Many people become interested in productivity because they’re feeling overwhelmed and need help to get on top of multiple projects. Or, they want to have more spare time or margin and want to learn how to get their work get done more quickly.
From these perspectives, productivity is seen simply as a solution to a problem, another life hack. They hope to find the app or system that will solve their problem.
“Productivity Isn’t About Doing More Things — It’s About Doing the Right Things.” Chris Bailey
Chris Bailey’s statement in his seminal book, The Productivity Project, challenges a view of productivity as simply a life hack, or a way of doing things faster. He asserts that productivity is at its essence “doing the right things.”
This raises the question of what the foundation of productivity should be. It asks, “What is it that underlies true productivity?” In essence, it’s a philosophy of productivity.
It’s not enough to just assume your current conditions and apply productivity techniques to those. Rather, you should take one step back and ask, “What are the right things for me to be doing?” That’s just another way of saying, “What is important to me that I should be doing?” Just jumping into productivity where you are is getting the horse before the cart.
Who cares if you’re being super productive doing the wrong things, the things that aren’t important to you?
Some Important Things Are Assigned to Us, Some We Can Choose and Control
Many of the things that are important to us are assigned to us by others. When your boss gives you the responsibility to complete a project, that’s important to you because it’s a part of the contract you make with an employer that you’ll trade your time and energy for money. If they say it’s important, it is important and becomes the right thing to do.
Some things are important to you because of the circumstances you are in. Let’s say you own a house and a tree falls on it during a storm. Because of your circumstances, it becomes the right and important thing for you to have the tree removed, and the damage fixed.
But there are lots of other things you do that you choose to do, or exercise a great deal of control over. Some relationships might be assigned to you (child of your parents), but most relationships, such as a husband or friend, are the result of your choice. You can decide whether you want to be in the relationship and how you will act in that relationship. The same is true for hobbies and personal interests.
Determine What Your “Right Things” Are By Working Through a Life Roles Inventory and Evaluation Process
Doing a Life Roles Retreat
The most practical and effective process I’ve found to determine what things are important and what I need to be doing is to take a life roles inventory and evaluation.
I’ve been on a number of professional and religious retreats that have used the typical “list your values” approach. That has never worked for me. The results are often far too esoteric and removed from practical life to be of any practical use. Trying that approach has left me feeling frustrated.
This is foundational work that encompasses the whole of your life. It gives direction and purpose to everything you do, not just work assignments.
A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon the method outlined by David Sparks, a.k.a. MacSparky, in his Video and PDF Personal Retreat Planner.
Sparks recommends that, ideally, you plan a time away from home for two nights as a “personal retreat.” I found that I needed all of that time to complete everything I needed to work through the process.
Although this is a process that is laid out in steps to take, this is not a strictly linear process. I found that when I was working on one of my roles, I would think of something relating to another role and needed to briefly jump over to it to record my insight.
This raises the question of how you’ll record your work as you work through the process. While you could use pen and paper, I’d recommend you instead use an electronic tool such as an outlining app like OmniOutliner or a mind mapping app like MindNode. You’ll be making many changes and revisions along the way, and you require a tool that can easily accommodate those changes.
The Elements of the Retreat Process
1. The first step is to identify all of your current life roles (husband, father, friend, teacher, writer, hiker, and so forth) and perhaps some aspirational roles. Your roles and how you act in each are good practical indicators of what is important to you and what your values are. If they weren’t important to you, it’s not likely you’d be doing them. As Geoff Schroder says, “Reflecting and understanding your life roles brings clarity to your values and beliefs.” Life Roles.
2. Next, write your ideal version of yourself in each role. What would it look like if I lived up to these roles? What is my ideal as a husband? These are not goals to be achieved, but ideals to strive for and measure your progress against.
3. Once you’ve identified your life roles and written some ideals, it’s time to ask some “big questions” as Sparks calls them, regarding each role. Sample questions include, “What About This Role Brings Me Delight?,” and “What About This Role Brings Me Dread?”
