Episode 12: Productivity hacks suck
Productivity Hacks Suck.
Welcome to the Self-performance Strategies Podcast.
Main quote:
High performers don't need fancy productivity hacks; they have a clear vision, are driven by a powerful why, and just get shit done.
- Stephen Timoney
Key Takeaways:
Emotions are key
In the end, it is emotion, not hacks or repetition, that creates habits.
What you do has to make you feel good, and what you do has to make you feel successful.
If what you are doing is not making you happy, stop doing it and start doing what does.
A quick exercise you can do is ask yourself these 3 questions:
Is what I am doing aligned with my life vision?
Is what I am doing helping me grow and contribute?
Is what I am doing fulfilling me?
If you get a NO for one or all these questions, you should find ways to stop doing those things.
What do you mean hacks suck?
When I talk about productivity hacks, I mean common hacks like:
- Timeboxing
- To-do lists
- Intrinsic motivation
- Productivity zones
- Batching 80/20 principle
These work and are useful, and you may have used them, had some success but then fallen back into your typical ways.
You have to get much deeper than hacks and systems to make significant, lasting changes.
For example, if you work in corporate, these types of hacks work because you have a structure where you have daily tasks and deadlines.
Remove this structure, and they become just ideas.
You need to connect to your vision and why.
Your emotional framework needs to be developed.
Even if you're not an entrepreneur, you have to get deeper than surface-level strategies.
Have a good look at all your emotional anchors if you want to improve your performance.
Listen to parts of you that you have not heard from in years, the stories you have been looping for decades.
Without fixing these issues and building a new, more robust framework, you will feel depressed, overwhelmed, unmotivated, or limited.
Because you are anchored to your broken parts, no productivity hack or fancy new system will fix that.
You have to go and do the inner work; you need to break free.
If you want to have the life you always dreamed of, you need to do it and keep doing it.
You will always tell yourself stories, and over time, you will even adopt new anchors.
This is a rinse and repeat process.
So before you go and read James Clear's Atomic Habits or Cal Newport's Deep Work for the 6th time, go address your emotional anchors first.
Taking the time to do this in my life has changed me forever, and I hope never to forget this lesson again.
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Big love.
Make it a great one,
Stephen
