nelsonic
commented
4 years ago 
Open nelsonic opened 5 years ago
nelsonic
commented
4 years ago
nelsonic
commented
4 years ago Want to Be More Productive? Try Doing Less. https://hbr.org/2020/05/want-to-be-more-productive-try-doing-less https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23284912
Context
A person in our community who is struggling to get into a sustainable work/life routine that matches their Circadian Clock mentioned that they feel more "productive" in the evenings 20:00 - 01:00 which makes it difficult for them to "switch off" at 22:00.
The person in question is fixated on the idea/word "productive" and I keep trying to explain to them that "productive" is not the measure they should use when reflecting on how they use their time.
What is "Productivity" and How does it Differ from "Effectiveness"?
As an organisation, we need to be clear on the difference between "productive" and "effective".
"Productive" means you are churning out a lot of "stuff" regardless of importance or priority. "Effective" means you're focussed and getting the most important, valuable & strategic things done. 🥇
As Dan North @tastapod said in his great talk on "Patterns of Effective Teams":
I would much rather have an effective hour than a productive day.
Volume of code or other creative work done is only relevant when practicing. When you are engaged in deliberate practice, you should still strive for effectiveness, (i.e. don't write the same "hello world" app ten thousand times and expect to magically be recruited to work at Google! build something that you - or someone else - want/need. then iterate & refine.) quantity is a good metric for beginners, because quality only comes after doing a lot of creative work.
When solving a specific problem the objective is not to "produce" more, rather it's to have the mental clarity and focus to do exactly what needs to be done to solve the problem without any mistakes causing any harm in the process.
If you are even slightly tired, you should not perform highly demanding cognitive tasks. (this is fairly logical to some people but it's worth repeating/writing for others ...) Both your cognitive, decision-making and judgement abilities are gradually "spent" throughout the day. If you wake up at 08:00 and spend the whole day (e.g: 08:30 - 19:30) working at a screen you have been awake for 12 hours (working for 11h) and your brain is has been fried for the day. Then are your claim to be "most productive" from 20:00 - 01:00 ...? You might feel like you are "getting things done" at this time but the reality is both your brain and body are exhausted and there is a high likelihood that (a) you will be distracted and not being effective with your evening. (b) you are cognitively impaired because you are exhausted. (c) you think you are "making progress" but all you're doing is running very fast on a treadmill.
I Get It, This is The Only Time You Can Do Your Own Work ...
I've been where the person in question is (in life) where you feel that there are so many distractions, interruptions, meetings and demands on your time during the "work day" (e.g: 09:00 - 18:00 or whatever your "on the clock" time is) that you feel you can only get your own work done after everyone
elsehas left (you alone) for the day; I get it.What I am trying to highlight with this issue/post is that you might feel that 20:00 - 01:00 is the only time you can work, but the reality is very different. If you measure your effectiveness by tracking what you actually achieve during the day (rather than how much "activity" you appear to have) you will rapidly see that your evenings, when you are exhausted and unfocussed, are nowhere near as effective as spending the first hour of the day on the most important task.
“Don't mistake activity for achievement.”
~ John Wooden
Your wheels may appear to be turning, but is your vehicle going in the right direction? Would you get to your destination faster if you took removed the park/hand break and were rested enough to not make any mistakes along the way?
Chronotype?
There is evidence for the concept of "chronotypes". Research suggests that adolescents and young adults prefer a delayed sleep period and can have a more "optimal functioning time" if their day starts later. see:
The research tends to focus on people between the ages of 17 and 21 and concludes that Highschool and University Lectures should start later in the day for certain people. Nowhere in the literature does it suggest that a young adult should work 10 hours at a desk and only after that time they will achieve their highest level of focus. There is zero evidence that studying (or doing any other cognitively demanding task) at the end of one's day is the most effective action.
Research has proposed an evolutionary link between chronotype and nighttime vigilance in ancestral societies. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2017.0967 But this is not an excuse to stay up late because "nighttime vigilance" of a hunter–gatherer has virtually nothing to do with creative or other cognitively demanding work. It makes sense that our paleolithic ancestors would have designated one or more members of the tribe to "keep watch" for predators and rival tribes at night and these individuals may have adapted to being awake at night. The same is true of modern-day "night shift" workers, they (partially) adapt to working at night and sleeping during the day. But there is a big difference between staying alert and observing for intruders or doing low cognitive intensity tasks as a shift worker compared to the work of a creative technologist that requires intense focus and creativity.
Bottom Line
Track your Tasks/Time, Monitor your effectiveness not "productivity" and be honest with yourself when you analyse the data; one fresh, focussed & effective hour in the morning without any distractions or interruptions to get your most important task done is worth 6 hours of evening "productivity" when you are tired, half-distracted & mind buzzing from the hectic day.
Go to bed when you first feel tired in the evening in accordance with your circadian rhythm. Wake/get up early (e.g: before the sun rises!) and get your most important task done first thing. The momentum this "first win" of the day will give you will set you up to succeed for the rest of the day!