Zenhabits.net has just published an article which had me nodding along in appreciation. It’s called Productivity 2.0: How the New Rules of Work Are Changing the Game.
The author describes a set of eight new rules for workers and compares how each of these looked in “old school” productivity to productivity 2.0. He defines old school productivity as a focus on being more productive by cranking out the tasks, multi-tasking, working faster and being organized (sound familiar?) and productivity 2.0 as learning to work with a deeper focus.
I will let you read the article yourself, but point out a couple of rules (number 4,5 and 6) that struck a chord with me:
4. Don’t multi-task — multi-project and single-task.
Old school: Multi-tasking is productive. Juggling tasks shows how productive you are, says old school productivity.
Productivity 2.0: Multi-project and single-task. While I won’t go on once again about single-tasking — focusing on one task at a time to be more effective — I will say that multi-projecting has its uses.
5. Produce less, not more.
Old school: Produce more. Again, the idea was to crank out as much as possible. Good managers tried to get as much productivity out of their workers as possible. Good workers produced more.
Productivity 2.0: Produce less. More isn’t necessarily better. The old thinking can lead to a big pile of crap. Instead, focus on quality, on innovation, on creativity. Focus on the important stuff.
6. Forget about organization — use technology.
Old School: Be organized. The productive worker of the past had drawers full of files, all organized thoroughly so that nothing would ever be lost. He had a Filofax full of contacts and appointments. He organized his computer files into folders and sub-folders and sub-sub-folders and on and one. It took a lot of time, but it was worth it.
Productivity 2.0: Tag, archive and search. With technology, that’s not necessary. Tag a file with a certain label, archive it, and find it later through its label or through search. This approach saves a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of headaches. You can spend your time on more important tasks.
I bet you you recognise a couple of people from the descriptions above - the questions you have to ask yourself is
Which one am I? And who do I want to be?
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