businessApr 19, 202454:56pending

What is 'Calm Productivity'? - DBR 026

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

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About this episode

What is "Calm Productivity"?

I've spent a few episodes letting you know how to implement Attention Compass, but why would you WANT TO do that?

I'm constantly talking to people about this idea of calm productivity, because that's the payoff for Attention Compass. But, in lots of episodes I find myself getting into the technical details of how Attention Compass works and how you should go about implementing it. And that's great; I want you all to understand that you can do this.

The rest of the story is: WHY would you want to do this? This episode explains that.

The heaviness of gravity and the stress of managing our attention poorly.

It's a good feeling to reduce that stress, but it's pretty hard to describe the feeling (trust me: I've tried). So I'll use some customer (and other) examples to describe different facets of calmness and lower stress.

You might see something that is a part of your productivity practice. If so, please recognize that I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm talking about some common practices, mindsets, and habits and how they affect our level of stress.

Client stories (a.k.a. What my clients DON"T do)

They DON"T:

wake up at 3AM in a panic

Sam's story

fall into multitasking

Randy forgets because he tries to multitask

spend lots of time looking for the things they need to do their work

Rob's ½ to full day saved

generate an on-the-fly to-do list every morning (which is not a great list, anyway)

Wagner's bad to-do list

have lots of partially complete tasks and work-in progress artifacts to track

Rob (again) about the clarity of a good backlog

About the Tickler File - the trusted tool to manage the things we're not doing.

As a free gift, I'll show you how to implement a Tickler File for yourself. It's pretty simple and cheap. It will help you manage your postponement decisions and is the first step for getting rid of 1) your pile(s) of work-in-progress and 2) your daily to-do list (which is a pretty bad list). Get it here: https://dobusyright.com/tickler-file/

Back to client stories...

My clients DON'T:

say, I'd better do it before I forget about it

Myhriah's story about distraction

engage in huge efforts at self-discipline

Kellie's already quite productive

sacrifice lots of fun "life-stuff" in order to be productive

Dustin and his family

worry much about "work/life balance"

Andrew's question: what is work?

need to use stress-based productivity tactics on themselves or others

Talking to the students about deadlines and working with less panic

feel exhausted, but instead they feel effective

Greg's need for results

These are real stories from real people. I wanted you to hear them because these are facets of what I usually refer to as "calm productivity". I've relayed stories from clients and others about the things they DON'T do and the habits and mindsets they no longer have. I have tried to present a clearer picture of specific results that people have achieved as they implemented Attention Compass.

I hope one of these stories resonates with you. If you see yourself in one or more of them, I invite you to take action to fix it. A good start is to download and implement your own Tickler File.