Welcome to Evolver, a newsletter on the evolution of work and the way work gets done. Each week, we’ll share (usually) brief thoughts and analysis. Today’s edition (our first!) is by Jordan and edited by Jon.
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“Hack away your day with these top 10 productivity tips.”
“8 habits every CEOs has.”
“Best productivity hacks to avoid procrastination”
There’s a lot of advice online about how to get things done. You’ve seen this advice, you know what I’m talking about. But none of these clickbait productivity hacks actually make you better at getting things done. Hacks are just that: hacks. They are not a sustainable way to improve your output long-term.
Now consider the amount of time in your workday and your energy level. Both are fixed resources. You can get more done today by working more hours, but you’re borrowing from your energy levels tomorrow. You can work fewer hours but then you’re further behind on work in the future. No amount of hacks will change the fact that there are only so many hours in the day and your third cup of coffee can’t keep you going forever.
So how do you become more productive, sustainably? There is only one answer I know of.
Get bored.
Get super bored. No really, get super-duper bored—boredom here not meaning a sense of ennui, but an environment free of outside stimuli.
Our world is full of distractions and we’ve trained ourselves to like and crave information overload. How often do you put down your smartphone, turn off the news, and just focus on your own thoughts? I know I hardly ever do. We’re uncomfortable with that level of boredom. Our culture is inherently anti-boredom because we equate downtime with lost productivity. But boredom actually helps boost productivity.
For one, being bored helps you focus. The fixed amount of time in our day is full of potential. And then something interrupts the day, challenges that boredom and switches your attention to something else. This “context switching” ain’t free. There’s an initial “switching cost”, then the time spent doing other things, and a final “switching cost” incurred getting back into what we were doing before. Do this too many times in a day, and you’ll wonder where your day has gone. You need to protect your time for the things that matter to you because no one else will. Cut the distractions.
Boredom will make you more creative. There’s a ton of research that links boredom with creativity. This is a good kind of energizing boredom. It’s the kind of boredom where you let your mind wander and it will stumble onto something amazing. And that boredom will spark creativity: creative solutions, unexpected connections, and new more efficient ways of doing things. There’s your productivity hacks right there—but for the long-term.
So, next time you’re bored, go ahead and let your mind wander. It might lead you somewhere totally unexpected.
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