What To Do If You’re Not Naturally Productive

Mondays are productivity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

One thing people assume about me is that productivity comes naturally. After all, I spend a lot of time reading and writing about it, not to mention adjusting my own method.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not naturally productive.

But in spite of that, I am still highly productive. Here’s why:

Productivity Is Not My Natural State

First a little background: I have never been particularly organized. My mother, who is one of those amazing people who knows where everything is because everything is completely organized, despaired of me as I was growing up. I didn’t see the point. I could find what I needed to.

When I hit high school, things really didn’t change. There was little going on that I needed a calendar or even a task list for. It was all in my head, but there was little to remember as well.

With university, I had a very harsh awakening. Not only was I expected to study (which I had no idea how to do), I had all sorts of due dates, class schedules and exams, plus my work schedules, rehearsals and performances. Then when I moved into an apartment, I tacked on all the life stuff on top of the school stuff. I rarely said no to anything, because in my mind, my calendar was wide open, so I ended up overextending myself. I still didn’t write much down, and I can’t tell you how many late assignments I had or all-nighters I pulled to compensate.

Let’s just say that I quickly found that productivity wasn’t something that came easily or naturally.

What My Natural State Is

I know that in spite of learning tons of techniques and methods over the years, and how to use various tools, that productive behavior is not my default.

How do I know?

Watch me on a day off from work where I don’t make a plan. My days will be absorbed by trivial stuff or things that may not need to be done at all. There are even days where I tell myself I will read for an hour and look up to find the whole day has gone by while I was absorbed in the story.

In the end, things pile up, and I find myself in crunch mode where I am sacrificing sleep or exercise to get things done.

Some things never change.

Why I Keep Trying Productivity Systems

And so I look to productivity systems to help keep me from having to rush to finish things. I look to them to keep me on a maintenance schedule so that little jobs don’t turn into huge ones. I look to them to keep me from over-committing myself. I look to them to keep me from wasting time on things that really don’t need to be done.

I need structure. I need structure so that I don’t fritter away my time at the expense of other things that are more meaningful or important.

I need methods. I need methods to keep me moving forward on things so that they don’t fall through the cracks. I need methods to track what I have committed to and when they are do.

I need simplicity in these tools. If the instructions are too complicated I will ignore the tools.

What I Have Found

There are a few lessons I have learned over the years with regard to productivity systems:

• I have to adapt creatively. While someone might have a system that works for them, it probably won’t work for me out of the box. I will need to look at the parts of the system, and adapt what might work into my personal toolbox. I have to be creative about how to apply techniques.
• I cannot follow blindly. No system is going to work for me out of the box. (At least I’ve never met one that has). I have to evaluate everything to see if it will work, or if it will work with modification, or if it won’t work at all.
• I have to know why. It isn’t enough to understand the parts of the system, I have to know why things are being done. It is only by knowing the why I can figure out how to apply it to my life.

You’re Probably Not Naturally Productive, Either

My guess is that if you are reading a blog on productivity, you are probably not naturally and effortlessly productive either.

That’s OK.

It’s not your fault.

We are who we are. We may not have an innate skill, but we can learn enough to get by. Just as you can teach a person who has no aptitude for cooking how to order a pizza or nuke a frozen dinner, even someone with no predisposition or talent for productivity techniques can learn them.

The secret lies in knowing yourself and being willing to do the work to find something that works for you.

Conclusion

Being productive isn’t a matter of simple application or willpower. It is something that either comes easily or doesn’t. But if it doesn’t come easily, you can still learn enough, by being willing to look at the tools out there and figuring out how to use them.

Photo by 55Laney69. Licensed under Creative Commons.