Boosting Productivity By Simplifying

There is a lot of emphasis on being productive right now. It's a buzzword that litters our news outlets, and is heard frequently in connection with the economy. Personal productivity is also a hot topic right now, with the business world abuzz with Stephen Covey, David Allen's Getting Things Done, and Mark Forster's Do It Tomorrow and Autofocus. The marketplace is littered with productivity devices: smart phones, PDAs, netbooks, and software packages are everywhere, each promising to take you to a new level of productivity if only you adopt the new piece of machinery or methodology. What this leads to, more often than not, is a struggle as people try to force what they are doing into the latest method and/or gadget, sacrificing their real time and productivity. I believe that the way to truly be productive is to simplify. Here are some examples:

• Food processor vs. knife. You need to dice one onion for a recipe. You pull out the food processor, assemble it, peel and cut the onion, slice it so that it will fit in the food processor and pulse it. Then you scrape out the onion, disassemble the food processor and clean it, before putting it away.n On the flip side, you take out a knife and cutting board, peel the onion, and with a few quick slices, have a pile of diced onion. Cleanup is two items to be washed.
• PDA vs. paper and pen. You need to note down a quick phone number. However, your PDA and cellphone are both in your briefcase. You struggle with getting the case open (because things never go smoothly when you are in a hurry), only to have to ask for the information again.n On the flip side, someone gives you a phone number, you reach into your pocket for paper and pen, and write it down.

nWhat it boils down to is that machines and gadgets only provide a good return on effort when the setup (a fixed amount of effort) is less than the effort it would take to do things by hand. By spreading that fixed "expense" of time and effort over a larger job, it becomes a better return on the time investment. For example, if using a food processor required 10 minutes setup/cleanup time, the setup/cleanup time is the same regardless of how many vegetables you chop. If chopping one onion, that would mean 10 minutes per onion. If chopping 5, it would work out to 2 minutes per onion. By only using gadgets and machines when they provide a real return on our effort, we are forced to do things in a much simpler, and also faster, way. This is the way to true productivity: using the appropriate tool when appropriate, and keeping approaches simple and flexible.