The Busy Trap

Have you ever tried a productivity hack, like building a detailed “to-do” list, only to find that you’re as overworked as ever? It’s not your imagination; you’re just doing more work. The more we optimize, the more we are tempted to take on.

There’s a principle in civil engineering called the Jevons Paradox. When authorities widen a road, it often does nothing to alleviate traffic. Instead, commuters who used to take different routes switch to the new, wider road, and rush hour is as hectic as ever.

The same principle applies in business. When we free up time, we don’t take a minute to breathe or engage in deep, strategic thinking. More often than not, we just pile on more tasks.

FACTS:

The more productive we are, the more tasks we try to tackle.
Our attention is a finite resource.
When we spend all our attention on tasks, we can’t focus on the bigger picture.

Productivity is important for an executive. But strategic, long-term thinking is even more important. When we hyper-optimize our schedules, we gravitate towards smaller, discrete tasks. A two-hour strategy session doesn’t “feel” as productive as spending 15 minutes answering emails, so we put it off until tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes, because there’s always another task.

I call the Sherpa System the "anti-productivity system." Instead of working “harder,” you work fewer hours, but you work in a state of deep focus, and focus on high-value activities that get results.

SOLUTIONS:

Always separate tasks from projects.

Designate “Deep Work” and “shallow work” time blocks and keep them sacred.

Do a weekly Attention budgeting session.

Have you ever said, “That’s great, I’m happy with that.

I think I’ll go for a stroll now and smell the flowers?”