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What’s Missing in Productivity Today?

read more Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:00:27 +0000 Dustin Wax Featured Productivity advice contact-management failure gtd information management perfectionism software time-management tips

This month, we asked Lifehack.org contributors — and you, our readers — to think about the things that are missing in today’s productivity systems. Not only the areas where the "Big Name" systems fall short, but the gaps in our own systems, the places where we as individuals fall down.

The Lifehack.org community rose to the challenge, offering a variety of thought-provoking posts and comments that hopefully gave us all something to mull over before we embark on yet another round of system-tweaking.

In chronological order, here are all the posts from Lifehack.org this month that set out to answer the question, "What’s missing in today’s productivity systems?"

My Redundant Productivity System (Joel Falconer)
While "touch it once" might be a good rule for inbox processing, having multiple, redundant copies of your crucual work and reference documents is an important part of staying productive — even when (especially when) disaster strikes.
10 Tips for Improving Your Appointment Setting Skills (Thursday Bram)
Setting an appointment means more than jotting a time and name in your calendar; here’s 10 things to think about to avoid wasting time before or during scheduled appointments.
Why doing nothing may sometimes be the best action of all (Adrian Savage)
Your brain is wired to act, even when the facts aren’t all in. Slow down and make sure you have all the information you need before you act — and consider whether doing nothing might be your wisest course of (in)action.
Personal Productivity in the 21st Century (Dustin M. Wax)
In their attempt to reduce everything to discrete chunks of doing, today’s productivity systems don’t leave space for the kinds of work that characterize most of our jobs today. How can we open more space for creativity, reflection, and just being?
The Gaps in the Standard Address Book (Thursday Bram)
7 ways to improve the off-the-shelf address book or contact management program.
Simplify Your Information Intake (Joel Falconer)
Productivity starts with the things we choose not to do — and limiting how much email and web content we handle, and how we handle it — can go a long ways toward creating more productive days.
Audiobook Review: David Allen’s "GTD > Weekly Review" (Dustin M. Wax)
The weekly review is far and away the red-headed stepchild of David Allen’s GTD methodology. Arguably the most important part of the system (the thing that makes it a system), the weekly review is the most likely part ot be skipped or minimized. Allen’s new 3-CD set offers help getting back on track and rethinking the role and importance of the weekly review.
The Real Trouble with Productivity (Lisa Gates)
Productivity as an aim in and of itself is an empty thing, indeed. True productivity lies in the ways we make meaning in our lives, and is grounded in a vision worth pursuing. What’s yours?
Small Projects Generate Good Feelings (Karl Staib)
Productivity needn’t be only about marketing campaigns and writing best-sellers; little projects give us the opportunity to plan, carry out, and finish, creating satisfaction in a job well done that will carry over into the rest of our lives.
There’s More to Productivity Than Time Management (Dustin M. Wax)
Being productive doesn’t mean getting the most stuff done in the least amount of time, it means doing the necessary stuff as efficiently as possible so we can focus on the things that add meaning to our lives. Make time for the most useless thing you do!
Self-Discipline: The Foundation of Productive Living (Joel Falconer)
"Self-discipline is the power to act on ideas." Learn to get yourself from thought to action — especially where all this productivity talk is concerned!
What are the aids for increasing GENUINE productivity? (Adrian Savage)
There are literally hundreds of software products out there that claim to increase productivity, yet all of them do basically the same thing: categorize todo lists. What might a program that really increased productivity — that helped us do more or better in the same or less time — look like?
Look for the Solution within the Problem (Paul Sloane)
Systematic Inventive Thinking is a way of thinking about problems that sees a problem as a chain of unwanted effects and seeks to break the chain. It offers inventive solutions to problems where resources are limited.
10 HARD Ways to Make Your Life Better (Dustin M. Wax)
Too many people promise an easy way to wealth, fame, and happiness. Doing something hard, even if you fail, is often far more satisfying — and truth be told, probably a lot more certain.
Change Your Day, Change Your Life, Change the World: A Review of “New Day Revolution” by Sam Davidson and Stephen Moseley (Dustin M. Wax)
One way to create more meaning is to direct your actions towards changing the world. Davidson and Mosely’s book offers a few ideas to help you start bringing your day-to-day activities in line with your vision of a better world.
Go on a High-Information Diet (Dustin M. Wax)
The key to productivity isn’t to minimize the information you take in — you need as much of that as you can get! Rather, the key lies in reducing the amount of superfluous junk, to go on the intellectual version of a high-fiber, low-fat diet.
Getting to Good Enough (Dustin M. Wax)
Get things done by accepting less than perfection. 80% good is better than 100% nothing.
Productivity maybe . . . but for what purpose? (Adrian Savage)
By every emasure, we’re more productive today than a generation ago — yet we have less leisure, less connection, and less happiness. Why? For most of us, it’s because the time we free up weighs on us, and we seek desperately to fill it with even more work. There are other choices!
How to Maximize Efficiency by Grouping Tasks (Joel Falconer)
An antidote to "Cranking widgets"? Tips on thinking and working at the "big picture" level by grouping tasks.
Welcome Failure (Paul Sloane)
If you want innovation, you need to learn to embrace failure.

