Stop Trying to be Productive

Counterintuitive ways to get more things done

Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash

Many people are constantly fighting the clock and trying to find ways to manage their time better. It is an uphill battle.

By letting go, we could potentially leave a lot of the toxic stress behind that comes from always chasing productivity while maintaining high levels of productivity.

It is not always about doing more.

Here are some counterintuitive ways to get more things done:

Start caring less

I used to work for a company where you were expected to answer emails and Slack messages within one or two hours.

This drove me crazy, and my days were a frantic blur of messages, updates, meetings, phone calls, refreshing Slack, refreshing email, and trying to get some meaningful work done in between.

Not only did it make me miserable — I felt tired and distracted after finishing work — but I also didn’t manage to excel at the tasks that really mattered. The distractions messed up my ability to do deep work.

In most jobs, it is not answering immediately on Slack that really matters.

It is things such as devising a better and more efficient way to do things or drafting a great contract proposal for that big, potential client.

Eventually, I decided to be less available and block out a couple of time blocks between one and two hours each day where I wouldn’t check Slack or email. I would only focus on the most important and biggest task at hand.

It made a world of difference, and I started feeling more present. I could commit to doing deep work again. Not only did my performance increase, but I also felt a lot better in general. It has also become much easier to avoid distractions in my spare time since I have become less reliant on digital dopamine from constantly checking email and Slack notifications.

A few times, my coworkers thought I was too slow at responding to them, but my increased overall performance more than made up for it.

Put the phone away

The phone can be our biggest deterrent to productivity, energy, and dopamine. Put it away, and if you can’t, at least turn off notifications on almost everything.

Stop caring as much about how productive you are

If you begin caring less, you might end up performing better due to less pressure. The beautiful thing is that less pressure equals more flow.

I used to be the kind of person who felt guilty for not being always productive. I would fill all the small moments of the day, cramming in as many podcasts, audiobooks, or phone calls as possible. Even while making food, I would feel the need to absorb information. Not only did this make me miserable, but it also made me less efficient.

I was more preoccupied with seeming busy to myself, like how some employees behave in their boss’s presence, than with moving the needle on what mattered in my life.

It is not the number of hours we work every day that matters. It is how much you move the needle on the most important things. Of course, those two things are usually correlated, but it is much better to allow yourself some leisure so you are ready to be super focused when it is time to work.

Use The Eisenhower Principle

This excellent task management strategy divides tasks into one of four different quadrants. These are:

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• Urgent and important: Tasks you finish right now.

• Important but not urgent: Tasks you schedule for later.

• Urgent but not important: Tasks you delegate (or eliminate).

• Neither urgent nor important: Tasks you eliminate.

  
  

The more tasks you either delegate or, even better, delete, the better. A small to-do list and an open calendar are the biggest luxuries out there.

I find that when I commit do doing less things at a higher quality, I feel and perform better. Worry less about being productive and more about creating systems and habits that make productivity effortless.

Take breaks

By taking long breaks without the phone or digital entertainment, I find it much easier to recharge and be ready to be productive again. Cooling off and relaxing also gives the mind the chance to make sense of things.

When we get our minds off our work, we are ready to dive into it again. If you take a break and scroll on your phone, it will have the opposite effect.

Focus on doing a big thing every day

I try to finish one big, important task for the day, then do a few small tasks and call it a day. Switching between tasks constantly wastes time since reaching a deep focus takes time, so focusing on one thing at a time is much more efficient. In addition, it is usually the big things that will impact your career and life the most.

Final thoughts

You may become more productive by caring less, letting your shoulders down, and allowing yourself to walk at a slower pace. At the very least, it will be more healthy.

As the NAVY Seal’s mantra goes:

“Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

I was in the military for a year, and we constantly had to mantle and dismantle our weapons, sometimes as fast as possible. Accepting a slower pace to avoid mistakes was always a lot more efficient.

Trying to mantle the weapon fast always causes something to get jammed or another kind of mistake. Counterintuitively, accepting a slower pace tends to make you faster.

Productivity can work the same way. Slow and steady wins the race.