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On Alternative Productivity and Anti-Hacks for Living

GTD Asleep (Sunfox)
Photo by Sunfox

The Growing Life emerged 7 weeks ago sporting a tag line that read: "Durable Evolution, Meaningful Productivity."  The ever-so-wise academic in me thought "durable evolution" was both catchy and sophisticated.  A real show-stopper.  Turns out only one person liked it, and I’m pretty sure that they expressed this opinion while drunk.

At the same time that my hopes of "durable evolution" entering the common parlance were being shattered, I also discovered the beginnings of the voice for this blog.  Articles like this and this were beginning to define The Growing Life.  Additionally, I found myself questioning GTD and the role of wildly-successful sites like Lifehacker, and thinking more and more about counterintuitives as well as ideas at the so-called "bleeding edge."  In light of this, I’ve decided to change my tag line to "Alternative Productivity, Anti-Hacks for Living."  Here’s a little on what these two phrases mean to me…

Alternative Productivity

Alternative productivity is really a constellation of things, but here are some of the major points:

  • The less time you have to spend thinking about productivity, the better.
  • Traditional productivity is a necessary evil: if you dislike your job, you’re going to need a water-tight productivity system in place to keep you on task.
  • Far too many mainstream productivity gurus make the bulk of their income from company training events.  David Allen, for example, has a Fortune 500-studded client list which includes Lockheed Martin, Deloitte & Touche, and the U.S. Department of Defense (see here for more of his clients).  Given this source of income, productivity experts are often working in the interest of corporations who would squeeze every ounce of productivity from their workers.
  • Productivity should be designed around lives, not the other way around.
  • Self-development and productivity are two very different things.
  • The the 9-5, 40 hour work week is outdated.
  • More technology often leads to decreased productivity.
  • Hacks, tweaks, tricks, etc. have emerged from a productivity hobbyist culture, are largely insufficient at solving bigger life problems, and often do not increase productivity.
  • Hacks etc. are vestiges of the largely "techie" demographic of the early, but self-reinforcing, blogosphere.
  • The workforce is laboring for more hours and for less pay, taking fewer vacations, and generally burning out.
  • The societally scripted route to success via productivity is failing us.

This list is just a starting point. Hit The Growing Life in the next few days for a more thorough discussion.

At any rate, a backlash against productivity is slowly surfacing the present-day zeitgeist.  I am largely in alignment with this backlash (apparently, so is this person and this person).

Anti-Hacks

Albert Einstein correctly started that “problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”  Anti-hacks attempt to solve problems by approaching them at a higher level of thinking.  For example, while David Allen says that peace of mind (i.e. mind like water) comes from creating exhaustive todo lists and getting everything out of your head, an anti-hack might involve meditation, because all the list-making in the world will not bring you to a meditative, mind-like-water state.  An anti-hack might also involve quitting your job or taking the inefficient but nevertheless effective high road.

Please note that while the prefix "anti" can mean "opposed to" or "against," as in "anti-aircraft" or "anti-war," it can also mean "instead of" as in "anti-drug," or "anti-folk."  The term "anti-hack" employs to latter meaning (i.e. instead of).  Please also note that I think hacks can be great, that I am a fan of both Lifehacker and Lifehack, and that I reserve the right to write at length about various life hacks on this blog.

So-called anti-hacks really are nothing new (but neither are "hacks," for that matter).  "Anti-hack" is just a new word for a very old idea, but the term highlights a significant distinction.

How My New Tag Line Will Affect Content on The Growing Life

It would be easy for me to move forward by writing rant after rant against productivity.  I’m not sure this would be of much help.  I’d rather focus on durable evolution and meaningful productivity :-) .

For more on alternative productivity and anti-hacks, subscribe to The Growing Life.

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  • gmv
    Clay:

    This is really resonating with me. I tried to read David Allen's GTD and I simply never could get myself past the first chapter. I am sure there are plenty of valuable tips in that, but I think we've made the quest for productivity way too complicated.

    First, we've confused the ever expanding tools and gadgets with the inherent self-focus and self-discipline that is needed to stay on track with whatever we are doing.

    Second, and perhaps more importantly, a individuals we are falling into the trap of commoditizing ourselves. We are human beings first, not human "doings" The productivity craze seems bent on making us all super-efficient human doing machines, measuring our worth in the sum of our output. Like there is something wrong with us if we aren't executing multiple work projects as well as our personal life projects with scripted efficiency.

    No. Totally misses the point.

    I am not saying we shouldn't strive to have good systems in place to handle the tasks we need. I just don't think we need elaborate trademarked systems by a guru to be well-organized.

    I can't begin to wrap my head around GTD (and I don't mean this to be an anti-David Allen rant). However, I've always known that the best way for me to accomplish things is to write done my list of goals and keep a daily "to do" list. I don't need to make a big deal out of it. I just need to do it.

