Getting things done

I hear this constantly: people talking about spending most of their time carefully tending their systems: their calendars, task management lists, all the software and bells and whistles and add-ons. They work tirelessly to get “clean and clear,” pounding their keyboards to get to inbox zero everyday. And then these poor souls look up and find they’ve gotten nothing else done. Wailing and gnashing of teeth often follow.

They have fallen prey to the P-myth.

The Productivity Myth is that the system is the answer. If you have a trusted system, the P-myth promises, and you get everything into it, you’ll be more productive. Like all myths, the P-myth is true yet not factual.

Yes, if you have a trusted system and tend it carefully, relentlessly, you will be productive. But only if you learn how to work in your system and not merely on your system.

This distinction between working in and working on is critical.

Working on your system: capturing tasks to your lists.
Working in your system: doing the pre-defined work that’s documented in your task lists.

Working on your system: getting your email inbox to zero.
Working in your system: deferring incoming requests to an appropriate time instead of chasing every single one as it shows up.

Working on your system: carefully reviewing your week ahead and listing all the tasks to be done before and after each event or deadline.
Working in your system: choosing your highest priority project and dedicating meaningful, sustained attention to it.

If you are preparing for doing your work, you are working on.
If you are actually doing your work, you are working in.

When you dispel the P-myth, you have grasped the grail of productivity. The moral of the P-myth is: For it is in doing that things get done.

(I thank Michael Gerber, whose book The E-myth, and my client, Steve Weaver [name used by permission], for inspring this post.)

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Yay! It's Word of Mouth Wednesday! So why is this post worth talking about?

It’s easy get stuck in the planning stages, looking for the perfect software solution, tweaking the system, or adding bells and whistles.
“Working on” can become a habit, perhaps even a compulsion.
Working in is where projects move forward and work actually gets done, completed, celebrated.

To spread the word about the distinction between working on and working in, you might:

Forward this post to someone who may be having trouble getting out of working on and into working in–it's easy to share, just click the "Share this" button at the bottom of the post.
Link to this post on Twitter (and while you're at it, follow me @TaraRodden; check out our new feed @ProductivityHQ while you're at it)
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