The dangers of productivity porn

Posted May 12, 2013 in Productivity

A quick “hairball” post about how sometimes it’s better to just go with the flow. I like how xkcd made this point with a chart of whether it’s worth the time to fix something that’s bugging you.

I have a friend who is mechanical engineer. A few years ago he took me for a tour of his workplace that ended in his office. As I looked at his workstation, something leapt out at me. My friend had never changed his background screen. Whatever the computer came with by default, that’s what he was using. With this simple act of indifference, my friend taught me an important productivity lesson.

It’s great to be productive. It really is. But sometimes we chase productivity so much that it makes us, well, unproductive. It’s easy to read a lot about how to be more productive, but don’t forget that you have make that time up.