To Do list

Drawing by Tineke Tammes

This is an article I’ve wanted to write for a long time.

You see, I have a tendency to talk a bit - let’s say - flippantly about time management techniques. I laugh at rocks and pebbles in jar analogies and don’t even get me started on eating frogs!

But this is only partly about time management.

No, what really jars (ha!) me is productivity itself.

What is productivity

Now, before we dive right in, let’s talk about what productivity actually IS.

1. Your company: your organisation measures productivity - including YOUR productivity - by the amount of output (goods and services) they are able to deliver with the resources they put into it

2. You: YOUR measure of productivity, which is about what you are able to get done personally.

Now, imagine this (not totally fabricated) scenario:

You have a full day ahead of you. Lots of meetings. A full To Do list. You dutifully work your way through the To Do list, miraculously manage to tick off ALL the things on the list, and close your laptop at the end of the day.

Satisfied?

Yes, I can see you nodding. Absolutely.

OK, now do it every day. Every moment of the day. Open laptop. Have the meetings. Do the jobs. Close laptop. Go home. Do chores. Eat dinner. Collapse on sofa. Sleep. Repeat.

Still satisfied?

OK, now do it every day for the rest of your life.

Something missing?

The problem with productivity

You see, I have a number of problems with this scenario:

• Productivity at work

Let’s tackle this one first. You see, I’m the first to celebrate coming to the end of a To Do list for the day.

(I LOVE a good To Do list. But the best thing my younger self ever did? Write daily To Do lists on Post-It notes. Whatever wasn’t on my Post-It note wouldn’t get done. I still do this today. You’re welcome!)

But a good To Do list only addresses the ‘quantity’ part of productivity - how many tasks you get done in a day.

Which is heavily impacted by the ‘efficiency’ part of productivity - how much time you’ve ‘wasted’.

(And forgive me for wandering off a bit, but could this be the answer to the difference in opinion on productivity when working from home? Is there a difference in how we measure efficiency? Because what do different people define as ‘wasting time’?

Yes, there’s the obvious things like aimlessly scrolling on social media etc. But is wasting time also spending time networking? Having casual conversations with colleagues? Having <shiver> watercooler conversations? What do YOU think is wasting time? Anyway, I drift off).

No, the BIGGEST, most subjective thing is - I believe - this: quality.

Because you don’t just want to rush through your To Do list. You want to deliver something good, something innovative, something useful.

And - I’d argue - that can only be done by creating room to be creative. By creating space. By creating ‘thinking time’, in which ideas can form and rumble through your brain. By letting your creative brain do the work.

Which is EXACTLY where I think we run into trouble.

Because, first of all, we don’t have a clear agreement on what is ‘quality’ (YOUR ‘good’ might not be what your manager believes to be ‘good’).

And secondly, you’re so busy delivering all the things on your list that you forget to build in the rather unpredictable process of creativity. That time when you’re NOT thinking. When you’re <say it with me> wasting time. That’s right.

So, perversely, you rushing through your To Do list, leads you to not having the time and space to deliver to the quality you want. Potentially leading to re-work. Most definitely leading to you feeling you’ve delivered to ‘just-about’ standard, but not to your full potential.

• The bigger picture

When I first started my business I heard the phrase so often. ‘Work ON your business as well as IN your business’.

And yes, that’s the other problem I have with productivity.

It’s all well and good ticking off the tasks on your To Do list, but do you actually know where you’re going with all this? When was the last time you thought about what all this doing is DOING for you? Where it’s taking you?

Yes, all this hard work might certainly get your work done quicker and maybe even to the standard you’ve set for yourself (or have agreed to).

And yes, if you don’t really enjoy your work you may want to find the most efficient way of doing it, so that you can be done with it quicker.

But for you to reach your full potential? To find out what you really WANT? To steer the ship towards your North Star? To work ON the business of YOU?

There’s more than only working your way through a To Do list. Right?

• Achievement versus fulfilment

My best, most successful project implementation (before I set up my own business)? An IT implementation that went SO smoothly! It was lauded as the best change of the year, we all got bonuses, it was great.

You know what’s happened with that? Yes, the IT system got retired. It doesn’t exist anymore.

And whilst I look back at that project with a sense of pride and achievement, it also leaves me with a slightly wry smile. Because, what’s the point? Because, do the people I worked with and for still remember me doing ALL that work? But most importantly, how did it set me up for what I wanted to achieve? Where I wanted to go?

Building on my earlier point: having a sense of achievement is great and most definitely important for your well-being, but a next level of happiness comes from fulfilment. From working towards something that’s important to you and that serves the greater good.

• Human DOING versus human BEING

And finally, a rather philosophical-slash-political consideration. We’ve all grown up in a capitalist society. At one point in history our time has been carved up and our worth has started to be measured by the output we deliver to the ‘greater good’ (read: your organisation’s profitability).

What’s more, we’ve internalised this and now are at risk of measuring our ‘usefulness’ in how productive we are every moment of the day. Feeling restless when we’re not doing anything. Tying our identity and self-worth to what we DO. NEVER rest.

And yes, none of this philosophical pondering changes anything to the society we live in and yes, I can hear you say, you still need to make a living within this system.

And yet, and yet. Sometimes I wonder about a different way. About reinventing the way we work.

What that looks like? Not sure.

But for now I would love to agree something:

• Let’s agree that we’re NOT here to be productive only. That we don’t HAVE to do things all the time. At least not in our spare time.

• In other words, let’s agree that we are human BEINGS, not human doings. That we are good, just the way we are.

• Let’s agree that not everyone’s ability to be productive is the same.

• Let’s agree that our bodies need rest and recuperation and have different needs at different times of our lives, years, months, weeks, heck even days.

• And let’s agree that even IN the time you’re meant to be productive (read: efficient) there needs to be spare time in which you let your mind wander. Idle time to help you formulate ideas, percolate thoughts, create quality work and work ON the business of YOU.

Because, in the end, it’s about you being happy and enjoying the journey to reaching your full potential.

THAT’s what I think of productivity.

And I promise you that no frogs have been or need to be harmed in the process.*

Tineke X

(*Oh, and if you wonder WHAT the hell I’m on about with this business about frogs? This is a time management technique where people say to ‘eat the frog first’, meaning do the jobs you don’t want to do first. Ewww, right?)

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Tineke Tammes is an ICF trained career coach, who supports professional women in find fulfilling work and create happy careers with her Career Freedom coaching programme!

Besides that she is also a lifelong feminist, part-time portrait artist, never-only-read-one-book-at-any-time reader, and obsessive doodler.

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