" Here’s what an unproductive person (who’s not task-centric) might look like:
They sit down to work and don’t know what to do.
They read books and consume educational material but don’t put any of it into action.
Ideas and notes are recorded but quickly get forgotten about.
Emails sit in their inbox marked as read but are never replied to or actioned upon."
Too close to me, for comfort! And I would add (from personal experience):
Their 'plan' is little more than a wishlist - they chronically under-estimate how long items will take, so they can never clear the items listed on their day's plan
They shuffle items from list to list and from day to day as if that 'activity' represents 'real action'
They spend disproportionate time on refining, polishing and tweaking their work control system at the expense of actually working on the items it contains
They don't 'sweep up after themselves' - a task gets done but its 'administrative overhead' gets deferred 'until later' - filing, marking for follow-up, etc
They fritter away their personal 'prime time of day' by responding immediately to things coming to their attention, instead of routing them through a planning process for action in non-prime time ... ahh! err.. I think I need to stop now! ;-)
Thank you for this great article! Like Mike said, I'm guilty as charged, at times, in the unproductive department. This "What's the next action?" question is ideal! Also the two articles I mentioned below to help when I want to procrastinate when an action is boring, hard, going to cause or raise conflict with someone, or otherwise something that my brain "want's to protect me from." Best of luck to all of us working to more productive and enjoy life more--doing work or not!!
[Copied from reply to Mike below.] There's two good articles I just read on procrastination that go great with Paul's article! Both on Fast company, one called "Procrastination is an emotional problem" (read first) and the other called "This is the simple mental habit that helped me overcome procrastination (and feel good about work)" (read second.) Then write out our plan, schedule the next things, including building the habit of remembering a success, using self-compassion while learning this new habit, and sticking with our task management system as is so we're not trying to change that as well as a behavior.
Thank you for this great article! Like Mike said, I'm guilty as charged, at times, in the unproductive department. This "What's the next action?" question is ideal! Also the two articles I mentioned below to help when I want to procrastinate when an action is boring, hard, going to cause or raise conflict with someone, or otherwise something that my brain "want's to protect me from." Best of luck to all of us working to more productive and enjoy life more--doing work or not!! [Copied from reply to Mike below.] There's two good articles I just read on procrastination that go great with Paul's article! Both on Fast company, one called "Procrastination is an emotional problem" (read first) and the other called "This is the simple mental habit that helped me overcome procrastination (and feel good about work)" (read second.) Then write out our plan, schedule the next things, including building the habit of remembering a success, using self-compassion while learning this new habit, and sticking with our task management system as is so we're not trying to change that as well as a behavior.
" Here’s what an unproductive person (who’s not task-centric) might look like:
They sit down to work and don’t know what to do.
They read books and consume educational material but don’t put any of it into action.
Ideas and notes are recorded but quickly get forgotten about.
Emails sit in their inbox marked as read but are never replied to or actioned upon." Too close to me, for comfort! And I would add (from personal experience):
Their 'plan' is little more than a wishlist - they chronically under-estimate how long items will take, so they can never clear the items listed on their day's plan
They shuffle items from list to list and from day to day as if that 'activity' represents 'real action'
They spend disproportionate time on refining, polishing and tweaking their work control system at the expense of actually working on the items it contains
They don't 'sweep up after themselves' - a task gets done but its 'administrative overhead' gets deferred 'until later' - filing, marking for follow-up, etc
They fritter away their personal 'prime time of day' by responding immediately to things coming to their attention, instead of routing them through a planning process for action in non-prime time ... ahh! err.. I think I need to stop now! ;-)
My suggestions - take what you like and leave the rest. I deal with those same/similar problems that Paul and you both listed. For one, we have to get in the habit of using the question "What's the next action?" when finishing a task and then either doing what's next or scheduling it. We probably all know now that building a habit takes time and it's not about willpower it's about emotional control and our brain protecting us for "hard" or "scary" stuff, like the new habit! There's two good articles I just read on procrastination that go great with Paul's article! Both on Fast company, one called "Procrastination is an emotional problem" (read first) and the other called "This is the simple mental habit that helped me overcome procrastination (and feel good about work)" (read second.) Then write out our plan, schedule the next things, including building the habit of remembering a success, using self-compassion while learning this new habit, and sticking with our task management system as is so we're not trying to change that as well as a behavior. Best of luck to you and all of us working to more productive and enjoy life more!!
- They sit down to work and don’t know what to do.
- They read books and consume educational material but don’t put any of it into action.
- Ideas and notes are recorded but quickly get forgotten about.
- Emails sit in their inbox marked as read but are never replied to or actioned upon."
Too close to me, for comfort! And I would add (from personal experience):[Copied from reply to Mike below.]
There's two good articles I just read on procrastination that go great with Paul's article! Both on Fast company, one called "Procrastination is an emotional problem" (read first) and the other called "This is the simple mental habit that helped me overcome procrastination (and feel good about work)" (read second.) Then write out our plan, schedule the next things, including building the habit of remembering a success, using self-compassion while learning this new habit, and sticking with our task management system as is so we're not trying to change that as well as a behavior.
[Copied from reply to Mike below.]
There's two good articles I just read on procrastination that go great with Paul's article! Both on Fast company, one called "Procrastination is an emotional problem" (read first) and the other called "This is the simple mental habit that helped me overcome procrastination (and feel good about work)" (read second.) Then write out our plan, schedule the next things, including building the habit of remembering a success, using self-compassion while learning this new habit, and sticking with our task management system as is so we're not trying to change that as well as a behavior.
Too close to me, for comfort! And I would add (from personal experience):