I get it, fitting everything into a busy schedule is hard.
There are family, friends, work, hobbies, adulting and that all comes before you this about any of your creative passions. And it’s not just as easy as sitting down and writing. We have to brainstorm, plan, research, do more planning, the list goes on…
But, this is where productivity can play a part.
It can help you to use your time more efficiently and effectively allowing you to squeeze in that bit of extra work. But how does this look in practice?
Well, lets have a look…
My Productivity equation
So, how can we take all of this into account when we look at defining productivity.
Well, productivity in it’s most basic form can be expressed as
Put simply, it is the amount of goods or services we can output in a certain amount of time. Simple really.
Make it useful
But the problem is, not all of our output can be useful. For instance, if I’m writing a book and I type my name over and over 1000s of times, my word count is going up, but I’m not getting any useful words down.
Therefore, we should update this to say
Make it fun
Ahh, that looks a bit better doesn’t it…
Now while this is factually correct, and a great starting place, Ali Abdaal feels like the fun factor can increase your productivity, and I tend to agree. If the process or task is fun, we are far more likely to enjoy it and increase our useful output. This can therefore be expressed as follows
Make it important
And for a lot of people, this understanding would be more than enough.
But, I believe that by deeming your task or project as important, you can increase your productivity even more. You might find it easier to start or an important task, or prioritise it over other things. Or you may just simply feel that you need to engage it in more because it is important.
This would look like
Now, the big thing about importance is that it is completely personal. Only you can choose what is important, and what isn’t. No one can place their own assumptions or beliefs onto you, and you them.
On one hand, this is a challenge as you need to find your own internal importance. But, if you do find this, you can see from the equation above that it would have a potentially huge impact on your productivity.
And this is why I keep assigning a high level of importance consistently. It keeps me motivated and helps me to maximise my useful output.
If you want to try and boost your productivity for a particular project/task then do your best to make it fun, and try to make it important. You’ll notice the difference straight away, and I find that the two go hand in hand. I find it more fun ticking off an important to do!
So, what’s important to you??
