Productivity | Cosas que pensar

Coming back from holidays, we all know there’s something wrong with the way we organize our life and work. Is it posssible to work for the rest of your life with good results without burning out?

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University, a productivity expert and an author. If you’ve ever felt that you’re not as productive as you could be, you’re not alone.

But what if the goal isn’t to be more productive, but to let go of the goals that aren’t serving you? What if the power of saying no to more things is the most important skill you can learn?

Expect to learn what our current problem with being productive is, why pseudo-productivity is a catastrophe, the advantages to what Cal calls Slow Productivity, how to better organise your communication, the best strategies for implementing a productivity schedule, how to stop saying yes all the time and much more… –

00:00 Our Current Definition of Productivity

03:08 The Evolution of Productivity Advice

12:58 Most People’s Relationship With Productivity

20:31 Typical Days of Historical Figures

26:19 How to Work at a Natural Pace

37:00 Dealing With the Increased Workload of Success

43:41 The Insane Output of Brandon Sanderson

50:16 Creating a Productive Work Environment at Home

53:29 Getting Better At Saying No

1:02:55 The Benefit of Quotas & Templates

1:10:10 Being Busy Vs Producing Success

1:20:40 How to Optimise for Quality

1:25:59 Slowing Down the Rate of Communication

1:31:23 The Price You Need to Pay for Slow Productivity

1:36:29 Steps to Begin Unwinding Bad Work Habits

1:43:58 The Importance of Writing

1:49:51 Where to Find Cal

What is the real value of your work? How can you measure it?

There’s something rotten at the core of performance management, and we all can smell it:

Why and how do companies often punish their most productive people and reward inefficiency disguised as being very busy?
Is the focus on productivity a flawed system? Does it rely on subjective measures or does it accurately reflect individual contributions?
How can employees use this system to their advantage? What are the ethical implications of manipulating productivity metrics?
Do companies measure and reward the value of work based on proxies that have nothing to do with it (such as the number of hours you spend at the office)?
Why are managers unable to define and measure good goals, and manage their people’s performance accordingly? Why do they feel unconfortable if they can’t micromanage their team?
Have you thought that we still manage human resources according to the mentality of the XIXth century?

A critical view on performance management and productivity measurement

If you have ever asked yourself such questions, you may like this thought-provoking speech by Rich Gilbert, discussing the concept of productivity in the workplace. He argues that:

Companies are unable to accurately measure individual productivity and instead rely on setting low expectations that employees can easily exceed.
This creates a system where employees can (and often do) game the system by meeting minimal requirements without actually contributing significantly.
Employees can use this to their advantage by understanding the expectations and delivering just enough to meet them. This allows for more free time and potentially less stress.