By Piotr Nabielec
You probably already tried everything
you can to become more productive. Some things worked and some did not. Now it
is time to try to be completely unproductive. It’s much simpler than you think!
What are the guaranteed 12 ways to quickly become unproductive?
1.
Keep everything in your head
Your brain counts the tasks like this:
1, 2, 3, 4, lots. If you don’t store information outside of your head in any
visual form, you will quickly get lost. I once talked to a highly stressed
person who stated she had “a lot to do”. When we wrote down this “a lot”, it
turned out that she could perform most of the tasks within one evening! It is a
great surprise to many when they write down their tasks, events, meetings and
thoughts on a sheet of paper.
2.
Keep everything equally important
Avoiding prioritization is a great
handy hint for being completely unproductive. With every phone call, email,
talk, task within multiple projects, or meeting request, you simply task switch
and completely lose focus because you can’t decide. When you are aware of your
priorities you can immediately postpone some things for later. And you really
should!
3.
Use distractions
Another great way to become
unproductive is to open Twitter, a few Facebook and Google+ tabs, your email
account, put your phone in front of you, use Outlook desktop alert – any
blinking thing you can think of and any other way of distracting you that is
possible. You need several minutes to focus completely on your task, get into
the “flow” and be really efficient, and this way you will be distracted every
few seconds and you will never reach that state.
4.
Get rid of emotions
Fun and emotions are what keep you
engaged in an activity much longer than you think. You have greater energy,
passion, and think more creatively. If you get rid of emotions from your
activities, you simply have a boring list of tasks to accomplish. Just look
what fun can bring to your life:
5.
Use only one brain hemisphere
There is some great art coming out of
the Mercedes Benz “Left Brain – Right Brain” advertising campaign, which
(according to researchers) isn’t completely relevant, but shows a great truth:
if you don’t use colors, sounds and everything is flat and black and white,
it’s like you are using only half of your brain. If you don’t want to be
unproductive, turn on colors in your email inbox, calendar and task list. Make
it fun!
6.
Never say “no”
This is great way to become
unproductive when used together with previous hints. With every email and
request coming from your boss, colleagues and family, you simply say “yes” and
take it on. This way you never know your limits, your task list is ever
growing, you become unreliable, and put yourself into a victim mindset. The
most surprising moment for many people is when they say “no” and it doesn’t
break the relationship (as it shouldn’t!), in many cases they also find they
become perceived as more reliable. Assertiveness is hard, but it is key.
7.
Focus on your weaknesses
You know what is different about the
people that excel from the rest? The greatest people focus on their strengths
and they build on top of them. That gives them energy to fight their
weaknesses. You simply can’t do the opposite. Think about Michael Jordan or
Tiger Woods – they would get better and better at things they were already
great at! If you want to be unproductive, focus on your weaknesses all the
time, it will drain all your energy, put you in a bad mood and take your eyes
away from your vision for your life.
8.
Do everything yourself
So, you are the smartest person on the
whole planet and you shouldn’t delegate anything because you do things best.
Another great way to be completely unproductive! You can be really effective in
doing some things, but not all. When you do things alone, you are losing the
spirit of teamwork, great ideas, and different perspectives.
9.
Make things complex
Einstein said, “If you can’t explain
it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Another great way to become
unproductive is to make things more and more complex. Then build complex
processes around those complex activities. Then spend hours trying to explain
all that to others and handle misunderstandings. Beauty lies in simplicity.
Think for a moment about the “I have a dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther
King, Jr. It was so simple and powerful that it touched people’s hearts and
spurred thousands of them to act.
10.
Get rid of vision
Living and working without any vision
is a great way to be completely unproductive. Vision is a fuel for your mind
and body. Martin Luther King’s speech mentioned above put so much passion in
people that many of them were willing to die fighting for this vision. Vision
brings order to your activities, refreshes your emotions, reminds you about the
real goals. Without it you can be just one more effective task executor.
11.
Stop doing retrospectives
Experience without reflection on that
experience is just data. A great way to be unproductive is to make the same
errors over and over again. Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed 700 times. I
have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not
work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way
that will work.” And Bill Gates said, “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it
is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” The most effective people do
not rely purely on luck or coincidence. Every day and every week they reflect
on past experiences and take conscious decisions to get closer to reaching
their goals.
12.
Try multitasking
The final and the quickest way to be
unproductive is to try to do two things at the same time. Some people say,
“Multitasking is a great way to screw up multiple things at the same time,” and
it is very true. We need to multitask in the same way as our old CPUs used to
do it – a single CPU with single core was able to run a multitasking operating
system, which performed very smoothly by just switching the tasks in the right
way.
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