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Why we focus on what doesn’t matter

Busy ≠ productive

January 03, 2022

Hey there —

We are going through a productivity renaissance.

People are realizing that “working hard” doesn’t mean hustling until the wee hours of the night. It’s about making your working hours as productive as possible so you have fewer of them. And to get there, we have to say “no” to busy work.

But what does “busy work” even look like?

Busy work is everywhere. Most of us spend as much time on busy work as our actual jobs because of a cognitive bias called “bikeshedding.”

Coined by historian Cyril Parkinson, the term comes from a story about a committee tasked with designing a nuclear power plant.

Designing a nuclear power plant is hard. So instead of doing the difficult work, the engineers argue over what color to paint the bicycle shed in the parking lot. The end result is that they all go to “work" every day, but fail to get anything substantial done.

While your to-do list probably won’t have “build a power plant” on it, bikeshedding happens to the best of us.

We all focus on trivial things because it feels good to tick items off our to-do list. It also absolves us of the fear of screwing up something important. This is why you spend an unreasonable amount of time cleaning your inbox or tinkering with the perfect filter for your Instagram story.

But when we go this route, we are choosing busy work instead of better work.

If you ask most people if they hate mundane tasks, they’ll say “yes”. But if we’re honest, most of us will admit that busy work makes us feel productive — even when these tasks rarely move the needle in our careers.

Luckily, there’s a simple way to avoid ‘bikeshedding’ yourself into an unproductive 9-to-5 rut:

  • Delegate. Ask yourself, “Does this task need all these resources at hand, or can I hand it off to someone else?”

  • Eat the frog. Start off your day with your most unpleasant task. Because once that’s out of the way, the rest of your to-do list looks like a breeze.

  • Assign allotted time slots for specific tasks. Need to choose the perfect Unsplash photo for your article? Plug your YouTube script into Hemingway? Set a timer for 15 minutes so you don’t get bogged down by the details.

It’s time to hop off the busy work treadmill and actually start getting somewhere.

7 Mentally Tough People on the Tactics They Use to Build Resilience

Article | by Polina Pompliano

Unlike rice cookers and diamonds, we don’t do well under pressure (ba dum tss 🥁).

But there are a few folks who do thrive when the going gets tough.

Writer Polina Pompliano profiled these rare individuals and whipped up a list of their strategies.

Learn how legends like Kobe Bryant, Courtney Dauwalter, and David Goggins have performed when the pressure was on. Tactics include embracing the “pain cave” (not as bad as it sounds) and self-distancing to better manage emotions.

If you’re ready to take your mental resilience to the gym, this article is your warm-up.

On the Link Between Great Thinking and Obsessive Walking

Article | by Jeremy DeSilva

We know staying sedentary all day isn’t great for your heart. But it turns out that staying huddled at your desk might also be clogging your creativity.

In this article, Jeremy DeSilva shares how the simple act of walking helped some of the greatest modern thinkers, from Darwin to Toni Morrison, make mental breakthroughs in their work, and why active imaginations begin with movement.

Maybe read this one standing up.

52 Things I Learned in 2021

Article | by Tom Whitwell

Last week, we said ‘sayonara’ to 2021. Read Tom Whitwell’s article on the strangest things he learned last year for some parting wisdom to get you ready for the year ahead.

Prepare for some facts you didn’t ask for.

Here are some of our favorites:

  • Good quality audio makes you sound about 19% cleverer.

  • In the 1930s, people wouldn’t watch a movie from start to finish. They’d walk in and out of the theatre as they pleased, similar to a bar.

  • “Productive dysmorphia” is an inability to see or celebrate your own professional achievements.

The other 49 facts are just as whacky. Trust us.

Written by Alice Lemée