feeling productive actually makes you more productive (no joke)

i think this idea came from getting things done, but i’m not sure. one crazy thing about the way our brains work is positive feedback mechanisms. the more we can use these to our favor, the better.

now before getting too deep into this, a positive feedback loop isn’t necessary one that is “positive” in the most common sense of the word. it technically means that one action triggers the pathway to more of that action. a stampede is a result of a positive feedback loop as is eating at a popular restaurant. this is opposed to negative feedback loops in which an action triggers less of that action (more on that over here).

ok so what implication does positive feedback have on feeling productive? basically, when you feel like you’ve accomplished a goal, this triggers a release of certain chemicals that makes you feel good. most people have experienced this. most people have also experienced the reverse of this. when you don’t accomplish a goal, you feel bad and can even be demotivated.

both of these pathways are positive feedback loops. so how could you use that to be more productive? set the bar for success really low and make sure you can hit it. over time, you will build confidence, concrete knowledge of your ability to do that task, and you’ll also probably improve at it. then, you can slowly move the bar for success further and further so that you’re doing more, better.

example: in january of this year, i set out to write for ten minutes a day with a 200 word-cap. i wasn’t 100% successful, but by my six-month self-check in, i had 47 posts. i also noticed that i had, completely naturally, increased the amount of time i was writing everyday to 20 minutes. i think this is because i was getting more confident about my abilities and, because of that, i had more that i wanted to say. and more recently (just last week), i hit my 100th post for the year and i’m up to 30 minutes per post (including writing and research).*

now, if i had said to myself in january, write 100 blog posts by sept, i imagine my likelihood of success would have been very low. but because i set the bar from the other direction, i felt little successes along the way, i’ve got 100+ posts, and now it actually feels weird to not write. in fact, this is my second post today and i’m probably going to write two more before 10a (it’s 9:30a).

being strategic about making myself feel productive has been massively important for my productivity. and i’ve seen it work for other people, too.

it’d probably work for you, too.

* does this mean i’m a writer!?!??! :O

out in the world is better than in your head

this piece of advice has completely revolutionized how i approach the world. i wish i could remember exactly where it came from. that probably means it’s mashup of a few different ideas (curtis ogden’s general approach to blogging, harold jarche’s piece on his inspirations for working out loud, the platform revolution’s “good ideas are public domain” quote, etc.). 

anyways, the point is that almost everything is better out in the world than in your head. this applies to pretty much everything: raw ideas, partially developed thoughts and theories, drawings, et cetera.

i’ve noticed in my productivity coaching practice (i’m up to four clients as of today!) and also in my life that most people are just really resistant to publishing. there are many sources of fear. self-critique is the overarching, but that can present in a number of ways. sometimes its a fear of not being good enough for others (check out ira glass talking about the difference between your skills and your taste), sometimes it’s the fear that it won’t even be as good as you think it was in your head, sometimes it’s a fear of theft.

either way, the reasons to get it out anyways are three-fold.

1. first of all, just putting something out into the world puts you way ahead of most people. again, because most people face the fear and never overcome it, just taking that first step is huge.
2. second of all, even though the thing you put out likely won’t be perfect or what you wished it was, most people started out sucking at their thing before they got good at it. this is a recurring theme on the obsessed with design podcast and was heavily featured in this week’s episode with bob ewing.
3. once you put something out there, the people who you look up to at your thing can give you concrete and constructive critique. and while self-teaching is always possible, the more guidance and constructive feedback you get, the faster your growth pathway will be.

so. get your shit out of your head and into the world.

the quotes:

Dude, suckin’ at something is the first step to being sorta good at something.
—jake, adventure time

constrained creativity process update: post 101

this morning i wrote my 100th post. i’m spending about 30 minutes per post these days. 20-25 on writing and 5-10 on research and light editing.

why having a fully functioning (technology) system is critical to stress-free productivity

one of the biggest lessons i learned from david allen’s getting things done (gtd) is about how the human brain handles information and responsibilities.

for better or worse, our brains are designed to help us not forget things. i forget the exact terminology he used for this phenomenon, but almost everyone has experienced it. your brain helping you not forget looks like this: you get an email that requires a response. however, you can’t respond right now because you’re headed into a three hour meeting. you focus on the meeting and then later, on your drive home, you have the “oh shit! i forgot to respond to that email!” moment.

when a task that requires action enters your conscious task processing and doesn’t finish, your subconscious brain holds onto it. this is important because if we could never move things back and forth between these levels of consciousness, we would never get anything done. however, just because a task isn’t in your conscious mind, doesn’t mean it’s not taking up energy. in fact, your brain uses a small amount of energy for each subconscious task it holds onto.

so one not-so-great implication of this great thing your brain does to help you out is use more energy when you have lots of unprocessed tasks.

the other implication of this is that your brain is strategic about when it pushes things back into your conscious mind. basically, your subconscious waits until you are unfocused and seizes the opportunity to interject with one of the many things you need to be doing. many people experience this in the shower or in transit (driving, walking, biking). it can also happen when you settle down to take on a large, important task (starting that big report, taking on a big design task, etc).

the trouble with this is that this prompting totally wrecks your ability to focus on the task at hand. it undermines your ability to get into flow and that can destroy your productivity.

ok, so those are all the negative consequences of not handling tasks in the moment. but, of course, we can’t respond to everything the moment it enters our consciousness. if we did, we’d forever be responding to urgent things and non-urgent but important things would never get done (and the implications of THAT are dire).

so what’s the solution? you need to placate your subconscious brain such that it lets go of unprocessed tasks. this, in turn, allows you just to use your conscious brain to focus on what’s at hand.

how do you do it? by having/building good personal systems to handle those thoughts. mine systems (heavily influenced by gtd methodology) consists of a comprehensive task management system (which is really just several todo lists), a calendar system, email addresses, and specific protocols about how those three things interact.

i think i’ll take the next few days to explain the different parts of my system and how it all works together. for now, though, i’m WAY over time.

how much work should i be doing?

theory time!

as i’ve been learning about how to manage my own workflow, i’ve slowly been developing a theory about work. the hypothesis: my maximum work load capacity should be determined by the amount of heavy-thinking time i can carve out for myself.

as i have optimized and tested out my limits, i’ve noticed a few patterns.

one: i feel (and believe i am) most productive when i have multiple meaningful projects moving, but not too many. when i don’t have enough going, i seek out ways to fill my time. and then sometimes, without having noticed it happen, i will have put myself into “too busy” land. this makes me feel stressed and undermines my ability to move forward on my projects at the right speed (either the speed the projects need to move at or the speed as determined by other external factors).

two: when i feel i’ve got a good balance, i have just enough maker work (see paul graham’s piece about maker time vs manager time if that doesn’t make sense) to need to flow.

three: when i have too much going, the need for manager time is too high. collaboration requires coordinated timelines for deliverables and also the need for meetings. if each project requires some baseline of maker time + manager time, my frustration point seems to pop up when i have to do so much coordination that it interrupts my ability to make (via maker time).

ok so some parts of that are redundant i realize, but whatever. i’m going to try and watch my schedule to see if i can test out this hypothesis with myself. ​

caveat: if i’m being honest, i live in a very particular socioeconomic bubble. most of the people i know are knowledge workers. i don’t think this work capacity hypothesis can ever apply to everyone. i can already imagine that it doesn’t apply to any of my friends who farm, cook, or teach physical fitness. this way of balancing a work load might also be highly undesirable for some people. every theory has its limits (and this one is very much still under construction).