Kaizen – The productivity ninja move
Posted by Jered | Filed under Featured, Podcast
A great concept in getting to a more productive life is the Japanese philosophy of kaizen. Kaizen’s English translation is “continuous improvement”.
The goals of kaizen include the elimination of waste (defined by [Joshua Isaac Walters] as “activities that add cost but do not add value”), just-in-time delivery, production load leveling of amount and types, standardized work, paced moving lines, right-sized equipment, etc. In this aspect it describes something very similar to the assembly line used in mass production. A closer definition of the Japanese usage of Kaizen is “to take it apart and put back together in a better way.” What is taken apart is usually a process, system, product, or service.
This is the perfect way to view the start of a personal productivity system, which may leave you wondering, what “If I’m going to get all productive, shouldn’t it be a radical departure from my previous way of doing business?”
Importantly, kaizen must operate with three principles in place: process and results (not results-only); systemic thinking (i.e. big picture, not solely the narrow view); and non-judgmental, non-blaming (because blaming is wasteful).
Kaizen is often a series of small steps, but “radical changes for the sake of goals” is perfectly okay. Make a big change to get yourself on track and then make small changes to get to the perfect system. The workers at Toyota rely on small experimental changes rather than large pre-planned command-and-control changes.
So in the discussion of personal productivity systems, remember incremental change can go a long way, especially after a large wholesale change. After all the psychic RAM can only take so many major paradigm shifts.
The Simplicity Habit: Quick Bite – Kaizen
Tags: japan, japanese, kaizen, productivity
Andre Kibbe on “What’s the Next Distraction?”
Posted by Michael | Filed under GTD, Site
In terms of GTD, David Allen reminds us to always ask ourselves, “What’s the next action?” In a smart play on words, Andre Kibbe asks over on his Tools for Thought blog, “What’s the next distraction?”
Most of us make To Do lists that really aren’t so much about doing things, as they are lists of stuff without definition or context. We feel better knowing that we put everything on a big To Do list, but if my experience is any indication, I think many of us get “deer in the headlights” after we realize just how much “stuff” we have and no idea how to get it all done. In a 2003 interview by Management Consulting News, David Allen, states:
…what most people call a to-do list is incomplete and unclear, which is highly unattractive. Everything on your list is either attracting or repelling you psychologically. There is no neutral response: it’s either, oh boy, when can I mark that off or, get out of my face. If there are still a lot of decisions you need to make about items on your list, your brain glances at the list and says, I don’t have the energy to do all that thinking, go away.
Even if we can get out of the headlights and across the road, we’re still left wondering what to do next. This is a crucial moment of decision about whether to move forward (decide on next action) or stagnate / procrastinate / panic / etc. In his post, Andre Kibbe suggests that a common form of procrastination is what he calls “serial digression,” and he offers us the following example to illustrate his point:
Many To Do items that people write down are multiaction tasks, like “Set up Dell,” as opposed to a genuine next action like “Read Dell Quick Start Guide.” The aim of a next action is to keep your attention on the most immediate physical task instead of the outcome. A To Do like the one in the example is overloaded, conflating what needs to be accomplished with what needs to be done. Any project, no matter how large or complex, can be parsed into at least one next action that’s simple to do. Not everyone can get into Harvard, but anyone can download the admission form.
Put another way, David Allen remarks in the MCNews interview that, “You don’t usually see specific actions on to-do lists because most people haven’t forced themselves to sit down and finish their thinking about what has their attention. They collect items in their in-basket or think they have made a list, but there is another level of thinking that is required to move forward.”
What we’re left with are what Andre Kibbe defines as “Next Distractions” noting that, “Procrastination is more than not doing priority tasks; it’s doing non-priority tasks.” In terms of what Kibbe calls “Crutch Activities,” he argues that, “No task exists in isolation. A key consideration of any activity is not what the activity is, but what it leads to.”
So, whenever we go to check our RSS readers just before starting a project, fire-up our browser to find something on Wikipedia, or even write that next blog post (ahem…), be sure to remember the suggestions and quick tips that Andre Kibbe offers in his post. And watch out for the deer.
Tags: David Allen, GTD, productivity, To Do
Lifehack.org: Are You Lifehacking Too Much?
