“I found a new productivity app. It’s the greatest thing evar!!!”
Fast forward 2 months….
“Another system down the drain…”
It would seem that:
“There’s just something wrong with me”.
After all, the common denominator is not the app or the system. It seems to be ourselves.
But what is lacking is the difficult in pursuing what’s behind the word “just” – a word often acting as a short-circuit for matters of emotion and meaning.
The trouble is that we lack a practice of recognizing and respecting limits. In fact, we often ignore, if not, shun limits. For example, here are a few quotes from the interwebs:
However, I also think that every artist discovers, somewhere early in their careers, that limitations often yield some of the best works.
It’s not the limit itself that creates the inspiration. It’s the acknowledgement that some limit exists, allowing us to focus our attention where we can grow, what we wish to grow.
I count 4 limits to any productivity system.
- Time
- Agency
- Working Memory
- Trust
Each of these can be ignored at our own peril. A weekly review of our projects can overwhelm agency. A list beyond a handful can overwhelm working memory. A post-it note in a sea of post-it notes abuses the trust we’d have that we’d even see it.
However, each of these also have exercises and skills that can be practiced. Each of these can balanced with each other. Learning what we can take on in the moment, in the day, informs where we can add matters, to what lists, to the various hubs of attention in our lives.
With practice, each of these can become well worn paths. At that point, if something new comes to mind that we’d like to set aside for the moment, or engage now – we can make that decision, or place it on some known path of attention to meet us where we trust we would see it, and not be overwhelmed.
Play, care, mastery, meaningful work, grow along with a greater resting sense of being.
