The Other Side to Productivity

Nothing feels better than the buzz of ticking things off a list.

Yet, the key is knowing if you're ticking off fake or productive items; it's understanding the difference between fake and productive work.

Fake work is easy: emails, scheduling, social media posts, writing lists. It's very much 'in the now'.

Productive work is often hard to track. It’s more intangible, because a lot of it happens in your head, in conversation and in quiet times.

Yet, it’s this work that really moves the needle forward. It’s less obvious, and we may not be able to tick it off today, or this week. 

This problem solving, deep diving, or whatever you want to call it, allows you to pull the trigger on projects that seem like mountains to climb.

It eradicates the inertia so you can fire on all cylinders.

That’s why the most productive people are getting lots of quality work out of the door. Not because they’re good at to-do lists, or have the best ‘hacks’, but because they spent days, weeks, months, sometimes years, sharpening the axe to knock the tree down in one hit.