|||
I have a belief about productivity developed during college and refined over my years in the workforce. Simply put: 80% of working time is spent in a grey fog where one essentially just puts one foot in front of the other with little sense of forward motion, progress, or achievement. Some things can be achieved, but they are minor results hardly worthy of remark.
Then there is the remaining 20%. This is when the fog clears and the light shines through — progress is clear and the world glows with a golden light. Ideas come thick and fast, and everything flows like it was meant to be.
What I like about this metaphor is that you can’t really do anything to see clearly through fog. A flashlight or a torch just makes things worse; the whispy greyness becomes opaque, rendering one totally blind, lost in a sea of grey. In other words, you can’t force it. But you do need to show up and start moving, otherwise illumination serves little purpose. Inspiration without purpose is wasted potential.
In college, I used to say that procrastination was part of the writing process. Something akin to background processing. Now that I’m working full-time, procrastination isn’t really a thing. Finding success is more about putting in the work day by day, understanding that nothing real or substantial will happen until the light shines through.
To some degree this is simply a restatement of the Pareto Principle in the context of productivity — 20% of the work produces 80% of results. But I do think it’s important to remember that the remaining 80% of the work in absolutely necessary to the process and can’t be skipped or otherwise avoided. Some degree of banging one’s head against the wall is required to actually achieve anything of note.
- Jack
