Being productive isn’t about “hacks” so much as self-awareness

Let us begin with an assumption: productive work is the goal of most businesses and managers.

Why would I call that an “assumption?” Doesn’t that seem like mostly-verifiable fact?

No.

Here’s why: a lot of work is tied to self-worth, a quest for relevance, and the hope that no one is perceiving you as incompetent. This is why so many people are so obsessed with how “busy” they are, and why quantity of work on your desk often means more than quality of work completed.

Oftentimes, productive work doesn’t really matter. It should, and we constantly talk about how it does, but we often speak about Topic A at work and Topic B is the real deal. We just don’t acknowledge that publicly.

Let me give you two quick examples here before we hit the meat of this.

1: if your boss assigns you a project, assume you turn in two versions. (Have to suspend some belief here.) One version is productive work; it accomplishes the client need and is really good. But it didn’t follow every check box of process. The second version did follow the process, but the work sucks. No quality. Most bosses would like Version II better. Process = control = relevance. That’s important to remember.