After working through each role following this process, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what your roles are and what you’d like each to look like. You’ll also begin to think about what changes you’d like to implement to head in the direction of your life role ideals.
4. Out of this process, many action items will naturally arise. For instance, after identifying my role as a friend, my ideal role description included “I check in with friends regularly to see how they are doing.” In order for that to happen, I realized I need to start a habit of contacting at least one friend a week, even if briefly.
After Completing the Process
Once you’re done with the process, you’ll want to take steps to implement what you’ve learned.
- Add action items to your task manager. I use Things. Things allows me to set up “areas” named for each role and assign tasks under those areas. So, when a task comes up as due, I can immediately see which role this falls under. This helps motivate me, since now I know why this task is important for me to do.
- Add new habits to your habit tracker of choice. I use the Streaks app, but others prefer to use an analog approach or another tool. Use whatever works for you.
- Implement a review process to keep you on track. Find a way to review your roles and ideal descriptions regularly, preferably weekly. Ask yourself questions regarding each role, such as, “How am I doing? Where can I get better? Where am I doing good? I use a custom action in the Drafts app that lists my review questions, my roles, and my ideals for each role. You can learn how to make custom actions in Drafts in the free MacSparky Drafts Field Guide.
“Understanding the role you are in when you are doing a particular task helps to give meaning to that task. Doing laundry is a chore, but if you understand you are doing laundry to fulfill your role as a parent the task now has meaning..” Geoff Schroder
Obstacles to Taking a Life Roles Retreat
In my experience, many people seem to understand in theory the value of using a roles identification and evaluation process, but for one reason or another hesitate to actually do it. I think there are several reasons why this happens.
1. A roles retreat does not have the appeal of the “new and shiny,” the latest productivity hack or app. Instead of doing the hard work of identifying and evaluating roles, it’s a lot more interesting and fun to just jump in at a higher level and play with fancy productivity apps and systems. On the surface, it may seem like it will be boring work, but believe me, it is not! You will discover amazing things about yourself, your life, and what you want your life to look like.
2. Some don’t want to do the hard work of asking tough questions about their lives and evaluating how they spend their time. Perhaps it’s a bit threatening to take a hard look at themselves and their roles. Maybe they are afraid they will have to make some hard decisions they’ve been avoiding.
3. Others may have had to endure corporate “list your values” types of retreats where everyone came up with a pretty list of values, but it had absolutely no effect on their lives. They recognize that the values approach wasted their time and are afraid the life roles inventory and evaluation will have the same result.
4. Perhaps some may feel they’re “too busy” to carve out the time to do a roles evaluation. Ask yourself the question, “What are the things that I’m doing that make me too busy? Do I know that they are the things that are important to me, or am I just working hard on whatever comes before me? Am I living an intentional life, choosing to do those things that I value?”
Just Do It
I urge you to take the time and put in the work and do it right. First, determine what’s important for you by identifying and evaluating your roles, and the right things for you to do. Next, apply all that fun productivity bling to getting those things done.
This is foundational work that encompasses the whole of your life. It gives direction and purpose to everything you do, not just work assignments. With this as a basis, you can act intentionally in your professional and personal life.
A life roles evaluation provides the underpinning for all aspects of productivity; calendaring, task managers and time blocking. It provides the foundation upon which everything you do can be built.
And the most significant thing is that, in accordance with the Chris Bailey quote, your practice of productivity will have you doing the right things, the things that are important to you.
Resources
If you’d like more information on this approach, watch the video and read the guide by David Sparks, available here.
If you’d like to read more about my experiences using this process, see my blog posts, “How a Roles-Based Productivity System Brought Clarity and Purpose to my Life in Retirement,” “The Tools of My Roles-Based Personal Productivity System; the How,” and “My Experiences and Tips for Doing a Roles-Based Personal Retreat.”