    And I need to not overcommit and leave plenty of time to just be a human being. I am not the sum of all my doings.

    Look forward to more of this great blog!
  • gmv
    @Bilgem:

    I think perhaps you are missing the point a little -- there is nothing inherently wrong with companies wishing their employees to be more productive (although, I might add that companies all too often confusing "being productive" with "working longer hours". Comapnies tend to emphasize quantity over quality. The inherent falseness of that, IMHO is the point of what Tim Ferriss is saying in "4 Hour Workweek" and part of what Clay is addressing here.

    For example, at my company you are presumed to only be truly productive if you put in ~50 hours of billable work a week. You are paid for 40, you are frowned on if you don't exceed that. Never mind if you don't actually have 40 hours of work, which sometimes happens. What usually happens, however, is that in the frenzy to get ever more work done, we throw more people at it rather than SLOW DOWN AT THE RIGHT TIME to PLAN A WISE APPROACH. So the 50 hours ends up being needed, but a lot of it is really unproductive, because we are just spinning and correcting the mistakes or undesired effects of poor planning.

    And that verifies what you are saying about companies need good business processes. We don't have it. All the productivity hacks in the world aren't going to fix that. And -- it got worse after they brought in the big guns from IBM to fix our processes. 'NUFF SAID.

    BUT -- I don't think Clay is talking about corporate productivity. I think he's talking about "corporate-independent" (aka personal) productivity -- productivity that you'd practice regardless of where you work. And I think he's on to something. I'll say whu in a different post since this has gotten way too long.
  • Love the thoughts. Looking forward to reading more.
  • Joanne
    I make yarn by spinning on a spindle. I was reading a thread on a spindlers group that was complaining about the pressure to buy a spinning wheel - the biggest reason being productivity ;-) You can make more yarn faster with a wheel!

    I passed on your thoughts on productivity as I heard them in the podcast this week. Creating your own definition of productivity!
  • Bilgem
    Interesting points here but I would like to ask a question:

    What is wrong with a company wanting their employees to be more productive? If I had a company I would want that too. In my working life I always wish my coworkers to be more productive too. Is there something ethically wrong in that? I am not talking about the type of temporary productivity bursts by making people simply work more. That eventually causes burnout in people and causes them to be unproductive ultimately. But in my experience usually unproductivity in companies come from problems in processes and trying to make processes (for individuals and groups) more productive is something I do not see an ethical problem with. Am I missing your point?

    Regards
    Bilgem
  • You are SOOOO right! I am a coach in the "organizing" profession and, as a coach, what I do is help my clients SPEND AS LITTLE TIME organizing AS possible. I refuse to call myself a "productivity" coach because I believe a life's ultimate goal is simply to fulfill your own purpose and find meaning and peace in your own way. There is no point in being productive or even organized if you don't know what you really want to do with your time.

    GTD has a few "principles" that are helpful, but the overall system? Forget it. No creative person I know uses it, including me. I really don't get why on earth there are so many blogs and websites out there devoted to trying to make it work. If it's that hard. DROP it. Why invest so much time and energy into it? My rule of thumb is that if I have to struggle that much to make an organizing system work - it's automatically a waste of time. : )

    Thanks for speaking up! I can't wait to read more... : )
  • Clay Collins
    @Zoojon: I once heard Tim Ferriss say that it's impossible for him to be creative for more than 4 hours per day. It's the same for me. Creativity takes time and lots of it. Often, creative time isn't spent much of anything at all and looks like laziness, but much is going on internally.

    I'm really glad that you found this article helpful.
  • Most design disciplines preach this as a way to be more creative, less confined. While the majority of corporate America doesn't get it and they seem to think their designers can create 9 to 5 when in fact anybody in a creative field knows it doesn't work that way.

    I like your thinking! I'll use some of this at work to broaden some minds!!!
  • Excellent post Clay. I salute your re-imagining. I dove into the GTD craze, with all its spin offs, a couple of years ago out of desperation at my inability to keep tasks straight. After swimming through those waters for a few months, trying this system and that, this hack and that, I finally settled back to the basics of writing it down.

    For me the best system is the HipsterPDA, a stack of index cards plus a mini-binder clip and a good pen. I write things down as I need them, and whenever I am sitting to work I keep it out to remind me. As things get done I cross them off, and replace pages every once in a while. It never crashes, I never have to upgrade, no need to plug in, and I am always equipped with scrap paper for "capturing" the occasional phone number. Woot! This is the second comment I have made today that mentioned my trusty HPDA. ;-) (Interesting note - I have noticed a rise in the number of phone number instances in direct correlation to my simplifying my system. FYI)
  • I like how this blog encourages readers to raise their awareness. For me, self-development and productivity aren't necessarily that far apart. A person can feel productive insofar as he feels that progress is made. Productivity as in delving into the self clearly differs from taking steps to obtain physical or measurable results for someone else. How you sense your own inner growth may not be quantifiable in the same way.
  • you know - everytime I meant to ask you to explain it to me, we would be speaking about something else and I would make a mental note to google it. Then I'd forget, shrug and come hang out anyway because you've got a solid site with great info

    Feel free to explain it to me even now- I like to know alot. ha.

