4 ms·

Want to Be More Productive? Try Doing Less

99 points by prostoalex 6y ago

valuearb 6y ago
I like the exercise the author lays out, but the rest is the worst of pop psychology. Even if it’s true you are only truly focused for 6 hours a week on average, that doesn’t mean you are only productive for 6 hours a week.
- krallja 6y ago
  Yep. The days where I have to slog through 8 hours of crap are still productive. It’s just not the fun kind.
- chadlavi 6y ago
  Though it would be nice if the exercise followed an example of someone trying to actually do something instead of just working on their ego trip.
alexpetralia 6y ago
I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but HBR seems to push agenda-laden ideologies under the veneer of "science" or "business experience", which really do not map onto what most people experience. As a general source, I almost never trust HBR.
- vikramkr 6y ago
  Any sort of business publication or book will be the same way. That's just the nature of something as difficult or nearly impossible to quantify as business "success" - it's hard to tell what's luck, what's skill, what's skill disguised as luck, and what's luck disguised as skill. Best to take everything with a grain of salt, be on the lookout for those all too common fun "counterintuitive" findings (procrastination is good!) That make for good titles, etc.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    I always thought it was not so much that it's incredibly difficult or impossible to quantify, but more "Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know".
- Apocryphon 6y ago
  What would be the ideology in this article?
- kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
  HBR has been like this for a long time. The quality of content is very mediocre, but is propped up because of HBS's brand. I call it "clickbait in a tuxedo".
- davmar 6y ago
  i call it the "harvard drivel review". if you want more, check out the pics for this guy on twitter. they're about the same level of quality: https://twitter.com/Tjeary/status/664101632586706944/photo/1 https://twitter.com/Tjeary/status/664101632586706944/photo/1 it's comedy gold.
- cylinder 6y ago
  I hate this productivity mental floss crap. When I scan nytimes.com it seems like 50% of their content is this junk.
mishftw 6y ago
While I agree with the other comments saying this is a bit clickbaity, this reminded me of Greg McEwon's Essentialism and Cal Newport's Deep Work.
erikerikson 6y ago
I understand the dissent in these comments but I also have prospered by ensuring slack is mostly always present. It is effective self care but also forces you to really prioritize and make hard calls rather than letting circumstance make them for you. To do that you have to identify what you really care about and let go of the rest and that really changes everything. Consider the feelings around: oh sh*t, I have to accomplish more while doing less? It really forces cutting the noise, being effective, and appreciating what you really love.
xenithorb 6y ago
If we're going to criticize this, can we discuss reasons for why this reductive method might be faulty?
Nginx487 6y ago
The main issue with productivity, at least how we measure it for ourselves, is that we underestimate our long-term productivity, and overestimate short-term, which is often a reason for disappointment.
temporama1 6y ago
"For example, maybe you want to improve your Thought Leadership." Lol. We really have peaked.
- andi999 6y ago
  What is it actually supposed to mean? (Non native speaker here)
  - jon-wood 6y ago
    I am a native speaker and don’t really know what Thought Leadership is meant to be, but any time I see something under that banner it seems to be management consultants talking about solutions they’ve never actually implemented.
    - type0 6y ago
      Maybe it means thinking better than others or thinking for others or both or be a leader but at the same time also be able to think, who knows.
nelsonic 6y ago
The main issue with "productivity" is that the term is often misunderstood and misused. Productivity is a measure of output. If you are working in a factory making widgets you want high productivity. If you are doing creative/knowledge work you don't want people writing more lines of code or creating more screens in an App, you want less! If I can achieve the same result with fewer user interactions and fewer lines of code that's better UX! So measuring a creative worker's output as "productivity" is actually misleading, instead we should be measuring the effectiveness of the person. i.e. are they achieving their OKRs with focus? A software engineer should not be measured on lines of code or number of functions created this is a perverse incentive. Instead they should be measured on how well their code meets the needs of the user. This can still be a quantitative measure because we still have engagement/conversion rates in our apps. Lose the word "productivity" when describing what you do as a creative/tech worker it's a red herring.

