- Are you one of those people who constantly try to “hack” their life and productivity with all kinds of “Getting Things Done” tactics and to-do lists?
- Are you constantly trying to squeeze as much tasks in an hour as possible?
- Are you constantly on the lookout for the next big thing in organizing?
- Are you constantly reading about how you can be more productive?
If you answered any one of these questions with “yes” (or maybe you just answered “no” because you don’t constantly do it..) than you’ve probably been confronted with the curse of productive people:
Other people just aren’t that productive.
What takes you two hours, takes them a full day, what takes you 15 minutes takes them hours. I’m sure you can relate to that one. Especially if you’re a minimalist and carry everything in one bag. You can probably pack your stuff and be on your way in under 15 minutes while others around you take way longer.
The curse of productivity
So why is this a curse? Because you’re so damn good and fast you’ve got loads of time left, time the other people (the non-productive kind) will most certainly try to leech by asking you to help them. “Hey, it looks like you’ve got nothing to do, can you give me a hand here?” “I’ve got loads of stuff to do, could you take some of it out of my hands and do it for me?”
Sound familiar?
Although saying no might get you out of this a few times if you do it to often you’ll most certainly get into trouble. Imagine going on a vacation and being packed in 15 minutes. You then proceed with watching TV, reading a book or catching up on your RSS feeds. You’re slacking, you’re doing nothing to help the group effort. (i.e. going on vacation and getting everything packed) Some sort of discussion is soon to follow.
It works the other way round to though. You’re so productive you feel the others just aren’t putting enough effort into it. If you can do it in 20 minutes, why can’t they manage in over an hour?! Frustration is bound to rear it’s ugly head.
The fruits of learning the skills of productivity are sour indeed. You’ll be faster on your own, but as soon as there’s a group thing you’re going to either get frustrated or in trouble for being a perceived slacker.
Stealth Productivity
I advocate a form of stealth productivity: be as productive as you like and knowing that you can easily do things fast proceed to do them that way, but never let other people know when you’re “done” and thus “free” for others to leech your time. Be the upside down swan: busy on the surface, calm and steady beneath.
Very clever, Christiaan!
Must say, I relate. My greatest sin is impatience. Seems others move soooooo sloooooowly. Trying to learn to see it as an opportunity to expand my perceptions – and exercise calm!
Ha! Your post makes me smile because our household is a shining example of your productivity profuiles. My oldest child has perfected the inverted swan… having learned that if she doesn’t, she may be called upon to “do more”, as my youngest child cannot do in one hour what her sister does in 15 minutes.
Not exactly my problem. I can be productive and efficient when I want or need to be. For whatever reason, I can at other times be quite inefficient. Those times are often when others are trying to leech off of me.
FABULOUS post.
100% agreed. I can finish my work in 25% of the time because I am organized and careful. Other people take less time, but end up having to fix the problems, or they take more time because they don’t know WTF they’re doing
I don’t consider myself the productive type. When I’m home, I’m extremely lazy. I don’t like to do too many things in one day. I like to space things out. However, I am efficient and quick when it comes to my work. So, I am done earlier than most people, and they expect me to help them. I think it’s terribly unfair b/c we are paid by the hour, so I am doing more work for the same money. They are doing less work. Not fair.
Also, if I don’t help them, they do things to get back at me passive aggressively, or they will outright just go to the boss and tattle on me. Then I get the lecture about how I need to help people when I’m done, we’re a team, yadda, yadda, yadda.
I really hate it. Your solution is something I’m already incorporating. Don’t let anyone know you’re done. I’m trying to find ways to slow down my work, but that’s hard. Life would be so much simpler if I could go home when I’m done, but still get paid for 8 hours.
The modern workplace does NOT reward efficiency.