I was listening to Episode 341 of Cal Newport’s Deep Questions podcast and he started talking about “productivity rain dances.” It was one of those terms I’d never heard before but knew exactly what it was the moment the syllables filled the cabin of my Mustang. Have you ever decided to abandon your to-do app of choice in favor of another one in order to dodge a project? Clean your desk off or straighten up the dorm room? I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the gist.
The answers to these questions aren’t necessarily easy. As I talk about in Slow Productivity, making more time for key efforts often requires that you first tame the less important activities that are getting in the way. You probably need a more formal workload management philosophy to avoid overload, such as using quotas or separating “active” tasks from “waiting” tasks. You’ll also need better collaboration processes that avoid the distraction of constant messaging, such as using regular office hours for complicated discussions, and some notion of time management, such as time blocking, to maintain control of your schedule.
As he makes the case in the episode: it’s not an app. It’s something boring or simple that will probably make the difference. I like the idea of scheduling office hours or something similar; the number of distractions I face each day are pretty disruptive, none of them unwelcome or purposefully intrusive. But shifting cognitive set has consequences, and boy do I love my quiet time.
