PRODUCTIVITY AND PRODUCTIVE CAPABILITY/CAPACITY
WHERE IS THE TRADEOFF?
"Effectiveness lies in the balance— what I call the P/ PC Balance. P stands for production of desired results, the golden eggs. PC stands for production capability, the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs."
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RADICALLY REBALANCE YOUR LIFE FOR MORE LIFE IN YOUR LIFE!
Effectiveness expert after effectiveness expert asserts that the effect of assuring you have higher "productivity" capability and, accordingly, better energy management is to have one be far more productive in total for the day in fewer hours than than the harder working achiever accomplishes in many extra hours he has squeezed from his life (often squeezing his life out of his life!)
But as much as this is certainly a fact, with lots of evidence, people seem to only give it passing "intellectual" credibility and to revert to what seems simpler (but isn't) and more primitively to be true: quantity produces quantity.
They are coached to take rejuvenation days (off from work, yikes!), get more sleep (yikes, I'm losing work hours!), take the evenings off (yikes!, they are my savior hours!), be 10 minutes early for all appointments (but I surely can squeeze another thing into that time)...etc. and etc.
These are all things that have been proven, along with following some other productivity principles and practices, to vastly improve "productivity capability", such that the actual value produced in far fewer work hours is much greater and, ta da, life is much better, they feel better, they have better relationships, other people are happier around them, they enjoy social and family activities more, and have better (and more frequent) sex!
THE MISTAKES OF THE "OVERACHIEVER", ACHIEVING LESS...
Daniel, our protypical overachiever/overpleaser, said he would do all of the above mentioned items, but he almost instantly buckled under the pressure of demands by others and circumstances so that he went into an exhausted, overextended, do things at the last minute, full of anxiety state and went downhill from there, back into his self-named "ruined life".
He went the opposite direction of where the solution was. The only way out was to "ruthlessly" cut out all that was of low value (and there was lots of it, though to him it all seemed important) and begin to rebuild himself and his productivity capability... and his life.
He needed to, as Covey puts it, "sharpen the saw" and spend time, ruthlessly protecting it even at the risk of displeasing somebody, in Quadrant II, doing high importance, non-urgent things, like learning important skills, planning, and making decisions about what to do and what not to do.
The only way out of his "ruined life" is to do all the "unruining" where he incurs the necessary costs and experiences the necessary losses of cutting out low value activities, like a maniac whose life is at stake - for it is!
Of course, that takes commitment, which takes being convinced, which can only come from learning about why these principles and practices are better than wily nily activities. And it also takes understanding emotions and some of the false beliefs he operates from, that are "driving" him to react to the short term, accept succumbing to the demands of others and to be the victim of circumstances.
Yes, indeed, there is a lot involved in removing the barriers and increasing the learning needed and developing the skills necessary to even have a person start going to bed on time and at a regular time and to do the other "habits" that Covey recommends.
And the key to getting to where Daniel needs to be is going through "the only way out" so that he is able to free up the necessary time to be able to learn what is necessary to handle the barriers, spending a substantial amount of time - and that is the opposite of his tendencies and capabilities. He will (and most people will), first, have to implement what is recommended in How To Find The Time For Life Improvement - There's Lots Of Time And You'll Get More Spare Time.
If you follow the recommended path, I guarantee that you will live an increasingly and increasingly and increasingly better life.
