Steven Poole is skeptical about an ever-growing “cult of ‘productivity'”:
In the vanguard of “productivity” literature and apps was David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) system, according to which you can become “a wizard of productivity” by organising your life into folders and to-do lists. The GTD movement quickly spread outside the confines of formal work and became a way to navigate the whole of existence: hence the popularity of websites such as Lifehacker that offer nerdy tips on rendering the messy business of everyday life more amenable to algorithmic improvement. If you can discover how best to organise the cables of your electronic equipment or “clean stubborn stains off your hands with shaving cream”, that, too, adds to your “productivity” – assuming that you will spend the time that is notionally saved on a sanctioned “task”, rather than flopping down exhausted on the sofa and waking groggily seven hours later from what you were sternly advised should have been a power nap of exactly 20 minutes. If you need such “downtime”, it must be rigorously scheduled.
The paradox of the autodidactic productivity industry of GTD, Lifehacker and the endless reviews of obscure mind-mapping or task-management apps is that it is all too easy to spend one’s time researching how to acquire the perfect set of productivity tools and strategies without ever actually settling down to do something. In this way, the obsessive dream of productivity becomes a perfectly effective defence against its own realisation. As Samuel Johnson once wrote: “Some are always in a state of preparation, occupied in previous measures, forming plans, accumulating materials and providing for the main affair. These are certainly under the secret power of idleness. Nothing is to be expected from the workman whose tools are for ever to be sought.”
Update from a few readers:
As someone who’s practiced GTD for about 15 years (and it is a practice that takes years to perfect), I can say that Steven Poole gets it wrong.
It’s not about doing more, scheduling every minute, calling everything “work.” It’s a pretty ingenious method of accounting for everything – stuff you’d normally put on a to-do list and stuff that you normally store somewhere in your brain – that you’ve committed yourself to so you can make wise decisions about what you value and how you want to spend your time. The result is often that you do get more done. But just as often you become free to not do anything because you can relax, knowing you haven’t spaced out on something important.
The big thing I’m wrestling with right now is looking at everything on my lists and making myself say “no” or “later” far more often. The system has really made it possible for me to take a good hard look at just how overcommitted I’ve let myself become.
Another:
You can’t post about productivity, GTD, etc without mentioning Merlin Mann. He coined the popular term “inbox zero,” which the Dish has covered a bit, and wrote a very popular productivity blog, 43Folders, during the aughts, but has since stepped back from that venture to be highly critical of the “productivity porn” industry. Merlin now does a popular weekly podcast at 5by5.tv/b2w, where he talks somewhat about GTD principles, but mainly focuses on how to help people actually do creative work, rather than talk about the tools for doing creative work, which can be a highly attractive sideshow.
The Dish 