Increased Productivity

We all look for ways to improve our productivity, eventually shipping more value, getting more things done, and increasing our impact. Earning more is rarely mentioned out of courtesy.

Various solutions, tools, and patterns are available out there that promise the Holy Grail, aka the trophy of increased productivity.

From time to time, I watch and listen to productivity experts who share how they have spent some years improving this while doing yoga in the middle of working hours, bicycling before grabbing their keyboard, or putting their mobile phone in the fridge. All these are fine. Still, they are not the remedy. Let's see why.

We all want to do things faster, do more, and eventually earn more. Very few admit the latter, though, and even fewer make all this work. The result? People deliver at a rate of 80% tops because they tend to lower quality standards while hustling to do more. Why? Because this is the easiest way to do more. Cutting corners.

The effort needed to deliver the remaining 20% is 80% of the total effort. The Pareto rule applies extremely well here, too.

It is funny how we do this in the tech field, especially in the era where AI tools might give us sometimes that full 80% before we even manage to snap our fingers. Yet we behave precisely like that.

Let me give you an example. How many times have you heard the expression "Today I'll work on X feature/increment/agreement/report/document"? You come across this dozens of times every week, right?

Let's see an alternative. How many times have you heard, "Today I 'll deliver this X feature/increment/agreement/report/document"? Hmm, not that frequently compared to the 1st version, correct?

We tend to promote the things we will deal with and the general direction we are about to take, not the results we intend to ship. Why? Maybe we are uncertain about reaching our goal, so we don't want to commit. Maybe we are afraid to look silly in the end after falling short. Maybe we lack the actual experience and the skills needed. Maybe goals feel stressful. All these together?

Discussions about the result-driven mindset are amazing, but this is not how we tend to function in real life. The statement "I will work on X" doesn't necessarily mean that "I 'll solve/deliver X." Nope, it doesn't. This is where the problem lies, and it is called intentional work.

We struggle to work intentionally and tend to be purposeless. We are uncertain about the outcome of our work, and we dislike adding pressure on our shoulders.

How are we going to improve our productivity if we are ok with just participating in the league and not playing for the championship? We are doomed to fail, and yes, productivity won't skyrocket.

That said, if we want to improve our so-called productivity, we need to breathe, talk, and work for the results and the value we are about to deliver.

Productivity means results, and we meet them only if we work intentionally. Cheers!!