Something entices us about productivity software.
Not that most of us directly measure our productivity enough to know whether something actually makes us more productive.
But with ever-growing to-do lists and inboxes nowhere close to zero, attaining peak productive tantalizes the imagination.
Surely that new app will be the one to make us productive.
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Nor will new technology by itself generate higher productivity, wrote management consultantPeter Drucker in 1991.
Time hasnt proven him wrong.
Efficiency is about doing the same with less, wrote Bain partnerMichael Mankins.
Productivity is about doing more with the same.
More on its own, though, isnt enough.
A better notes app might help you write more notes.
A better to-do list app might get you to list more stuff.
A better email app might help you hit inbox zero, and email everyone youve met.
Its not in answering every email, or checking off the most tasks.
Its in answering the emails thatneedreplies, focusing your to-do list on the tasks that really need done.
And no software can do that for you.
Theres Productivity in its true, perfect form.
And then theres #productivity, the over-obsession that people and organizational structures often have with measurable output.
And #productivity is far easier to focus on than Productivity.
Nurses spent only half their time doing the tasks they were trained to doand the remainder doing administrative tasks.
Salespeople spent more time entering data in computers than talking to potential customers.
Professors spend time in committees and meetings rather than lecturing and researching.
It is job impoverishment, lamented Durker.
The cure is fairly easy, he prescribed: Concentrate the work on the task.
Better productivity software wont make one a more productive photographer, for instance.
A new list of issues likely wont.
Saving everything you come across online likely wont.
A better email app might make a salesperson or support team member faster at landing and helping customers.
Text expanders might make replying faster, better documentation tools might cut down on emails in the first place.
For everyone else, inbox zero might be a pursuit of merely #productivity.
The real productivity software is better tools for your core work.
Thats real productivitynot #productivity.
Productivity isnt a goal, its a byproduct, said @qthdhin the Capiche discussion about productivity.
And the more you think about it the less you are actually living it.
They gave the software we use to create things superpowers, turned them intopositional softwarewed want to use.
Perhaps we have the software classification backwards.
No one likes feeling behind, enjoys the dread of missed deadlines and overdue replies.
What we actually need to do is prioritize and focus on the work we set out to do.
Inbox zero might only matter if theres nothing more important to do.
