INNOVATION
Goal-getter Tapping into exponential productivity isn’t a trade secret kept under wraps by the world’s most successful people, but it takes a degree of focus, writes Scott Langley.
L
et me ask you a question. How long is your to-do list? What I mean is, how many projects are you currently working on? If you are like most people, your list of active projects is longer than you’d like to admit. I’d bet this isn’t because you’re unproductive or not hard-working. If you’re reading this, the opposite is probably true. So why do most of us wind up with a long list of projects, opportunities and things we’d like to get done? And if we’re honest, the list is often longer than we can get done in the time we really have available.
I believe two things drive it. On the one hand, we live in a time characterised by the ‘chaos of abundance’. We have never had more choices than we do today. Opportunities are more abundant than at any other time in history, and it’s unlikely we’ll be constrained anytime soon. In fact, our options are only likely to increase as we advance in our careers, and more opportunities will present themselves along with those options. And on the other hand, we lack the disciplines of simplicity and focus. The net effect is that most people have nothing more than an impressive collection of
ideas that they’re not making any real progress on achieving. A list like that only weighs on our minds and adds to our guilt, stress and can overwhelm us. So, what can we do about it? How do we move the needle on our project list and experience exponential productivity?
28 • MEETINGS l MAY/JUNE 2022 www.theplanner.guru
