Screw Productivity
I am sure you were also not unaffected by it. That other pandemic. The productivity pandemic. It seems you cannot open Linkedin, Twitter or walk into a bookstore without being confronted with people trying to make you more productive and efficient. While I of course have also automated some of my processes and use tools and apps that can help me out, I think the craze really went too far. Moreover, in the political arena, it can be counterproductive and even destructive. So I say, screw productive.
Productivity can be time consuming
Apps are supposed to make us more productive, meanwhile, they are very time-consuming. They always require you to plan, track time, and keep a data log. You can spend hours making plans, filling out excel sheets and tracking how much time you spend on something. Before you know it – you are spending more time trying to be more productive instead of actually being productive. I actually have a rule to counter this; the 2-minute rule. It means if something takes less than 2 minutes to execute I do it right away instead of putting it on a to-do list.
Solutionism: the world doesn’t fit into an Excel file
If you pay attention, you will notice that all productivity gurus have the same playbook. Set a goal, write down what you want, make a plan, allocate time, take a set of actions and evaluate. It is a form of solutionism that reduces the world in an overly simplistic model. Anything from city planning to Sustainable Development Goals is based on this kind of thinking. However, in the political arena, so much depends on human dynamics that when you apply this solutionist thinking, things never pan out. In my arena, you are constantly called upon to fix something, manage policy and political debates and cough up solutions. Trying to fit a highly volatile world into a workflow is not only challenging, but it is also downright childish to think you will be able to.
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Distorts relationships
Where a focus on productivity goes from benign to downright evil is that it distorts human relationships. You start spending most of your time chasing to-dos and milestones.
In the political arena, and in life in general, you will never get far when you prioritise efficiency and productivity over human relationships. I have spent hours on the third floor of the European Parliament being “unproductive”. I drank coffee, had conversations and spent my attention and time listening to other people’s problems. It has solidified my relationships, given me unparalleled access and downright made me “one of the boys”. In a world where there is an abundance of everything but a scarcity of time, lending people your ear or offering them your time is the most significant social capital with the highest return.
It kills creativity
Finally, there is another way that efficiency and productivity can become destructive. It kills creativity. As neuroscientists and creative artists will tell you, creativity is not as much a matter of gene pool as it is being able to lend and apply knowledge and information from other realms. For example, to this day I use hip-hop as a source of inspiration for a position papers, events and whatnot I have been a big hip-hop fan in the nineties, and it still rubs off on me today. But in order to become creative, you will need to spend hours in other realms, including watching memes on Twitter or wasting time on Youtube. Sticking to doing what you do ultrafast, will never give you that creativity which in turn gives you a competitive edge.
To wrap up
Of course, being efficient and productive also frees up a lot of time to do nothing, spending hours on Youtube or in general can give you a competitive edge. In November I will in effect have a webinar on AI and Data. So I do believe in progress 🙂 However, the over-focus on efficiency can also be inefficient and downright destructive. Whatever you do, never forget to use your common sense.