• Be Productive or The Law of Specificity

    edited by Alexander Becker on August 18, 2007 | Link

    In chemistry, specificity is --

    The selective reactivity that occurs between substances, such as between an antigen and its corresponding antibody.

    Processes and methods that are more specific have more impact than general tools and strategies. What works in business is not supposed to be applicable in leisure or education, even more specific, what works in my business like a charm isn't necessarily guaranteed to work in your business at all.

    An antigen and its corresponding antibody, that's the key here. Some concepts just don't match while others -- sometimes and with some people -- match squarely. You are only as productive as you are and you most likely improve within your own realm. That said, most tips will -- if anything -- only initiate an improvement that you are responsible for yourself.

    Over on lifehack.org, Dustin Wax dicusses the five productivity ideas he's not buying (yet?)

    The body of work on productivity, life-work balance, and personal achievement sits uncomfortably -- perhaps perilously -- close to the genre of “self-help”.

    I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. Here are the five examined points --

    1. Mind mapping.
    2. The 80/20 Rule.
    3. The power of Brand You.
    4. Making productivity a habit.
    5. Visualizing success.

    Mind mapping? It works for people who would work this way anyway. If you never draw ideas then there's a good chance that mind mapping isn't for you. It certainly isn't for me either.

    The power of Brand You. It works if you're so inclined -- it won't work for everybody but for those in need and with a corresponding personality, it works wonders.

    The 80/20 rule. Obviously it's ridiculous to examine projects and calculate percentages -- but the concept is certainly valuable and at least inspires people to think.

    A question is whether --

    ... it [is] possible to increase this small number of high-performing causes while at the same time decreasing the relatively high number of underperformers?

    Now, take a look at the opposite --

    In order to increase the quality of your work, you have to increase your output in quantity.

    It's a matter of reflection and analysis, ever so short of the proverbial paralysis. I don't think that any recipe or laid out how-to hack whatever part of your mind does indeed work as advertised or prescribed. Instead, it's the one spark contained in one article out of hundreds, the one way out of the dozens of X ways to do Y written in almost robot-like staccato all over the place with hardly enough resources to finish yesterday's 25 ways with today's 50 ways already waiting to get socially bookmarked and overwritten by tomorrow's -- hey it's sunday, let's present the 100 ways of non-productivity and hope that nobody notices that ... don't worry, nobody does ever notice the dupes, because of severe how-to overload.

    By the way, making productivity a habit is a great example of a concept devoid of any meaning at all. Isn't productivity being productive in the first place? The short form of this truly revolutionary concept is to be productive -- wow. I mean WOW.

    This is Zen. I love Zen.

    Who's the intended audience of the content-avalanche, anyway? (I use the term content in its most generic form and not for the lack of a better word here.)

    The desperate need for serious help is directly anti-proportional to the willingness to accept it and follow even basic recommendations. People become help- and advice resistant when they need it the most.

    The rant is over now. Thank you for your patience. Have a great weekend and when it's over, make sure to be productive again.

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