Looking at Productivity in a New Way
In our blog post “Thoughts on Minimalism”, we researched some of the influencers in the minimalist movement. One of the blogs we discovered is Be More With Less, by Courtney Carver. In addition to writing several books on living a more simple life, she has many blog posts dedicated to documenting her thoughts on the topic. One blog post, The Greatest Secret to Productivity That No One is Talking About, really struck a chord with us.
Carver poses the following questions to her readers:
What if productivity was not about getting the most done, but by getting the most important done? What if productivity was not about doing it all, but doing the things we love and want to do? What if productivity was not about doing it fast, but doing it well?
Our culture’s definition of productivity has somehow evolved into one that is about getting more things done in a shorter amount of time. We have somehow lost touch with the concept of “Quality vs. Quantity”. If you are feeling frazzled most of the time rather than feeling recharged and refreshed, maybe you have been chasing this current definition of productivity. How do we get back to a better quality of life that is one full of joy vs. one full of pressure and deadlines?
One of our biggest take aways from Carver’s blog post is her suggestion to make an extensive edit list. This is something we do with each of our clients during organizing appointments, but we love the idea of writing down an edit list for your entire life. Somehow, the exercise of writing these things down and seeing them on a list right in front of you will make you more mindful of what things you can work on minimizing or eliminating from your life. For example, on Courtney Carver’s extensive edit list you can find things like “saying yes when I want to say no”.
When we work with our clients, one of our underlying goals when approaching each of their projects is to help them achieve a better quality of life. If we can help you reach for this new definition of productivity, in which you are focusing on only those things that bring you joy, reach out to us!
