Lately, I’ve been thinking about the Productivity Gap – the disconnect between what we want (and sometimes need) to get done and what we actually can get done.
That gap determines whether or not we feel productive, irrespective of whether we actually were. Take these two scenarios:
Marsha has twenty tasks on their to-do list for today but only completes ten.
Arnold has five tasks on their to-do list for today and completes all five.
All tasks being equal, Marsha was objectively more productive. But who do you think felt more productive at the end of the day?
Marsha got more done, so does ten unfinished tasks really matter? It matters quite a bit.
Those uncompleted tasks have a way of snowballing over time. Twenty overdue tasks become forty become sixty. Soon your to-do list is so overwhelming as to be completely useless and you start avoiding it altogether.
Worse still, it’s at our most busy that we’re most vulnerable to urgency bias; we develop a tunnel vision that keeps us focused on the most pressing tasks right in front of us (like answering emails), losing sight of the bigger picture and with it, our progress.
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At the end of the day, the Productivity Gap simply wears us down. It’s like running a race without ever reaching the finish line. How do we find the motivation to keep going? Why not get sucked down a YouTube rabbit hole or get distracted by Twitter? It’s not like we were ever going to finish anyway.
To close the Gap, most of us focus on getting as much done as possible. We perfect our systems, prioritize our tasks, and time block our days in an attempt to eek a little more efficiency out of each hour. But productivity best practices have diminishing returns –– you can only optimize to a point.
There’s a much more effective solution: put less on your list in the first place.
Try identifying just one important task each day (a method called the highlight method).
Speaking from experience, one important task never feels like enough. It feels wrong on a deep, moral level. It makes me feel like I'm being lazy and complacent. But the funny thing is, when I don’t take the time to pick my “highlight”, often, I don’t cross off anything on my to-do list at all.
Completing one important thing every day adds up. Imagine what you could accomplish in a month or a year or a decade if you consistently showed up and crossed off one important thing five days a week, 48-ish weeks a year?
Next week, try closing your own Productivity Gap. Start each day with one important thing on your to-do list. Just one. No cheating. No matter what else you go on to complete or not complete, give yourself permission to feel satisfied and productive having accomplished that one important task. As Cal Newport put it in his book Deep Work, “When you’re done be done, and go enjoy the rest of the day.”
Productively,
Becky & the Doist team
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Todoist's newest feature keeps all the info you need to complete your tasks with your tasks. See 8 different ways Todoisters are using task descriptions to spend less time tracking things down and more time getting things done.
Get acquainted with task descriptions →
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Learn to enjoy the journey, not just the outcome.
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For the developers and the development-curious, the engineering teams at Doist have launched a new technical blog dedicated to sharing the many lessons learned building Todoist and Twist.
In the inaugural post, machine learning engineer Dominic Monn writes about how to design explainable machine learning products. The algorithms that run our lives often feel like black boxes, but it doesn't have to be that way:
"As we pushed more of our ML experiments to Twist, such as our first stab at a smart inbox and safety systems, it was apparent to us just how important explaining our model exactly is. Claiming that ML is “unpredictable”, a “black box”, or that “we don’t control things,” is simply not acceptable anymore."
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What we're recommending...
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Because employees can't close the Productivity Gap on their own. Tweeted by @JasonPunyon
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A New Yorker essay on the promise and peril of deadlines that's equal parts delightful and distressing. Can't live with them, can't get anything done without them 🙃
"My relationship to deadlines, like that of almost everyone I know, is full of contradictions. I crave them and avoid them, depend on them and resent them. Due dates form the rhythm of my life as a journalist, and there is some comfort in these external expectations. But a deadline is also a train barrelling down the track, and you’re the one strapped to the rails. The time-sensitive obligations that add both structure and suspense to our lives—tax returns, loan payments, license renewals, job applications, event planning, teeth cleanings, biological clocks—can inspire nauseating dread as much as plucky action."
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I have yet to manage a regular meditation habit, but I have recently started using the simple 4-7-8 breathing technique before bed and whenever I feel particularly stressed or overwhelmed during the day.
A large body of research shows deep breathing exercises like 4-7-8 calm the body's natural fight-or-flight response, thereby reducing stress and anxiety, combating insomnia, aiding in emotion control, and improving attention. From the Scientific American:
"Less well known is that the effects also occur in the opposite direction: the state of the body affects emotions. Studies show that when your face smiles, your brain reacts in kind—you experience more pleasant emotions. Breathing, in particular, has a special power over the mind."
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Productivity method spotlight...
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"Especially whenever our affairs seem to be in crisis, we are almost compelled to give our first attention to the urgent present rather than to the important future." – Dwight D. Eisenhower
Urgent vs. Important →
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