There you have it. 20 takes on what it might mean to be productive in today’s world and what our systems fail to take into account. What do you think? What’s missing in your system?

Dustin M. Wax is a contributing editor and project manager at lifehack.org. He is also an anthropology and women's studies professor in Las Vegas, NV where he lives with his partner and three children. His personal site can be found at dwax.org.

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DIY Education: Teach Yourself

read more Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:30:50 +0000 Thursday Bram Lifestyle autodidact learning self-education

Education is touted as the greatest way to get ahead in this world. And, in general, it’s a great strategy. Maybe you have the perfect idea for an invention and you need a little engineering know-how, or maybe you just need to get ahead of the guy in the next cubicle over. No matter what plan you have for getting ahead, odds are a little learning will help. The problem, as I see it, is that education is also an industry. You want a string of fancy letters behind your name? Prepare to pay for it.

While you may need a certificate in order to be a licensed professional of some sort, however, you don’t need to attend an expensive class for many of your other learning needs. There are plenty of stunning examples of people who have gotten ahead based on their self-education — enough that there is a fancy term for them; they’re called autodidacts. Step up and join the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Stanley Kubrick and Frank Zappa.

Resources — Getting Started

The Independent Scholar’s Handbook — PDF: The Canadian Academy of Independent Scholars has made The Independent Scholar’s Handbook available as a free download. It’s a full book (322 pages) of information on how to study on your own, as well as tips on finding resources on the topics you want to study.

The Autodidact Project: Ralph Dumain has put together information about autodidactism — self-education at the Autodidact Project, including a number of study guides.

Resources — Learning Materials

The LifeHack How-To Wiki: Consider starting your self-education right here with LifeHack. There’s even an article on self-education on the wiki that you might find useful.

Fathom: A number of universities, led by Columbia University, have put together a whole host of free resources at Fathom. The information is arranged into courses, making it possible to take short classes from the American Film Institute, the London School of Economics and other prestigious institutes for free.

Wikiversity: While there are some pretty significant gaps in the do-it-yourself courses Wikiversity offers, I’ve found some great resources on science and business subjects — two areas that my college major just didn’t emphasize.

Mentoring and Interviewing: Just sitting down and talking with someone who is more of an expert on a topic than you are can introduce you to new areas of learning that you hadn’t even considered. You can set up formal interviews with experts or have more casual conversations.

iTunes U: Through iTunes, a huge number of schools offer recordings of lectures in every subject. Currently, I’m working through Stanford’s course on the Future of the Internet, and after that, I’m thinking about listening in on an evolutionary biology class.

Your Local Library: Most libraries offer far more learning resources than simple how-to books. My boyfriend is currently working his way through our local library’s collection of Chinese lessons on CD. And if you aren’t familiar with your local library, I recommend PublicLibraries.com — it’s a huge directory of public libraries, mostly U.S. with some international listings.

TheHomeSchoolMom.com: TheHomeSchoolMom.com, along with thousands of other homeschooling websites offer up all sorts of free educational resources from curriculums to texts. While these sites rarely have advanced coverage of a topic, if you’re looking to start with the basics, you’re likely to find exactly what you need.

Project Gutenberg: While there are a number of websites where you can get free e-books, Project Gutenberg is one of the best known, and seems to have one of the widest selections. You may not be able to find many technical works there, but if you’re interested in the classics or history, Project Gutenberg is the place to go.

Staying on Track

Anyone can read a book. Most people can even report back on the pertinent information that book contained. But it can be much harder to synthesize information together from multiple sources, especially if those sources have been picked out without a clear plan of attack. I’ve been known to do this — I pick up random books at the library and start in on new topics with no plan whatsoever. Learn from my mistake — trying to put together ideas on the fly can be extremely difficult.

If you’re starting in on a new topic, it makes sense to make a plan of some sort. Your plan doesn’t need to be much more formal than “I’m going to read the Wikipedia article on Topic X, and then check if the library has any of the books Wikipedia cites.” That much of a plan, though, keeps you from coming up with a book list with fifty books that you won’t be able to finish. (Once again, I speak from experience.)

From there, your self-education can be as simple as reading and taking a few notes. I generally try to write up some sort of report or article on a new topic, just because information seems to stick a bit better when I explain it to someone else. I can just about always find a new home for such a report, as well — a blog post, an article, etc. Occasionally, I even manage to get paid for all that learning I’ve done.

Lastly…

I don’t have anything against formalized learning — I really enjoy lecture-format classes, actually — but if I took all the classes I wanted to, my student loans would be equal to the national debt. Studying on my own has made continuing my education far less expensive and potentially more interesting. I never know what my new learning might suggest for the next topic of study.

Thursday Bram is a freelance journalist of over five years experience. She studied Communications at the University of Tulsa and is currently working on her MA in Communication Design. Her work has focused primarily on entrepreneurial topics. More information about Thursday is available at thursdaybram.com.

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