Image credit: gabo2.
One of my favorite books on personal productivity is David Allen’s Getting Things Done. The subtitle is “The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” and lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the “stress-free” part.
Much of the productivity material on the web focuses on hacks, tips, and tricks to increase productivity at work–learning keyboard shortcuts, installing new organizing software, keeping a time log, reducing distractions, etc. This is all fine information, but if we implement these techniques of becoming more productive and are just as stressed, we have failed at the most important thing: becoming stress-free, happy people.
Productivity’s Diminishing Returns
If we make more money but still worry constantly about money, we have not attained financial freedom. Similarly, if we become much more efficient, organized, and productive but are equally if not more stressed, we have not achieved productive freedom. While it might be helpful to be more productive or make more money, the #1 priority must be to cultivate a stress-free state in the midst of “doing.”
The evidence from happiness studies concludes that making more money up to a modest point contributes to happiness. Once they can study it, I believe we will similarly find a kind of diminishing returns on increased productivity relative to happiness. Being more organized and productive doesn’t necessarily make your work stress-free, as a boss can give you more to do, or you can take on more personal projects. But most importantly however, increased productivity doesn’t necessarily change your relationship to your mind, and to doing itself, and therefore doesn’t necessarily make you happier.
Befriending Your Mind is The Key to Stress-Free
It has occurred to me that the reason GTD gives a sense of peace and ease (stress-free productivity) when it does is because by completely “getting everything out of your head” you are completely acknowledging and appreciating that part of yourself that reminds you to do things. Also, by creating trust in your system, you are cultivating self-leadership, a kind of trust in yourself that you will acknowledge and take in information from all the parts of yourself, and then manage that information and act upon it skillfully.
It’s common knowledge amongst GTD practitioners that getting most things out of your head doesn’t give you that profound feeling of relief. Neither does mostly trusting your system, or mostly reviewing everything, or clearing nearly all of your emails from your inbox. Only 100% gives that stress-free feeling.
Why 100%? Is it because David Allen wants us all to be perfectionists? No–it’s because only by completely accepting something 100% do we get an “unconditional” feeling, like love, flow, peace, OKness, etc. Do you really think you can feel inner peace if you only accept most of reality as it is? Have you ever experienced being in the zone when you were only mostly focusing on the task at hand? I don’t think so.
Alternative Ways to Befriend the Mind
There are also many other ways of befriending your mind that lead to less stress. Mindfulness meditation is one way as in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction or Vipassana meditation. Both are ways of training the mind, kind of like training a puppy to sit and not poop on the rug. If you beat the pooch, you will get bit. If however you are patient and persistent and loving, you will have a new furry best friend.
You could appreciate this part directly by assuming it has a positive purpose for you, and then seeking to find out what it is. Maybe it just wants you to remember the milk and be successful in work, but just doesn’t know the best way to make that happen for you. There is a technique that emerged from NLP called Core Transformation that I’ve been studying and working with lately that has you directly appreciate a part, and seek it’s positive purpose in a very powerful way.
You could also appreciate the part by seeing and hearing it differently, what is called in NLP changing the submodalities. If you imagine what this part is like, perhaps it looks and sounds like a nagging parent. What if instead it were a sexy secretary telling you what to do? Or simply a neutral computer algorithm?
Or you could appreciate the part by asking yourself “what if you didn’t have this part?” What if you had a brain disorder that made it so that you didn’t have a voice inside reminding you of things to do? How would you know what to do at all? You would be completely absent-minded and wouldn’t be able to remember any details. You wouldn’t even remember to check your lists! You’d also lack creative thoughts about what you want to do and creative solutions for problems.
The key no matter what the technique seems to be a real appreciation for the field of information that your mind is giving you.
Self-Leadership is Protection Against Perfectionism in GTD
People new to GTD often take David Allen’s advice and do a complete “core dump” or “mindsweep” and really get everything out of their head, or really clear their email inbox to 0. They feel a profound sense of relief and even inner peace with their work, perhaps for the first time ever. This inner peace can be seen as a result of fully acknowledging and accepting the part of the mind that reminds you of what you are committed to or might want to do. It’s in some ways a state of unconditional love!
Where people go wrong next though is letting this part dominate their lives. They become productivity robots, productivity perfectionists (and believe me, I’ve been there!), and overachievers–constantly looking for more things to do and faster ways to do them. In many ways our entire modern economy is being lead by these parts of ourselves.
But unconditional acceptance of a part does not mean that this part runs your life! Look–if you unconditionally love your children, it doesn’t mean they get to make decisions about whether or not they get to play with matches, or eat nothing but candy. You love your kids, you listen to their requests, but you also set reasonable limits and make intelligent decisions that keep everyone safe.
Be the Master of Your Own Mind
The part of you that reminds you of your commitments and things you might want to do is a better servant than master. You can gain the benefits of 100% acknowledging and appreciating the job this part of your mind plays without letting it take the reigns of your life. You do that by capturing everything, but then make a decision about what you are going to do and not do based on all the input from your whole mind, including from other intuitive feelings, hunches, or even conflicting interests.
When you let perfectionist productivity rule, it’s as if you’re letting the legal department make decisions for the entire company. Instead, let the legal department do what it does best (making sure you don’t get screwed) but have the CEO make the decisions about what you are and aren’t going to do with full input from all relevant parties.
The key is to stress-free productivity is to completely accept this part of yourself and take in the information it provides you without letting it run your life. It is a poor leader of your internal family system, and is not even very good at deciding or prioritizing or letting you know at the right times or the right contexts, as David Allen so insightfully points out.