Why You Should Toss Productivity Out the Window

Want to be more productive? Don't.

That's the advice from Leo Babauta, which is striking because his blog Zen Habits has been one of the top self-improvement blogs who used to dispense tips on how to be more productive!

Leo explains:

For at least a couple of years, Zen Habits was one of the top productivity blogs, dispensing productivity crack for a nominal fee (your reading time).

I’d like to think I helped people move closer to their dreams, but today I have different advice:

Toss productivity advice out the window.

Most of it is well-meaning, but the advice is wrong for a simple reason: it’s meant to squeeze the most productivity out of every day, instead of making your days better.

Imagine instead of cranking out a lot of widgets, you made space for what’s important. Imagine that you worked slower instead of faster, and enjoyed your work. Imagine a world where people matter more than profits.

Leo lists 7 productivity booster tips that you should toss out: Link (Photo: Shutterstock)


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There are no management techniques or systems (or whatever you want to call them) that have proven to work (or increase productivity) under proper scientific scrutiny. (In stark contrast to what every management guru would want you to believe of course.)

People don't do a certain job because they are interested in "productivity", they do a certain job because they want to do a good job.
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When more of us start to realize that people are more important than profits, the better off we will be. That's been a motto of mine for as long as I can remember. But it is a fantasy world.
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I don't know. It depends what you believe you're goal is to produce.

He's *not* really saying "be less productive" or "be less efficient". He's saying, "Define success on terms other than volume of output."
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