Episode 1148: Productivity Art or Science?

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,148 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:08] David Somerfleck: Hi, I'm David summer reflect from defacto digital. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.

[00:00:25] Having a firm grip on your calling and how to market it is key to doing this in one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to the inspired

[00:00:35] stewardship

[00:00:36] podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:39] Scott Maderer: but most of the time we focus first on what do we want to eliminate? And I would argue that instead you need to focus first on, what do you want to allow in? What do you want to say? Yes. To is a more important question than what do you say no to, we tend to flip those around and put them in the wrong.

[00:00:58] Welcome and thank [00:01:00] you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:25] and today's episode about developing your influence by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why productivity is both an art and a science. I share why we often focus on the tools, the tips, and the science at the expense of the art. And I also share why the art of productivity is just. As we talk about stewarding your time.

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[00:02:03] If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/. More often than not. When people come for help with time and productivity, they tend to approach it as if it's this science problem. It's a problem of just having the right tools. It's a problem of just setting up the right structure.

[00:02:28] It's a problem of finding. The right trick. Somehow people are generally looking for the quote unquote easy button that would allow them to just make it work. But the truth is there's more than just a science. When it comes to productivity. Productivity is also an art. Yes, there are skills. Yes. There are things you can learn.

[00:02:54] Yes. There is knowledge that you need to have, and there are tools and there are [00:03:00] techniques and there are tricks and there are habits and their ways of setting up systems and processes and all of these different techniques that can help you with productivity. But you also have to understand things about yourself, things about your values, things about your relationships, how you approach and feel subjectively about different things.

[00:03:25] You have to be in touch with your own emotions and have emotional intelligence. You have to be able to check in with what's going on internally, as well as externally in the world and how it affects. And you have to be in tune with all of that. And when you look at it that way, then productivity is an art form.

[00:03:47] It's a subjective form as opposed to an objective form. And yet we spend most of our time. It's a 90 10 thing. We spend 90% of our [00:04:00] time looking at tools and tips and science. And only 10% thank you about how we feel and how it makes us feel. And what's important to us and our relationship with those things.

[00:04:14] We tend to look first at what is the one trick? What is the thing that if I just do this one thing that all of my time management will fall into place, and yet there's seldom a one. Instead, it's a collection of things. And what's more, the things that work for you are probably not 100% identical to the things that work for the person right next to you, because you're a different person.

[00:04:47] You have different values, you have different things that are important to you. You have different priority and you have different relationships. And a different history as well, a different family of origin, a different [00:05:00] past experience with work and with pleasure, you've got things that you have done in the past that now you have memories of, and you have feelings about, and you have things that rise up sometimes without you even realizing it.

[00:05:17] When you sit down to get something. If you think about it, the way we approach our work has so much to do with how we feel about ourselves. Our identities are tied up in our beliefs about what we do and how we get it done. People don't say I was not taking a lot of action today and I felt lazy. They say, People have a tendency to create these absolute beliefs about themselves based on their behavior around time.

[00:05:54] And yet those absolute disbeliefs are not usually true. There's [00:06:00] not an absolute reality there because I guarantee you, if you're lazy about some things, there's other things in your life that you're not lazy about. So then how can you be labeled as late. The old joke is the most productive day that most people have is the day before they go on vacation.

[00:06:19] Because by that force of I'm going to take this time off and have some fun forces them to get a ton done. And that deadline of getting ready for the vacation makes them productive. And yet some of those same people will turn around and call themselves lazy and non productive. When you ask them about what their.

[00:06:42] And that doesn't mean by the way, that it's a matter of not looking for results or not looking to get better at what you do. And that doesn't mean that you can ignore tools and tips and tricks and all of the different techniques, understanding how your brain works and how your brain [00:07:00] doesn't work, understanding how habits form and how to break habits and form new habits is.

[00:07:08] Understanding the creation of open loops and closing those loops is important. Understanding how all of this stuff fits together is important. But if you lose track of what's really important to you, then you can get really effective and really efficient at getting done the raw. Things. That's why I define productivity as getting the right things done, not just getting more done, not just getting what you do get done well or done quickly, but actually identifying what are the priorities?

[00:07:43] What are the values? What are the things that you really want to make sure that you're getting done? Because it's not just what you say yes to that allows you to do these things. It's also what you eliminate. But most of the time we focus first on what do we want [00:08:00] to eliminate? And I would argue that instead you need to focus first on, what do you want to allow in?

[00:08:06] What do you want to say yes. To is a more important question than what do you say no to, and we tend to flip those around and put them in the wrong order. And this is why productivity is not just a science. It's not just a set of tools. It's not just a single set of techniques. It's also an art form where you have to understand yourself and understand your emotions and your relationships, your values, and your priorities.

[00:08:37] Thanks for listening.

[00:08:38] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively. But act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign [00:09:00] up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2.

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