Productivity in 2019 isn’t the same as it was a few years ago, or so it seems. But what it means for one person is different than for another. Our current research project sets out to summarize the problems that we face to be productive as well as the solutions people employ across the globe to find success in this effort. We are publishing our results freely and hope you’ll take 5 minutes to give us your input.
At the center of our study, we are exploring what ’productivity success’ looks like. Is it about building wealth, having more personal time or measuring stuff done? It may likely include some of all three of those things but perhaps it is also connected to this idea of happiness.
Perhaps more of happiness is the true success metric of productivity, but that answer might seem trite and over simplified. Still a group of researchers inspired by a 2005 New York Times article on the same topic set out to create a quantifiable measure of happiness, or GNH as coined by the fourth king of Bhutan patterned after GDP, a measure of economic output. This happiness research turned into the Happy Documentary which which debuted in 2012 concluding that happiness is directly correlated to these three things:
- Making the world a better place
- Improving yourself through continued education
- Spending time with loved ones
So what does happiness have to do with productivity, you might ask? Perhaps better measuring our productivity efforts as we serve, learn and love other people is success.
For 78 years, Harvard set out to study the lives of 724 men to know what drove their happiness. In a 2016 TED talk watched by more than 13M viewers, Robert Waldinger, director of the research shared the primary lessons learned from this research. The health of relationships directly correlates to living happier and longer lives. But again, what does that have to do with productivity? Mr. Waldinger suggests a few ideas starting at minute 11:00.
Maybe we just ruined the objectivity of our research, but for some time now, we have been shifting our own thinking about productivity success to put people at the center of our own task management.
Instead of what can I get done, perhaps we should be asking, for whom can I get something done. If this resonates with you, we’d like to know how you do this? Some of our ideas will find their way into the next round of ToDo product features. But no need to wait for then.
As it stands today, ToDo is a leader in the productivity crowd with robust capabilities to track everything you need to get done while putting people at the center. Here are a few ideas to do just that:
- ’Tagging’ is a simple way to associate people with your current tasks.
- Schedule daily time to think of the names that come to mind for whom you are inspired to do something then jot them down in ToDo. End your day by reflecting on those same people. Did you get done for them what you had hoped? If not, try again tomorrow.
- Structure task descriptions leading with the name of the person for whom you are doing the task.
- Create lists names that are people specific where you can group your tasks.
So, what are you waiting for? Open ToDo and jot down a few tasks for the people who matter most in your life and then let us know how it goes.
Best wishes finding productivity success!