    I didn't dislike your last tagline though
    just pleasantly surprised with this one
  • thank the gods someones finally said it.

    Quit my "career" job to journey as a shaman. Havn't been back. It's month 11.
  • Clay, I'm happy to see your blog focus on essential things, away from the noisy productivity buzz! My blog's tagline reads "Timeless resources for personal development", so you can guess I'll be a loyal reader! :-)
  • Clay Collins
    @The Financial Philosopher: I enjoyed your comment. Thanks for dropping some wisdom.

    @Nick: Completely agree.

    @Alex: Good to know. Do you do freelance web design for WP?

    @Patrick: Thanks for your very kind words. I agree that much of the productivity/lifehack community is moving towards an eastern or zen perspective, but I'm not quite sure that the term "zen" is being used authentically. It seem to be a synonym for simplicity, or wisdom, or something. For example, in Tim Ferris's blog the following is said regarding comments: "Comment Zen: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That's how we're gonna be -- cool. If you're not, we'll delete your stuff. Also, please use cursing artfully if you must, and put your URL in the "website" field and not in the comment box. Danke and have fun! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration)" How is that Zen? But I'm largely in agreement with you and there are some noble efforts out there.

    I'm really glad you stopped by, by the way. Thanks for your kind words of encouragement.
  • Clay Collins
    @JEMi: Glad you like the new tagline, and you were one of the people that I was pretty sure was confused by the whole "durable evolution" thing. Thanks for being down from day 1, by the way.

    @Caron: "post-productivity" and "post-hack" makes all this business sound like the music industry. But so does "alternative" and "anti." I thought for 2 seconds about putting up a picture of Kurt Cobain to go with the whole alternative theme. perhaps another workable title would be "indie productivity." That might be fun.
  • Clay,

    Good points. Like any phenomenon, productivity is good until it reaches top of the bell curve where happiness and energy goes up with productivity but after the top, both happiness and energy goes down as push for more productivity beyond saturation point burns life.

    Shilpan
  • Clay Collins
    @Tom: Thanks for submitting this to SU. Your point about Buddha rolling over in his grave is hilarious and probably true. I think the point about acting as if you have all the time in the world is a beautiful concept. I'm going to have to think about that a little more.

    @Caron: I'm glad I haven't lost you with my new tagline :-).
  • Clay Collins
    @Vared: A lot of people seem to echo your "I just do what I love to do, and the rest follows." I completely embrace this, except that there are areas in my life where the consequences of not being on track are very high, but I'm not very motivated at all. That's when this productivity stuff seems to help out.

    @journal: I'm really glad that you enjoy the alternative angle on things. I sometimes worry that I'm doing too much commentary on productivity and not enough talking about real solutions, but I think I've achieved a bit of balance.

    @Jay: I really like this quotation: "So much of what has constituted the traditional realm of productivity is either antiquated or lying at an extreme end, becoming efficacious to the point of stupidity." One thing that I really enjoy about the commentors on The Growing Life is that they're often better writers and I. Thanks for putting that so eloquently.

    @Paul: Thanks the comments. I really don't have a lot against hack, etc., I just sometimes feel like I'm experiencing tip overload or something. Some of the tips, however, are very good but it can just get overwhelming at times. I guess some of the so-called "anti-hacks" are really just tips being explained with much more depth. They're more than just a bullet point.

    @Charlie: Given the title of your website, I'm glad that you echoed the term zeitgeist back to me.
  • Agree that the less you *think* about productivity, the better. When people invest so much energy in planning, implementing and maintaining systems, it shifts their main focus to the wrong place. I am a very organized person, by the way. But I don't have any systems that I'm aware of. And I don't consciously try to be productive. I just do what I love to do, and the rest follows.
  • Jay
    You've done very well in explaining your viewpoints on productivity here, and I'm really looking forward to see the articles you develop as those viewpoints come even further into focus. So much of what has constituted the traditional realm of productivity is either antiquated or lying at an extreme end, becoming efficacious to the point of stupidity. I'm glad to see someone who recognizes productivity as a side dish component to the main course of common sense and peaceful living, not the other way around.

    Keep up the good work; I'll definitely be here to read it.
  • paul
    Clay, I didn't realize your blog was "so young" :) I've admired your postings since I started reading a few weeks back and this is another good one.