99 points by prostoalex 6y ago

I like the exercise the author lays out, but the rest is the worst of pop psychology. Even if it’s true you are only truly focused for 6 hours a week on average, that doesn’t mean you are only productive for 6 hours a week.

krallja 6y ago
Yep. The days where I have to slog through 8 hours of crap are still productive. It’s just not the fun kind.
chadlavi 6y ago
Though it would be nice if the exercise followed an example of someone trying to actually do something instead of just working on their ego trip.

alexpetralia 6y ago

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but HBR seems to push agenda-laden ideologies under the veneer of "science" or "business experience", which really do not map onto what most people experience. As a general source, I almost never trust HBR.

vikramkr 6y ago
Any sort of business publication or book will be the same way. That's just the nature of something as difficult or nearly impossible to quantify as business "success" - it's hard to tell what's luck, what's skill, what's skill disguised as luck, and what's luck disguised as skill. Best to take everything with a grain of salt, be on the lookout for those all too common fun "counterintuitive" findings (procrastination is good!) That make for good titles, etc.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  I always thought it was not so much that it's incredibly difficult or impossible to quantify, but more "Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know".
Apocryphon 6y ago
What would be the ideology in this article?
kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
HBR has been like this for a long time. The quality of content is very mediocre, but is propped up because of HBS's brand. I call it "clickbait in a tuxedo".
davmar 6y ago
i call it the "harvard drivel review". if you want more, check out the pics for this guy on twitter. they're about the same level of quality: https://twitter.com/Tjeary/status/664101632586706944/photo/1 https://twitter.com/Tjeary/status/664101632586706944/photo/1 it's comedy gold.
cylinder 6y ago
I hate this productivity mental floss crap. When I scan nytimes.com it seems like 50% of their content is this junk.

mishftw 6y ago

While I agree with the other comments saying this is a bit clickbaity, this reminded me of Greg McEwon's Essentialism and Cal Newport's Deep Work.

erikerikson 6y ago

I understand the dissent in these comments but I also have prospered by ensuring slack is mostly always present. It is effective self care but also forces you to really prioritize and make hard calls rather than letting circumstance make them for you. To do that you have to identify what you really care about and let go of the rest and that really changes everything. Consider the feelings around: oh sh*t, I have to accomplish more while doing less? It really forces cutting the noise, being effective, and appreciating what you really love.

xenithorb 6y ago

If we're going to criticize this, can we discuss reasons for why this reductive method might be faulty?

Nginx487 6y ago

The main issue with productivity, at least how we measure it for ourselves, is that we underestimate our long-term productivity, and overestimate short-term, which is often a reason for disappointment.

temporama1 6y ago

"For example, maybe you want to improve your Thought Leadership." Lol. We really have peaked.

andi999 6y ago
What is it actually supposed to mean? (Non native speaker here)
- jon-wood 6y ago
  I am a native speaker and don’t really know what Thought Leadership is meant to be, but any time I see something under that banner it seems to be management consultants talking about solutions they’ve never actually implemented.
  - type0 6y ago
    Maybe it means thinking better than others or thinking for others or both or be a leader but at the same time also be able to think, who knows.

nelsonic 6y ago

The main issue with "productivity" is that the term is often misunderstood and misused. Productivity is a measure of output. If you are working in a factory making widgets you want high productivity. If you are doing creative/knowledge work you don't want people writing more lines of code or creating more screens in an App, you want less! If I can achieve the same result with fewer user interactions and fewer lines of code that's better UX! So measuring a creative worker's output as "productivity" is actually misleading, instead we should be measuring the effectiveness of the person. i.e. are they achieving their OKRs with focus? A software engineer should not be measured on lines of code or number of functions created this is a perverse incentive. Instead they should be measured on how well their code meets the needs of the user. This can still be a quantitative measure because we still have engagement/conversion rates in our apps. Lose the word "productivity" when describing what you do as a creative/tech worker it's a red herring.