Productivity is dead; long live productivity!

A lot of the Mac users I interact with love OmniFocus, this really highly granulated, powerful task manager, but then they tend toward really simple content collection and creation apps (Yojimbo, TextEdit, Notational Velocity, etc.). 

I like OmniFocus — it was my main productivity app. And I’ve got licenses for a lot of these ‘simple apps’. (I use Notational Velocity still, particularly for its SimpleNote sync.) Sure, there’s something to be said for a a clean, simple interface that doesn’t give you anything to futz around with. 

But mostly I’ve ended up with an inverted pattern: I’ve left OmniFocus to use The Hit List, which in comparison is pretty simple (almost toyish), and slowly gravitated toward highly customizable, powerful applications for content collection and creation — tools like DevonThink Pro + Scrivener. 

I want to spend less time in my task app, and more time living in the places where I absorb good things and make stuff. If I’m gonna be tweaking a workflow, I want it to be my *work*flow, not my *figuringoutwhattoworkon*flow.

It’s a thought, anyway.

On Acknowledging Fear

I pride myself on a lack of fear. Ready to dash into the fray on the chance of success — with my relationship choices, recreational choices, work choices, business choices — and yet, I believe I’m discovering this to be a facade. 

Today I’ve been reading Steve Pavlina on the value of courage over security. Steve made a point that really caught my attention:

Have you previously convinced yourself that you aren’t really afraid of anything… that there are always good and logical reasons why you don’t do certain things? […] They’re just rationalizations though - think about how your life would change if you could confidently and courageously do these things with no fear at all.

This comes specifically at a time where I’m trying to train myself to no longer believe my own bulls**t. This, up til now, hasn’t been in the form of recognizing fear, but recognizing the lies I tell myself.

But just now, I’ve realized that much of what I tell myself in way of justifying my actions is motivated by fear. Particularly, those things I’ve been crediting to “laziness” seem at this point to be largely motivated by fear, in both logical and illogical ways. 

For instance, I might delay completing a task, telling myself that I can focus on it more completely at a later date. That if I do it right now, I’ll lose track of what I’m doing, I’ll lose momentum, and I won’t be “in the moment” as I’m doing that task. At its root, this self-talk is about a fear that I won’t complete it well enough.

In another example, I’m a notorious and regular late-sleeper. My alarm goes off in the morning, and in the moments of semi-wakefulness before I drift off to sleep again, voices kick in. Some of what I tell myself:

1. Boy, you’re tired. You’d better sleep a little longer or you won’t perform well today. 
2. What’s that dryness in your throat? Are you getting sick? You ought to sleep longer to be sure your body has time to fight whatever this is.
3. It’s quite early still. You’ve got time for a few more minutes. After all, that’s why you’ve got a second alarm! You’ve got a system.
4. Sleep now while you’ve got the chance! You know you have trouble getting to sleep at night, and ____ might happen today, causing you to get less sleep tonight!

Do you see the pattern? I’m beginning to see one. All except No. 3 are obviously rooted in a fear of something — fear of bad performance, fear of sickness, fear of lost sleep later. Even no. 3 is connected, as I’m falling back on my “smartness” in devising systems in advance instead of doing what I’ve failed at in times past — relying on strength of action.

Ironically, my self-talk often leads to the things I’m most trying to avoid. I wake up late and have delayed productivity and a low morale. With no time to exercise and eat well in the morning, I get sick more often… And on it goes.

So here’s today’s challenge for myself. Let go of fear. The biggest risk is staying where you are. The biggest lie is the one that says you aren’t capable of taking the path you’ve chosen.

There are people who want you to succeed. There are people who’ve done it before, with less tools than you have. So do it. 

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
— Eleanor Roosevelt