Productivity Myths Busted: What Productivity Looks Like for the Majority of Us

I have long been aware of the bad advice and methods that many of the “experts” in the productivity community have given over the years. While I understand that everyone’s opinions are colored by their experience, these productivity myths that are being touted are actually damaging. Today I will examine some of the productivity myths I have seen over the years.

Wheat And Chaff

I’m usually able to sift the wheat from the chaff, but last week I was hit with so many of these myths that I started talking back to the podcasters. This would probably have been more acceptable if I had been working from home, but alas I was in the office and realized I was going to have to curb my pungent commentary. Or at least save it for a different time.

I was listening to a podcaster who has no experience outside academia give advice to a lawyer struggling to find balance between billable work and projects. I flipped to the next podcast to find that this podcast guest was explaining how to structure your work day for the best effect – except that the workday was a very narrow funnel of working for yourself. I flipped to a third podcast and heard another guest talking about how getting up at three was the key to making sure you get your focused work done. The fourth podcast opened with what I can only describe as heavy metal bagpipes, so I gave up.

Isolated Bubbles

My problem with so many of these authors and podcasters is that they live in their own isolated bubble. And they give advice and solutions/systems from within that bubble. I can’t really say that it isn’t unnatural, but it is lazy. If you are going to give advice (and not preface it with “this is what worked for me”) you need to make sure it’s going to work for a wide variety of people. Otherwise you are just speaking from your own very limited experience.

Time management for a person with their own company is going to look very different that time management for a single mom working as a medical technician with three kids at home.

Unfortunately, most of the “experts” are not living the lives that most of us live.

The Lives We Live

I was thinking about this as I was revising my elevator pitch about who the audience of my blog was. My audience comprised of people who work for other people and who want to have a meaningful life beyond their work.

And I am part of that audience.

That’s very different from someone who is a full-time author, or runs a company, or is a stay-at-home parent, or is allowed to direct their own work.

So let’s take a look at some of these productivity myths from the perspective of people who work for other people and want meaningful lives beyond their work.

The Productivity Myths, Busted

Don’t Do Anything That Doesn’t Move Your Goals Forward

That may work for some people in the office, but it certainly doesn’t hold true for the majority of employees. Can you imagine a phlebotomist refusing to draw blood because it wasn’t in line with her goals of becoming the manager of the department? For those of us who have specific job duties, our goals probably don’t come into it.

This one is a major pet peeve for me when “experts” talk about applying principles to home life. Don’t do anything that doesn’t move our goals forward? That would leave the dishes in the sink, the laundry piled on the floor and the cat boxes unscooped. Unless you have staff, you are going to have to deal with the things that keep life flowing smoothly.

In both work and home, we have to recognize that there are things that are not in line with our personal goals that we still have to do. I find the best way to approach these things is to do them in the most efficient manner I can.

Find A Way To Work For Yourself

I remember listening with my jaw on the floor as someone spouted the wisdom that the answer to all time management woes was to work for yourself.

I just want to say that I like what I do. I like the challenge, the work, and the company I work for. I believe, based on feedback, that I am fairly good at it too. I wouldn’t be able to do the work I do (data engineering and analytics) if I were working for myself.

The myth of working for yourself giving you freedom is a big whopper. You either have to produce a product that people will buy (and do the marketing) or you end up contracting yourself to a company to provide a service (and do the marketing and administrative overhead). Being self-employed in the US is not for the faint-hearted.

Most people work for someone else. And that is OK. We just have to understand that when we work for someone else we mostly don’t have control over our time. Time management as an employee is largely going to be our after-work hours, when we need to make best use of our time.

Stop Working When The Workday Ends

This one I heard during a keynote address at a conference. And I have heard faint echoes of it from published authors the productivity space. The advice to “stop working when the workday ends” makes me laugh. Hard.

The only way that this advice works is if you work for yourself (see above) or if you have staff to do things (see above) or you do nothing with your non-work hours that requires any planning or goals.

For those of us who work for other people, our workday doesn’t end at the end of our employer’s workday. We are going home, doing the housework, laundry, spending time with our kids (which, be honest, sometimes is hard work and not a pleasant activity)

Having been on the flip side of this, where I have spent months (years) falling into bed every night exhausted because I have been just trying to get more done, I can say it is a really good idea to have a hard stop time to your day. That way you can relax and unwind a bit and have a better shot at going to sleep. But it doesn’t have to be the same time every day. Just a conscious point where you say “I’ve done enough today.”

Plan A Retreat To Set Your Goals

Every productivity author out there touts the value of spending a chunk of time planning your goals. I get it – I see the value in having some idea of what you want to do and what it will take to get there. There are two myths here: one that says you need to go somewhere for a full day to do this; and the second that says if you can’t get away you need to do it at home.

But as a person who has not been able to go to the bathroom uninterrupted at home for more than 2 decades (if it’s not daughter or husband who can’t wait 3 minutes to ask me a question, it’s one of the animals making sure I am supervised) I know that there is no way I am going to find a whole day where I can tuck away and do this. Getting away for a whole day would require taking PTO (not happening) and doing it at home is interruption-prone.

I find that I have to plan goals over a longer period of time. I set aside an hour every Saturday morning for a month and work through some high level plans. I don’t have a big picture plan, but I have smaller things I want to work through that can easily be thought about in an hour or two.

Spend Part of the Workday Increasing Your Skills

This is one that I hear frequently from technology people. As a person in IT, it is important that I keep up with the latest technologies. But that doesn’t mean that I can take part of my working time and do this.

These same experts then say “if you can’t do it at work, make sure you devote an hour or so every day to learning.” This just makes me want to laugh hysterically. I am certainly not going to give up an hour of my precious non-work time doing unpaid work that benefits my employer.

Instead, I learn technology as I need it. And I am fine with doing little projects of my own at home – that benefit me and make my personal life easier (like the Kindle Inventory) that have the side benefit of my learning new skills.

If you’re not getting paid for it, don’t do work that benefits only your employer. All it does is drive your hourly wage down.

Plan Deep Work or Focus Sessions During Your Day

The author of Deep Work is very good at pointing out that this applies to people who do knowledge work for a living. So that leaves out people who aren’t deskbound, and that is a good thing. But for those of us who are knowledge workers and work for someone else, this is not necessarily in our control.

About 6 months ago, I allowed Outlook to block 2 hours per day on my calendar as focus time. It does this automatically, and it shows up as busy. How many times have I been successful in not being interrupted during focus time? Three. And all three of those were federal holidays when no one else on the team was working.

The problem is that one can block all day long, but people don’t care. They schedule meetings when the most people can make it, or don’t even look to see if there is a conflict. When we work for someone else, time is not our own.

I try to get into the office before the rest of the team so I can have uninterrupted time before the rest of the team to do focused work.

In Conclusion

Despite what many productivity “experts” tell us, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for managing our time and getting things done. Those of us who work for others, who have families, who have responsibilities beyond our own goals, need to find ways to be productive within the constraints of our real lives. Instead of trying to force ourselves into unrealistic systems designed for different circumstances, we should focus on making the most of the time we do control, being efficient with necessary tasks, and finding a balance that works for our unique situations. The key is not to adopt someone else’s ideal schedule or system, but to develop practical strategies that align with our actual lives and responsibilities.