Don’t Fiddle: The Foundations of Productivity

Productivity requires a solid foundation if the methods are successful. Just like every building must have a solid foundation if it is going to remain standing, productivity must also have a solid foundation unless you want it to crumble underneath you.

We are starting a ten-article series on the foundations of productivity. Today we will look at a cardinal rule: don’t fiddle.

What Is Fiddling?

Fiddling is adjusting your productivity systems. You can call it fiddling. You can call it tweaking. You can call it tinkering. You can call it “system improvement.” There are even many adages in English that go along with this:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“Don’t change horses in mid-stream.”
“Leave well enough alone.”
“Never change a running system.”

What it boils down to is changing something that is working for the sake of trying (at best) to make it better or (at worst) just for the sake of changing it up to see if it might work better.

So it is something that we as people have been dealing with for hundreds of years…and still it is an issue today.

It is just a series of small adjustments meant to make things easier or more efficient….but without a specific goal in mind.

Fiddling vs Innovation

Innovation is sometimes used in place of any of the fiddling synonyms. But innovation is something different altogether.

Innovation is the purposeful change of something, with the thought and purposeful mapping. Innovation involves specific goals, with measurements made to make sure the goals are met.

Fiddling, on the other hand, doesn’t have a specific goal, and the changes are made without evaluating whether or not it moves closer to the goal that hasn’t been set.

Fiddling is change for the sake of change.

Why Fiddling Isn’t Productive

Fiddling is dangerous.

It is dangerous because without specific goal in mind, it is changing for the sake of changing.

The worst part, though, is that it feels productive. “I’m alphabetizing all my tasks because that will make it easier to find.” “I’m moving all my projects to [insert system of the moment] because it will make me more productive…[insert productivity guru] says so.” “I am revamping the priorities/adding descriptions/setting approximate task times because it will give me a productivity boost.”

The problem with these things is that they look and feel productive.. But in the grand scheme of things, it probably won’t help you get anything more done. In fact the time that you spend doing these items would be better spent actually doing things.

Fiddling with your productivity system is just procrastination in disguise.

Approaching Change In A Productive Way

If you want to change something, it is better to take the innovative route. Decide what needs to change, and then take small steps to get there, measuring the effect of each step after it is taken, and abandoning the change if it doesn’t produce enough of a result.

Let’s say you think there is a better way to manage your tasks at work. You are using an electronic system, but you don’t have access to it during a large part of your day. In fact, your tasks are the things that need to be done, but are not the major part of you r job. What is a better way?

I can speak to this, because this is what happened to me about three months ago. I looked at what the end goal was. I needed to be able to track small tasks that come up without missing deadlines, but knowing that I wouldn’t be doing the majority of my work from that list, and I needed to be able to access that list without looking at my computer or phone.

In this case the first step was to create a task list on paper. That solved the problem of access. Then I needed a way to be able to pull just the tasks that were coming due. So I added a column for the due date to make it easy to scan. Then I made another form that would allow me to pick three I would commit to get done that day.

My needs were met, my system innovated.

Conclusion

Make sure that when you decide to make changes to the way that you are doing things that you do it deliberately with a specific goal in mind. Then test to see if the changes are truly an improvement. Don’t change for the sake of changing, or for unverified results.

Otherwise you are just fiddling. And fiddling is just procrastination in disguise.