Productivity & French Question
I often feel like I'm very productive on the weekends, especially on Saturdays. I usually start with a big list of things of errands that need to get done. Groceries, cleaning, Tulip-related items, you name it, it gets done on Saturdays. I often have the satisfying feeling of having taken out an entire list of things that needed to get done. That's productivity, right?
Similarly, at work I often feel productive. Emails get dealt with, I scrub parts of our change management system, I have routine meetings, items are crossed off the list. I often feel like I got things done. That's productivity, right?
Recently I re-read this essay by Paul Graham, and now I'm thinking that perhaps I'm not very productive at all. To quote one part of a very good essay:
There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. That last type, I'd argue, is good procrastination.
I'm very good at avoiding (a). I'm starting to realize that I'm very bad at distinguishing (b) from (c). Let's look at the things I do with my life. I'm pretty good at making time for things I enjoy, like concerts and movies and hanging out with my friends and gaming and radio and cooking. Like everyone though, I have a list of things that I often think "wouldn't it be nice to have the time to do this," like learning French, or learning how to play the guitar, or re-learning web development. Or at work, I can spend a lot of effort on day-to-day stuff, or I can delegate or ignore those things and instead focus on long-term projects that might one day have substantial pay-off.
In the same essay, Graham links to this piece by Richard Hamming, where he says:
If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work.
And here's the thing: I'm not doing anything important. At work, I'm a manager, and I think a pretty good one, but for the last few years I've been coasting. I'm so good at the day-to-day stuff that I can get a more done than most of the other managers, and I've got really good minions so I can delegate even challenging projects out with minimal oversight, but what am I doing with my own time? I'm not sure. In the past I pushed initiatives that made us better in the face of massive indifference or even opposition, but I feel like I haven't done that in a long time now. I feel like I'm turning into someone who cares more about following procedure than getting results. I'm not sure if that's because I've not been inspired as much lately, or because I've started to feel that the stuff that needs to be done is so hard that it can't be done easily.
I may also be too hard on myself. I'm the guy who got us to adopt some things ("treat warnings as errors" turned on throughout our code base, evangelizing continuous integration, killing old products), all of which is important for professionalism, especially as the company grows, but none of which is as sexy as "created a brand new massively selling product line".
At least at work I can point to pass successes. At home, I get a lot done, but right now it looks like I'm going to have the same list of "wouldn't it be nice" when I die that I do now. After all, I'm busy with all these maintenance things, or just relaxing.
Something has to change. I just need to figure out what I really want to do. The problem is, I've had that problem for years. I'm in a very comfortable rut, and need to figure out how to exit it.
So... anyone know the best way to teach yourself French? Thanks to a recent windfall, I've got money to spend on the project...
Similarly, at work I often feel productive. Emails get dealt with, I scrub parts of our change management system, I have routine meetings, items are crossed off the list. I often feel like I got things done. That's productivity, right?
Recently I re-read this essay by Paul Graham, and now I'm thinking that perhaps I'm not very productive at all. To quote one part of a very good essay:
There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. That last type, I'd argue, is good procrastination.
I'm very good at avoiding (a). I'm starting to realize that I'm very bad at distinguishing (b) from (c). Let's look at the things I do with my life. I'm pretty good at making time for things I enjoy, like concerts and movies and hanging out with my friends and gaming and radio and cooking. Like everyone though, I have a list of things that I often think "wouldn't it be nice to have the time to do this," like learning French, or learning how to play the guitar, or re-learning web development. Or at work, I can spend a lot of effort on day-to-day stuff, or I can delegate or ignore those things and instead focus on long-term projects that might one day have substantial pay-off.
In the same essay, Graham links to this piece by Richard Hamming, where he says:
If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work.
And here's the thing: I'm not doing anything important. At work, I'm a manager, and I think a pretty good one, but for the last few years I've been coasting. I'm so good at the day-to-day stuff that I can get a more done than most of the other managers, and I've got really good minions so I can delegate even challenging projects out with minimal oversight, but what am I doing with my own time? I'm not sure. In the past I pushed initiatives that made us better in the face of massive indifference or even opposition, but I feel like I haven't done that in a long time now. I feel like I'm turning into someone who cares more about following procedure than getting results. I'm not sure if that's because I've not been inspired as much lately, or because I've started to feel that the stuff that needs to be done is so hard that it can't be done easily.
I may also be too hard on myself. I'm the guy who got us to adopt some things ("treat warnings as errors" turned on throughout our code base, evangelizing continuous integration, killing old products), all of which is important for professionalism, especially as the company grows, but none of which is as sexy as "created a brand new massively selling product line".
At least at work I can point to pass successes. At home, I get a lot done, but right now it looks like I'm going to have the same list of "wouldn't it be nice" when I die that I do now. After all, I'm busy with all these maintenance things, or just relaxing.
Something has to change. I just need to figure out what I really want to do. The problem is, I've had that problem for years. I'm in a very comfortable rut, and need to figure out how to exit it.
So... anyone know the best way to teach yourself French? Thanks to a recent windfall, I've got money to spend on the project...