Posted by Michael | Filed under Craphack, GTD
Interesting article over on Lifehack today linking to Nick Cernis’s of Put Things Off blog. Here we ask ourselves: Is productivity, or at least the concept if not the practice, really and truly “dead”? Is calling it dead a bit drastic? Or are we simply moving into another way of thinking about what it means to be “productive”? Or, are we realizing that the pursuit of productivity really is something we fool ourselves into believing — as a cult-like pursuit of salvation — that being more productive should be the end all, be all of our existence? Are we perhaps missing out on something larger, those of us with a myopic focus on achieving productivity Zen?
“[lifehack.org] He said that “our obsession with ‘productivity’ is getting in the way of our lives.” Nick started out by saying that the productivity industry is out of control, and that it’s making us less efficient, not more. I agree with Nick, and I can tell you why the productivity industry is like that: it’s about making money. more…
[putthingsoff.com] At the end of 2007, I stopped almost all the beeps in my life. I sold the PDA that had been bipping away at me, dutifully organising my days. Instead, I picked up a pencil and paper. So far, 2008 has been my most productive year ever. I went further too. I’ve given up on GTD and trying to bend my life to fit a complex blueprint. I stopped actively seeking online offerings titled 13 Even More Productive Ways to Wash Your Socks That Will Blow Your Mind. I realised far too late that the productivity industry has become a techno-spiritualist movement. People are now using productivity ’systems’, software and small beeping devices just because almost everybody else is. more…
Your thoughts?
Tags: GTD, Lifehack, productivity
Lifehack.org posting on Living Scared
Posted by Michael | Filed under Asides, Recommended, Site
Check out this great posting over on Lifehack.org about the fear of living life. Definitely a thought-provoking posting to read in its entirety. Towards the middle, and relevant to this blog, are the following passages:
[Excerpt] Some people have been almost creating their best life for far too long. Some people have been standing at the threshold of greatness for years, twiddling their thumbs, wasting their time and talent and hoping in vain that success might somehow find it’s way to them. An interesting, if not totally unrealistic notion.
[Excerpt] Some Personal Development Junkies are masters of this. Just one more workshop, one more conversation, one more mentoring session, one more self-help book and just one more day and then I’ll do it. Okay, maybe two more days. Sadly, they don’t understand that what they really need is not more time, books, workshops or more motivational fluff, what they really need is some balls.
Tags: craphacks, fear, Lifehack, productivity
Lifehacker: How to Ditch Dedicated GTD Apps
Posted by Michael | Filed under Craphack, GTD
As Jered and I talked about in our first podcast episode, many of us tend to look for new and “better” ways to make our lives simpler. Unfortunately, by doing so we only add yet-another layer of management to our work, thus defeating the point. We called these “craphacks.”
I came across this post over on Lifehacker that brought our point home.
[Lifehacker.com] Mac user Dennis Best says that using David Allen’s Getting Things Done productivity system on your Mac doesn’t mean you need to find the ultimate GTD application—that the tools you already have in Mail.app, iCal and Finder get the job done fine….Not to be all finger-waggy, but ultimately it’s up to you, not your software, to work the system. [more...]
Read Dennis Best’s extensive original posting on his blog here:
Getting things done (simply) in Leopard: The best Mac GTD app might be right under your nose
Although Best’s post addresses apps on Mac OS X, the same principle applies for any OS, or any technology that promises to increase your productivity.
[dennisbest.org] GTD’ers like myself are jumping from app to app looking for the right fit. (How productive is that?) The fact that none of them fit probably says more about my shortcomings than the talents of the developers. Fact is, I’m lazy when it comes to using this stuff and fall off the wagon quickly. [more...]
Best makes an excellent point that following the GTD habit (and other methods for that matter) tempts us to be on constant watch for the next best thing, which really goes against the whole idea of GTD as it is outlined by David Allen. Also, we can’t blame the developers; we only have our mistake of not doing the deep self-reflection necessary in order to adopt the right productivity tools for us as individuals, not the newest that “everyone” is talking about (or selling).
Finally, no tool will ever prevent us from being Human. Sometimes we do fall back on old habits, and we have to be okay with that every now and then. Truly following GTD (or another good method) provides the means to get back on track. Nevertheless, those of us who are “productivity tool addicts” tend to look for the next perfect tool to help get us back onto the proverbial wagon. I’ll go so far as to liken it to allowing an drug addict to relapse, then allowing him/her to try out some new drugs off the street before getting back into rehab. It just doesn’t make sense, but we still do it anyway.
Tags: GTD, Lifehacker, productivity, workflow
