The end of all productivity hacks.

You probably have binge-watched all productivity videos on Youtube and yet you still find it difficult to get to work. Here's a blog that talks about a framework to stop you from giving hundreds of hours watching youtube and that actually gives you results.

Effective vs. Efficient

Effectiveness is doing the most important thing that brings you closer to your goal. Efficiency is performing a task, whether important or not, using the least amount of resources. Therefore, being efficient does not necessarily mean you are being effective.

Only my youtube search history knows how many videos I have watched in order to get my ass to work.

How many times have I said to myself that this next video will be the solution to all of my procrastination.Yet I failed.

Out of all the hundreds of productivity videos I binge-watched, there were two ideas that stuck with me and that brings us to the framework which ends all the productivity-hacks :

Pareto's 80/20 principle

While I am not going to bore you with the definition of Pareto's Principle (which you can google), remember I am here to stop you from anymore googling and tell you the essence of what the law is which will get you going.

In summary, Pareto's Principle says that 80% of results comes from 20% of the inputs. Alternatively, we can phrase this as:

Pareto's principle in action

Take a sheet of paper and write down the tasks which you think of accomplishing in the day and question yourself, what is the 20% of each task which will give me 80% of the result. Remember to be very vigilant about the answer to the question. You do not want to spend unnecessary time on unimportant things (Remember! Effective > Efficient).

After completing the above task the next task is to assign a time frame to each important task which brings me to my second idea--

Parkinson's Law

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." - C. Northcote Parkinson

A task will start to appear more complex and more important as time alloted for its completion increases. Therefore, immediately after completing the previous task get down with doing the task and allocate minimum time for it to complete. This creates a sense of urgency and eventually lets you focus on the important tasks.

Recall, how you would submit your assignments which had deadlines for the next day. Although, that might not be one of your best work but what we are trying to achieve here is momentum. We are trying to get out of what I call Productivity Purgatory.

Expectations of extraordinary results in the first try is not a healthy goal to aim for. This will lead you to frustration, eventually forcing you to inaction.

Parkinson's Law in action

After you have decided on the most important tasks, now all you have to do is assign a time frame within which you want to complete the task. The time frame should be as such that it gives you a sense of urgency.

The 80/20 Principle and Parkinson's Law has been the greatest idea that got me out of my productivity purgatory. I hope the framework gives you some pointers and gets you out of your rut too.

Written by ✍🏻 Shahazad

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