    My view is that hacks and tools are just that - they shouldn't take over your life. It's natural to go full bore on [insert hack/tool here] when we're so excited about it at the beginning. Then we burn out. Sometimes the stuff sticks, usually not. If we're fortunate, we've learned and gained something from the experience and our lives are better.

    Being thoughtful about how we live and produce is good. Discovering how to live and produce with more satisfaction is time well-spent in my opinion. By staying in touch with our goals and principles, exploring tools and hacks shouldn't become a timesink.

    I'm looking forward to your thoughts on "Self-development and productivity are two very different things."
  • You're right about the antiproductivity zeitgeist, Clay, because it's hit me, too. I'll be interested to see where we both end up on this one.

    I liked your old tag just fine, btw. But I'm not a good judge on those types of things. Your new one, however, is far catchier - it leaves the stumbler wondering "alternative to what?." That'll probably translate to more indepth reading of your site, at which point they'll be hooked by your great content.
  • I really love where this is going
    here's why - it's more than the understanding burst of laughter you caused with your intro :)

    I have been approaching what you now call the alternative for the past month or so now. I think it finalized after I saw somewhere online a story about this guy (pic included) so overwhelmed with all the systems and all the GTD stuff
    not that I don't think it's useful
    I grab tips here or there but I noticed thinking about productivity all the time helped me be less productive lol

    I love this - Albert Einstein correctly started that
  • Bravo Clay! You know, I read your comment about David Allen thinking todo lists will create "mind like water" and laughed. Sorry, David may be an "expert" at getting things done, but I think I just heard the Buddha roll over in his grave.

    I've got to join you in your thinking on this one. Alternative productivity is a great way to go. Here's a little tidbit to add to your list:

    The creator of the Sedona Method, Lester Levenson, taught very simple time management technique. It consisted of this statement: "Act as if you have all the time in the world." Simply pondering that statement several times a day easily produces "mind like water". It calms the system. Highly effective. And definitely and anti-hack.

    Tom | <a href="</wp:comment_content>
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    <wp:comment_content>I really love where this is going
    here's why - it's more than the understanding burst of laughter you caused with your intro :)

    I have been approaching what you now call the alternative for the past month or so now. I think it finalized after I saw somewhere online a story about this guy (pic included) so overwhelmed with all the systems and all the GTD stuff
    not that I don't think it's useful
    I grab tips here or there but I noticed thinking about productivity all the time helped me be less productive lol

    I love this - Albert Einstein correctly started that </wp:comment_content>
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    <wp:comment_content>You're right about the antiproductivity zeitgeist, Clay, because it's hit me, too. I'll be interested to see where we both end up on this one.

    I liked your old tag just fine, btw. But I'm not a good judge on those types of things. Your new one, however, is far catchier - it leaves the stumbler wondering ">
  • caron
    i liked the old tagline and i like the new one. :)
    maybe it's post-productivity/post-hacks. ;)
    love the image - that's totally how i feel some days.
  • Everything begins with self-awareness, which is "disabled" by external influences. We must know ourselves first as humans, and then we must know ourselves as unique individuals. As humans, we are hard-wired for simple, survival-oriented pattern recognition, which can potentially doom the average person to failure. Our "rat brains" prefer shortcuts or "heuristics," which is why the "self-help movement" is so popular. Humans love shortcuts and convenience...

    As individuals, we are all unique and one person's "path" is almost never appropriate for another's...

    It is too challenging to look within for answers so most of us take "the path of least resistance" rather than "the path to a meaninful existence" or true self-actualization...

    I like your blog. It makes me think. I also am a fan of Frankl. Good work! Keep it up...

    Cheers...
  • Hear hear!

    Love the new tagline, Clay. Great observations too. I think the most powerful point that you touched on is this: find work you love; 'productivity' will follow.
  • When I first read the headline, I was very perplexed, as I actually did take the first definition of anti, you described above, so I was like Against-Hacks? WHAT?

    You've created an interesting perspective of how we often perceive the word hacks, and it's nice to actually see that perspective being pushed forth. The voice of your blog is just full of very different perspectives in general, which is awesome.

    Thanks for the comments at my blog, and yes, I mostly coded the theme myself, using few inspirations ranging from zenhabits's simplicity, to flickr's innovative banners. I'm still polishing up a few aspects, *cough* comments look like crap. *cough*, but we're all learning.

    I appreaciate you stopping by, and I well check back often to hear more content from you.

    Alex
  • While I am not certain I agree with you 100% I think you are onto something here and am excited to see a different angle taken on the productivity/lifehack meme that I consider myself a member of.

    That being said, I recently posted at my site about the increasing trend I have noticed of productivity/lifehack bloggers becoming increasingly interested in Zen, Buddhist and Mindfulness practices. Some might argue (as you hinted towards) that these ideas are in fact the opposite of what we in the western world have come to accept as "productivity".

    I am really looking forward to reading more. Thanks for offering a fresh perspective.
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