Sometimes I had up to fifteen items on it. All of them felt important.
All of them were competing for the same hours. By noon I’d done six things halfway, finished nothing completely, and felt vaguely behind on everything.
I thought the problem was discipline.
So I told myself to work harder, start earlier, and push through. So I did. And I still felt behind.
The problem wasn’t my work ethic. It was my approach.
The real productivity problem
When I surveyed my readers last year, I asked two questions: what’s your number one priority, and what’s standing in your way?
Almost nobody said “I’m lazy.” Here’s what they actually said:
“There are so many options I’m stuck not knowing what to choose or what to focus on. This results in me not doing much.”
“Everything seems equally important.”
“Too many things to do. Little time. Juggling priorities.”
“Clarity of thought is my main obstacle to getting started.”
I am an agile coach and its exactly how we work in software development using the Scrum framework . The key is choosing a goal for the development team to adhere to and ensuring everyone remains focused on that priority above all else . This article gave me some interesting ideas to pass on thanks a lot !
