The value of productivity

The last month of 2021 was a very busy time for me - so busy I did not make time to write any blog posts. Many deadlines all merged to within the space of a few days, and a lot of my time was taken up with work due on other people’s schedules. I must admit, I went into a bit of a fight-or-flight mode and trimmed my productivity tools to the minimum input necessary to keep the wheels turning. I stopped having a weekly review as I could spend those hours working on something else, and I stopped time-blocking my days as I felt I needed to stay available for other people’s ad-hoc requests. Curiously, returning to working in the laboratory and office brought a range of distractions that I had forgotten about during the months working from home. Most notably, the struggle to get deep work done when others want to discuss things. No amount of headphone wearing or pre-warnings made much difference.¹ However, I did manage to get most of my planned works done and submitted. And since the University shutdown, I have been enjoying a complete break from work.²

Over the break I have been playing party games with friends and family. Chess, jigsaw puzzles, and scrabble to name a few. It struck me, seeing a variety of skill levels play, how productivity tools such as GTD or Time-blocking are very similar to game strategies. The rules of a game are quick to learn, but the mastery of the game takes a lot of work and practice. The mastery inherently involves learning a strategy.

Over a few beers, I started doing a 1000 piece jig-saw puzzle with friends. One of them had the approach of picking up two pieces (seemingly at random) and seeing if they fit. The colours were an obvious guide, but otherwise there seemed to be little rhyme or reason in their strategy. I then suggested dividing pieces into edges of similar colouring and within half an hour we had the border completed.

The rules of Chess are relatively simple. Most people learn the basics and are able to play a game on sheer mental effort.³ However, there is a second level of playing in which each piece is assigned a value, and there are mathematics involved in deciding whether a trade is worthwhile or not. These are the competition level players. And then there are the true masters who seemingly devote their lives to the sport, such as Bobby Fischer or Magnus Carlson.

I think that ‘productivity’ is often misunderstood as being a game in itself. Something to do on top of one’s work. The time taken to take notes, track metrics, schedule one’s time, and review one’s progress is viewed as time that could be used on doing the work. However, I think a better way to consider productivity is as the set of rules, the strategy, that one applies to how the work gets done. An incredibly hard-worker who uncritically does all work as it comes might expend a lot of effort, but they will be quickly outpaced by someone who takes a moment to consider whether the work would be better done in batches of similar tasks. Much like an amateur chess player would have to expend huge amounts of mental effort to best a competition player. The productivity tools and strategies might seem like extra work, but they truly unlock a new level of output.

In the last week of work, I realised I had lost a sense of what was truly important and urgent, and was spreading myself thin trying to achieve everything. I took an hour to do an emergency review, and made a sensible plan to finish what I could before the shutdown. That hour paid dividends in terms of redirecting my energy towards items that needed to get done, as well as clearing my subconscious of the fog brought on by uncertainty.

Chess elites have internalised the rules and strategies, not moved beyond needing them. When getting caught up in work (or a game), it’s worth keeping perspective on how you’re working (or playing).