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The Power of Productivity: Why Most Advice Is Rubbish and What Actually Works
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Here's something that'll probably annoy half the productivity gurus out there: most productivity advice is complete nonsense designed to sell you something you don't need.
I've been consulting with businesses across Melbourne and Brisbane for the past 18 years, and I can tell you right now that 78% of the productivity systems I see implemented fail within six months. Not because they're inherently bad, but because they're built for robots, not humans.
Take the whole "wake up at 5 AM" movement. Absolute rubbish for most people. I tried it for three months back in 2019 after reading some Silicon Valley executive's memoir. Nearly killed my marriage and definitely killed my creativity. Turns out, forcing your natural night owl tendencies into an early bird schedule is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole – it works until the pressure becomes too much.
But here's what actually works, and this might surprise you.
The Myth of Multitasking
Everyone knows multitasking is bad. Or do they? Because I watch supposedly intelligent business owners juggling phones, emails, and meetings like they're performing in Cirque du Soleil. And then they wonder why nothing gets done properly.
The human brain wasn't designed to handle seventeen different inputs simultaneously. When you're switching between tasks, you're not being efficient – you're being scattered. Studies show it takes an average of 23 minutes to fully refocus after an interruption. That means every time someone pops their head into your office with a "quick question," you're losing nearly half an hour of productive work.
I learned this the hard way during a particularly chaotic project with a retail client in Perth. Three weeks of constant interruptions, and we achieved roughly the same output as one focused week would have delivered. Embarrassing? Absolutely. Educational? Even more so.
The 80/20 Rule Everyone Gets Wrong
Everyone bangs on about the Pareto Principle – 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. But most people apply it backwards. They spend their time trying to identify the magical 20% instead of ruthlessly eliminating the 80% that doesn't matter.
Here's a controversial opinion: most meetings are part of that useless 80%. I've sat through more pointless meetings than I care to count, and the pattern is always the same. Someone calls a meeting because they think communication equals productivity. Wrong.
The companies that genuinely embrace productivity don't have more meetings – they have fewer, shorter, and more focused ones. Atlassian figured this out years ago with their "No Meeting Wednesdays" policy. Result? Productivity jumped 25% on those days.
Technology: Your Best Friend or Worst Enemy?
Technology should make us more productive, right? Then why do I see business owners spending more time managing their productivity apps than actually being productive?
I'll admit something here. I once had fourteen different productivity apps on my phone. Fourteen! Task managers, time trackers, note-taking apps, calendar optimisers – you name it, I had it. Spent more time updating these systems than using them. Classic case of productivity theatre.
The breakthrough came when I stripped everything back to three tools. Just three. Email, calendar, and one note-taking app. That's it. Revolutionary? Hardly. Effective? Absolutely.
But here's where it gets interesting – the tool doesn't matter as much as the system behind it. I've seen people achieve incredible results with nothing but a pen and paper, while others drown in sophisticated digital systems. The difference isn't the technology; it's the thinking.
The Dirty Secret About Deep Work
Cal Newport popularised the concept of deep work, and it's brilliant in theory. Extended periods of focused, cognitively demanding work. Love it. The problem? Most Australian businesses aren't set up for deep work.
Open plan offices. Constant Slack notifications. The cultural expectation that being available equals being valuable. These aren't conducive to deep work – they're the antithesis of it.
I worked with a financial services firm in Sydney that was haemorrhaging talent because their brightest minds couldn't think. The solution wasn't another team-building exercise or free coffee machine. It was creating spaces and times where people could actually focus.
They implemented "Focus Fridays" – no meetings, no non-urgent communications, just pure work time. Within two months, both productivity and job satisfaction scores improved dramatically. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective.
The Productivity Paradox
Here's something that might sound contradictory: the most productive people I know don't obsess over productivity. They obsess over outcomes.
There's a fundamental difference between being busy and being effective. Busy people respond to emails within minutes, attend every meeting, and have colour-coded calendars that would make a project manager weep with joy. Effective people ask different questions: What actually needs to be done? Who's the best person to do it? What can we stop doing entirely?
I remember working with a manufacturing company where the owner was working 70-hour weeks and still falling behind. We spent one afternoon mapping out everything he did in a typical week. Turned out, 40% of his time was spent on tasks that either didn't need doing or could be delegated to someone earning half his hourly rate.
The Human Element
This brings me to my biggest gripe with productivity advice: it treats humans like machines that can be optimised and upgraded. We're not.
We have good days and bad days. We get distracted by personal problems. We procrastinate on tasks we don't enjoy. We work better at different times of day. These aren't bugs in the system – they're features of being human.
The most successful productivity systems I've seen acknowledge this humanity rather than fight against it. They build in flexibility, account for energy levels, and recognise that sometimes the best thing you can do for your productivity is take a proper break.
I once worked with a CEO who scheduled "thinking time" into his calendar like it was a client meeting. Blocked out three hours every Tuesday morning, phone off, door closed, just to think about the business. His team thought he was skiving off. His results suggested otherwise.
What Actually Moves the Needle
After nearly two decades of watching what works and what doesn't, here's what I've learned actually makes a difference:
Clarity beats complexity every time. The most productive people know exactly what they're trying to achieve and why. They can explain their priorities in one sentence, not a PowerPoint presentation.
Systems trump motivation. Motivation is emotional and temporary. Systems are practical and permanent. Build systems that work even when you don't want to work.
Less is more. The most productive professionals aren't doing more things – they're doing fewer things better. They've learned to say no to good opportunities so they can say yes to great ones.
Energy management trumps time management. You can't manage time – everyone gets the same 24 hours. But you can manage your energy. Work on your most important tasks when you're at your peak, not when your calendar says you should.
The Real Secret
Want to know the real secret to productivity? It's embarrassingly simple: start finishing things.
Most people are great at starting projects. Terrible at finishing them. They get distracted by the next shiny opportunity before completing what they've already begun. This creates a backlog of half-finished work that weighs on their mind and clutters their focus.
The most productive people I know are ruthless finishers. They complete what they start before moving on to the next thing. It's not glamorous, but it works.
Look, productivity isn't about finding the perfect system or the right app or the optimal morning routine. It's about understanding yourself, your work, and your goals well enough to make conscious choices about where you spend your time and energy.
Everything else is just noise.
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