New here? Like what you read? Subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Under the Ice – A Productivity Story

March 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment

As I’ve said on a previous post, I’ve had problems with productivity for many years. I’ve recently made an observation about how I get most of my productive work done that I thought I’d share by use of an analogy.

A Confession

I used to be a Christian. And when I say Christian, I mean I was a proper, full-on, tub thumping evangelical Christian. I believed that people who didn’t put their hope in Christ were going to hell, that I could have a personal relationship with a supernatural entity and that Jon Bon-Jovi wrote some of the finest music ever to grace the ears of modern man. Maybe not that last one so much.

I belonged to a Christian community that held regular conferences – every term for a week or so, we all go away together on a residential to talk about our incessant love for the Lord, read the Bible and pray a lot. We listened to talks from Church leaders with insights on how we could forward our religious lives.

This phase of my life lasted for about 15 years. In this time, I learnt two things:

1. God loves me.
2. Christian speakers love a good analogy.

Fast Forward to Present

I currently don’t actively subscribe to the Christian belief system – I think it’s problematic, illogical and I believe the Christian Church is massively dysfunctional. But one thing hasn’t changed – I still love a good analogy. Or even a bad one. And after hearing hundreds of them, they’ve become a big part of how I express myself every day.

As well as programming my own time tracking application (oh, the irony), I’m also a Maths tutor and analogies have also served me well in communicating with students.

So here goes. I find that being productive is like swimming under a sheet of pack ice. Allow me to explain.

The Tenuous Analogy Bit

Phase 1 – Slipping Around

When I sit down at my computer in a morning, I usually have at least a vague idea of what I’d like to get done on my application. But getting started can be really difficult. I check my Twitter feed, my news reader, my email. I click on a few links and read some stuff that interests me. Then I start running out of distracting things to do.

In this time, I feel like I’m slipping around on top of the ice. I can’t get a foothold. My thoughts are chaotic and fleety. My attention span is very limited. I can see the direction I want to take, but I delay the decision to start because, at some level, it’s scary to be doing something that’s important to you, something that matters. I realised this thanks to an excellent post from the all knowledgeable Havi Brooks.

Sometimes, sadly, this is how the rest of my day continues. I mess around until lunch and fritter away the afternoon and evening reading articles that interest or inspire me, and whilst I enjoy myself and learn stuff, I end the day with a depressing feeling of having made no progress towards my most important goals.

Phase 2 – Cutting a Hole

Some days I manage to pull myself out of this information overload stupor. I focus my sights on what I want to achieve, fire up XCode and start programming. For the first hour, it’s usually hard going.

I want to get under the ice, and I have a pick axe to hand, so I set about cutting a hole in the ice. For the first few swings, it seems hopeless – the axe glances off the ice and hardly makes a scratch. With some focus and hard work though, gradually the hole grows, until finally the icy cold water underneath is exposed. I’m fully kitted out in a high end thermal wet suit, and I plunge through the hole into the water.

Phase 3 – Just Keep Swimming

Finally, after an hour in XCode, I’m in the zone. Programming becomes my world. I start really enjoying myself and making great progress.

Now I’m under the ice, although it’s rather cold, it feels brilliant. On top of the ice, I couldn’t make any progress – walking any significant distance was tiring and difficult. But here I’m in my element, and as I swim smoothly along, I watch with satisfaction as the scenery moves by.

Phase 4 – Running Out of Air

After 4 solid hours of programming without a break, I’m still enjoying the work, but something in my body is telling me something’s not quite right – I’m starting to feel the effects of having had no food for the last 5 hours. I lose my focus and my thinking becomes muddled. I’ve had an official blood sugar crash.

Under the ice, I’m getting tired now. I’ve been swimming for ages and although it’s still great fun, my body is complaining – it needs to come up for air. Finally, exhausted, I surface through the ice and gasp for breath, my lungs screaming in protest.

I recover, then the cycle begins all over again…

The Point

So what’s the point of articulating this long, rambling, tenuous analogy? Well, for me it provides a visual story with which to understand my productivity cycle. So it helps me increase awareness of which stage I’m in and what my body might need.

It also helps me to get ideas on how my work-rest cycle could be improved. I could try and find tools with which to more effectively dig the hole through the ice. Or I could realise that when I’m slipping around on the ice trying to get a foothold, the sooner I focus, the sooner I’ll get into the zone. Or that even when I’m finally productive, it pays to take regular breaks if I want to avoid a productivity crash.

What analogies or stories help you with your productivity?

Comments