One thing at a time

Posted under Productivity

The other day, I posted about “single-minded” work focus, where it is better to work on completing one task or objective at a time. It is much better to accomplish one thing completely than 3 things half way. The Thinking Faster blog has more good comments in this regard. So turn off the TV, phone, email client and IM clients and give it a read.

Link: One thing at a time.

I’m back on my soapbox about personal productivity. For some reason it seems like a lot of what I think about runs against conventional wisdom. For example, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be productive. Most of us would say that it means getting something done quickly and effectively, with less time and less resource that otherwise possible. At least that’s my going in position.

OK, but here’s the conundrum: There are already fewer people in most organizations than ever before, and most of us have more work heaped on us that before. It is harder to delegate work to other people, and the drumbeat of most businesses is not slowing down - it’s increasing. It can be hard just to keep pace with the momentum of business - much less work more quickly than the speed of the business you are in - otherwise you can’t be more productive than the folks around you. In other words, your productivity is not measured in isolation, but in comparison to the speed of the work around you and in your organization. If you can’t keep pace with the speed of the work in your organization - forget productivity, you’ll never get your head above water.

Also, productivity isn’t just about getting through a task - it should be about completing the task to some minimal level of quality. Rushing through a task quickly to declare it’s "complete" while generating a low quality deliverable isn’t productivity, since someone will have to clean up the mess later.