Productivity Blogs, Hypocrisy and Me Just Generally Getting Some Things Off My Chest

By Charlie on April 21st, 2008 | 32

No, I’m not yelling at you, my readers, I’m just yelling. Even us happy cheery fellows can get mighty pissed.

Angry Pug For the past who knows how long, I’ve been deleting RSS feeds from my aggregator. The first ones to go are the “how to be productive” ones, or the “63 new productivity apps that will take hours to learn and mere seconds to irreparably destroy your life.” I’ve got none of those left now in my reader now.

And I like it.

Why I’ve Read my Last Productivity Post

First, I’m bored as hell with this whole subject. I pretty much was after the second or third post I read, months and months ago.

Second, I’m already productive.

Third, regardless of how brilliant the productivity info is, 99% of the readers are going to keep on doing what they’re already doing. Most likely that is something that has been working for them just fine. Be it Post-It notes, a notebook, phone calendar, whatever. It doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference. If it helps you be productive, it works.

And there’s this…

The Piece of Gold That Productivity Gurus Are Clueless About

For all the tips and tricks, none of the gurus seems to have noticed that productivity isn’t even the problem in the first place.

When we are interested in our lives, our projects and our hobbies we DO them. Happily and with passion. Hours go by in the heat of production and when we’re done our tendons ache and our eyes burn, but we’re not even slightly tired. We have to force ourselves to sleep while our imaginations continue to burn into the wee hours.

Nobody has ever habitually forced a passionate man into creating on his passion. If you like what you do, you’ll fit it in. If you don’t like it, blunt enforcement certainly isn’t going to help.

My advice is to stop being productive. Just go outside and take a walk. Go look at the sky. Go turn on your imagination somewhere, somehow, any way you can. And when you’ve found a passion you’ll know it. You’ll feel that trickle of adrenaline in your belly. Your pulse will quicken and you’ll know exactly what you’re going to do when you get back home.

The Real Secret of Productivity

This is so simple it doesn’t even warrant it’s own blog post.

How to get shit done

Make a list of things you need to do
Do them, one at a time or two or all at once, whichever works
When you get distracted and stop working…
…stop. Get back to work
Repeat if necessary

Yes, that’s pretty much it. Just wake up in the morning, make a list of important items and do them. If it’s more complicated than that and you need some guidance on how to actually make an effective list, go read Nick’s Todoodlist. It’s a brilliant, entertaining read and will change how you start your mornings.

Why I’m So Pissed

I’m tickled crimson right now because one of the gurus out there who runs the one of the largest productivity blogs between here and Neptune can’t seem to find the time to write me back and answer my two-sentence email.

Sure, that happens. I guess. But not with me. Not with James Chartrand and his partner Harry. Not with Nick Cernis. Not with Collis. Not with my mother and father. Not with some multi-million dollar execs I occasionally correspond with. Not with a bunch of other people who, no matter how busy they seem, ALWAYS write me back.

But why can’t this productivity whiz? Am I at the bottom of his to-do list? Or am I lost somewhere between his iPhone, Things, Basecamp, Moleskine and iCal productivity tools? Yes, that is sarcasm, but I don’t think it’s unwarranted.

“Well perhaps there’s nothing in it for him,” you say. Oh, but there is. I’m on assignment right now doing something that will no doubt make him and I both a good chunk of change.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to do the project anymore.” Possibly, but he sure hasn’t told me.

“Maybe he’s too important and has way more important things cooking.” Nobody is “too important” for someone else. We’re people. All of us. We’re here together, right now. My world is his world, and mine is his.

So what should I do? Give him the benefit of the doubt? I have already, going on six weeks. And besides, it’s no longer doubt. Now it’s certainty and first-hand knowledge that his business ethics, communication and just plain old manners suck.

Am I giving up on the assignment and throwing it all out? No way, dog!

I’ve poured myself into it.

And it’s good.

And I love it, which is why I’ve been carrying on alone, without input from the person who asked for it in the first place.

Nope. This assignment will be finished and will remain mine. I’ll sell it myself through my own sites, to customers who I will communicate with and respond to if they write me.

I won’t sell as many without his gigantic readership behind me, this I know. But it’s not about the money is it? It’s about the passion. It’s about connecting with one, two or a thousand people who care enough to write me, to laugh with me, to cry with me and to support a guy who doesn’t know much outside the realm of his own imagination.

These are people for whom I create. That’s a privilege, and it’s one of the richer payments I get for simply being alive.

_____________________________

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