[WIP] Faux-ductivity

Doing something a bit different this week and sharing a work in progress— something I’m working on right not but am not quite finished with.

The basic idea is faux-ductivity: tasks that feel productive but are really procrastination and how this impacts the creative process.

Below I’m sharing the mind map I’m working on and a rough draft outline.

This year a goal of mine is to write and publish more. part of that process is taking notes, reading materials etc to come up with ideas. That part i have nailed- but i've fallen into what i'm calling the faux-ductivity trap.

• faux-ductivity happens in all areas of our lives- like those times when you had a big paper to write or study for and you cleaned your apartment instead. Technically what you're doing is productive, but it's not exactly what you should be focused on now. It's usually

  • faux-ductivity is a productive form of procrastination.

• faux-ductivity trap: imbalance in creative process where you're procrastinating by only doing the prep part of the process- feeling productive but not making progress.

  • stuff that feels productive, but isn't helping you make progress

  • faux-ductivity is those tasks that feel productive, but are really another form of procrastination.

    • things that feel productive, but aren't actually getting you closer to your goal

• happens when the process is out of balance--because ignoring the other important part of the process- the practice and prep

  • thinking of how i've started to collect information and notes and feels like i'm doing part of the writing process

    • key is that it is a process- and for a process to work all the pieces of the system have to work

      • We often assume that the reason why we struggle to achieve our goals is a lack of knowledge. So we buy self-help books and online courses, hoping that it will get us closer to our objective. But what we often don’t do is practice and focus on the process. As a result, we accumulate a collection of strategies that don’t really help us improve or acquire new skills. (View Highlight)

    • the balance is in making sure one part of the process isn't lopsided so that you're really stuck in one part of the cycle and not moving the whole forward

      • The vast majority of people have been trying to get organized by rearranging incomplete lists of unclear things; they haven’t yet realized how much and what they need to organize in order to get the real payoff. (Location 678)

      • It’s not simply about “getting organized” or “setting priorities.” Those are good things, but they happen as a result of applying these five steps—not by themselves. These procedures I will describe work together as a whole, and using them to produce results is both easier and more challenging than you may think. (Location 795)

      • Writing a book. You could read about all the best strategies and methods from published authors to write a book, or you could commit to writing one page every day. (View Highlight)

        • at the end of the day- a year of writing will help you write more than a year of learning. But if you do both as part of a process- you will practice and learn.

• the goal is to love the process

• i don't claim to know the answers and am still working on restoring that balance in the process- making more time for practice by scheduling it when my energy is highest and also not setting strict expectations