EA - The Productivity Fallacy by Deena Englander

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The Productivity Fallacy, published by Deena Englander on July 25, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.When I find myself saying the same thing multiple times, it's time to write it up in an article.Recently, in my coaching sessions primarily with EA clients, I've found myself giving the same advice multiple times - cut down on what you're doing, spend time on yourself, and try to be unproductive for short periods of time.The problem is that people want to work at their maximum capacity in order to be the most impactful. And that is the productivity fallacy. So let's take a look at what happens when you are constantly working at full capacity.To start with, I'm going to use the analogy of a computer since most of us are pretty familiar with the basic mechanics of how it works. When a computer is going slowly, there are a few basic troubleshooting steps:Check your computer's resourcesYour computer only has a limited amount of resources to apply to the tasks set to it. When it exceeds hardware limitations, it will not be able to perform the required functions. Even worse, when it's exceeding its resource availability (running at >80%) for an extended period of time, it can have unintended and negative consequences such as shortened lifespan, slower performance, and software errors.I don't think anyone would argue with that - that's pretty much basic knowledge.So let's apply that to you and productivity:We only have a limited amount of energy. You can definitely argue that it's a design flaw with humans. When we exceed that amount of energy without replenishing it properly, you start running at "max capacity". When you're running at max capacity (being highly productive and efficient with your time without the restorative components to balance it), there are 3 big problems you'll encounter:You're at a much greater risk of burnout, getting sick, and harming your long-term ability to be impactful. The stress on your system has damaging consequences for both your physical and mental health, and they're not easy to recover from.Humans aren't built to do too much at once. If you take too much on, it will likely take necessary energy away from the things that matter most.You're much more likely to make mistakes. Mistakes can often be prevented by having the presence, calm, and headspace to focus properly. When you have too much going on, mistakes should be expected. You're also less likely to be able to come up with creative solutions since our creativity flows much more when we're not in a stressed state.2. Close unnecessary applicationsIf your computer is running too many applications, it slows everything else down. So you have to make a choice - which are the ones that are critical to have running, and which ones can you live without, are consuming too many resources, or you didn't even realize were consuming resources?Applying that back to you, take an honest look at the activities that consume your resources. Which ones are critical to keep going? Which ones are less essential? Letting go of something isn't a failure - it's redirecting your resources to excel in your top priorities. Sometimes it helps to use a "monitoring program" like time tracking to see where your time and energy is going.3. Optimize your settingsSometimes there are some applications that you need, but they consume a lot of resources. So the next recommended step is to optimize your settings. Sometimes it's deleting the backlog, or changing the refresh rate, or having it not run in the background, or run at lower intensity. There are lots of potential solutions, and they differ based on your unique set of programs, available resources, and objectives.In your life, there may be some things that are high-resource consuming. But they don't need to be that way. How can you adjust these ...