Writing and Productivity

Image by solidxsnake13224 via Flickr

In 1967, behavioural psychologists Martin Seligman and Steve Maiers discovered quite by accident (while investigating simple conditioning) that dogs which were unable to escape from an unpleasant situation (small electrical shocks given through the floor of their box) gave up even trying. They were conditioned to be helpless, and would just lie there and take the shocks even when free to move.

The ethics and humanity of the experiment are a topic for another time, but they gave psychologists a valuable insight into one of the causes of depression and demotivation - learned helplessness.

If you've been through a prolonged period when you repeatedly fail to get work done or achieve your goals, you may be suffering from a form of learned helplessness yourself. The original cause may be minor (a natural period of low energy or high distraction, selecting or being given a series of goals that were impossible for you to achieve), but the longterm effects can be quite severe. You have literally been trained (or trained yourself) to expect failure or at least a lack of achievement, and when that training becomes strong enough, you have no motivation to even try any more.

Fortunately decades of behavioural research have also shown that what has been trained can be untrained. You just need to create a string of situations where you are visibly achieving what you set out to do.

Set yourself well-defined goals

A vague goal like "Improve my website" has no solid endpoint, so you can keep throwing time and resources at it without ever getting that "job done" feeling which in behavioural terms is your "reward", reinforcing your good habits. A solid goal like "Redesign front page to be less cluttered" is better.

Break down your tasks

"Redesign front page to be less cluttered" is still one big chunk, which means you only get one reward. Better still is break it down into multiple steps:

1. Smaller logo
2. Move news into a sidebar
3. Create boxes for different content
etc.

This creates multiple easily-achievable steps, which means (to the unconscious part of your brain where training takes effect) you get multiple "job done" rewards, and more reinforcement. This is an important aspect of Dave Allen's "Getting Things Done" system, but a lot of people don't really apply it.

Keep your successes visible

If you keep a digital to-do list or use whiteboards, you may be inclined to delete each task as it's completed just to keep things neat and tidy. Instead, cross them off and keep them around, at least until the end of the day. Looking at a long list of completed tasks is more reward, and more positive reinforcement of how much you're achieving.

Labels: Dave Allen, Depression, Getting Things Done, Learned helplessness, Martin Seligman, Motivation, productivity

Image via Wikipedia

We've all been there. Your neatly organised task lists have grown into a sea of unfinished jobs you're afraid to look at, you're avoiding more work than you've completed all month. You have so many "Next Actions" you're spending half your time going round and round deciding which one to do next, and whenever you start to work on something the pile of things hanging over you pulls at your attention like a traffic accident.

You're at the bottom of the productivity pit, and you're thrashing yourself deeper every hour.

The good news is, you've made the first step in getting out: You know you're in there. We end up in the pit because we become unaware of the big picture, lose sight of the structure of what we're doing (and why), and end up endlessly thrashing around, mired in the muck and going nowhere. We have to take a step back (often it comes at the point of real desperation) to realise we're in the pit, and that somewhere above us is light.

So you've looked up. That's good. What do you do now?

1. Stop thrashing. Stop digging away at whatever's currently got your attention. Relax, take a deep breath. Remember that you've been here before, and you're still alive. There's a way out. Now you're going to find it.
2. Put aside the time needed to replan. A solid hour, at the very least. If you're thinking "But if I stop to replan it's just going to get worse", just look at how much you're actually achieving right now.
3. Get a fresh birds-eye view. Right now, your usual task management tools (RTM, GTD, to-do lists, project management tools, notebooks) aren't working for you, because when you look at them it's all just part of the mess you're buried in. Grab a clean sheet of paper, a text document or a flipchart, and start making simple lists. Don't copy down blindly from the lists that aren't working for you, just use them as a prompt and actually think about what needs doing right now.
   
4. Identify the unimportant things. If it doesn't need doing right now, if it's not time-limited, throw it on a pile to deal with later. When you throw it on the pile, consciously think "That's under control; it'll get done; let it go". Strip down your list until you've got nothing but the things that need doing right now. I guarantee it'll be shorter than you think.
   
5. Replan your time. How much time have you got left today? Pick out the actions you can comfortably get done. Everything else can be thrown in the no-worry pile. Include one thing you've been actively avoiding - those little packets of poison need clearing out of the way, but you don't have to take them on all at once. Leave yourself half an hour at the end of the day to review.
   
6. Knock out the quick things first. Each one will give you a little burst of calm and new energy as you get a bit closer to the light above. As you complete a task, cross it off with a flourish.
   
7. At the end of the day, review what you've achieved, and take a moment to really appreciate your crossed-out items and that one poison packet you don't have to deal with any more. Then, go back to step 4 and plan tomorrow exactly the same way. Leave your desk (kitchen table, workshop, coffee-shop sofa...) knowing that, slowly but steadily, you're climbing out of the pit.

I'll see you in the sunlight.

Labels: big picture, desperation, Getting Things Done, pit, productivity, Project management, Remember The Milk, rethinking, RTM, stress, Task management, tasks, thrashing