The One Word That’s Better Than “Productivity.”
When you hear the word “productivity” what do you think?
iOS apps?Being busy?The Industrial Revolution?When I think of productivity, a few things come to mind. Sure, output is one of them. It’s a big one. But output isn’t the same as “more widgets, faster and cheaper.”Output also refers to quality, which is how well your solution (or your widget) solves the problem. Usually, you need less output if the quality is high. On top of that, there’s waste, which is how many additional revolutions per minute your wheels are spinning when they didn’t have to for a comparable result. Overall, it looks like productivity is probably an insufficient word to describe the concept that comes to mind.
So, I need to start using another word.
Social Impact. That’s what I will be using for now. If you can think of another one, please let me know!
2 Minute Action
How are you thinking of your social impact?Satisfied customers?Your Net Promoter Score?GBMs? (Goose Bump Moments)
It’s worth 2 minutes defining the axis on which you’re measuring your productivity/social impact.
Profit margin is one very helpful, unbiased way to measure the health of your project, but it’s just one of other vital signs for sustained social impact.
Reply and let me know how you’re measuring your productivity. I’d love to hear from you.
What Is Emotional Productivity And How Is It Changing Lives?
You owe it to the people you love.
You owe it to the people you respect.
You owe it to the people you want to help.
Of course, it’s uncomfortable.
You won’t pick all the right words. You might not even make sense for the first minute or two.
But it’s your responsibility to make sure that you push back, challenge, and voice yourself.
If you make a habit of holding back, you might not ever tell the whole truth or share what needs to be heard.
You are responsible for helping the people around you.
If you care about others, you’re not going to let them off the hook by rolling over.
And it’s this kind of work (emotional labor) that moves and changes people.
It’s this kind of work that changes peoples’ output.
It’s this kind of work that produces different results.
This is Emotional Productivity and no one else can do it for you. It’s up to you because it’s all inside of you.
2 Minute Action
In 2 minutes or less you can:
- Set up a meeting to have a difficult conversation.
- Call someone to own up and apologize.
- Write out your thoughts on paper so you’re more equipped for your upcoming conversation.
- Verbally process your thoughts by talking and rambling to a friend.
It’s hard and requires emotional labor, which no one taught us in school.
Do it anyway.
We’re all counting on you.
The Reason We're Not All Billionaires With 6-Pack Abs
It's hard to be useful every day.It's hard to do something impactful every day.Sometimes it's just hard to do anything, at all.
And of course, we all know that if it were easy, we'd all be billionaires with 6-pack abs.
Still, that doesn't always motivate us to start or to keep going.
The easiest way to change our inertia or to keep our pace is to make the task smaller.
Fine, don't run 5 miles at a 7 min/mile pace. Run 2 miles at a 10 min/mile pace.Fine, don't make 150 phone calls. Make 65.Fine, don't write letters to all your students. Just do 30%, today.
There are at least two strange and productive things that happen when we break things into small chunks.
- We maintain momentum and we're more likely to pick up where we left off later.
- We are more likely to do more than we set out to.
One of the lessons I've learned over and over is to stop getting in my own way.This is such a great example.I get big eyes! I bite off more than I can chew. I dream so big and I want to make so many great things happen, that I run the risk of getting nothing done because I spread myself too thin.It's not uncommon.
2 Minute Action
Here are some options for today:
- If you also have "big eyes," take at least 1 thing off your to-do list, today.
- If you have a huge task, break it into smaller pieces.
- No matter what, do 2 minutes of exercise. Planks, pushups, burpees. You have 2 minutes and you won't get sweaty.
If taking on too much sounds like you, reply here and let me know.We have to look out for each other.Let's make a ruckus, today.