Oy… another blog post about productivity. Why do you need to hear any more, and why would you even read a post, when you could be getting something done instead?
Well, that’s just it: the problem isn’t productivity. The truth is, we’re already incredibly productive.
On your laziest, slackest days (well, maybe not your absolutely laziest) if you live anywhere in the so-called ‘developed’ world, you are still party to the most ‘productive’ society ever seen.
And it’s our doom.
The problem isn’t whether you can be more productive, or how. The problem is different. It’s about capacity.
Has This Ever Happened To You?
There was an edge to my voice as I asked the question: “And so why haven’t you finished what you promised to do?”
I meant for it to come out nicer, more reasonable. But, it didn’t.
This is so often where we land, kerthunk, in business: are you getting it done, or aren’t you? In the western world, we call this ‘productivity’ and we think it’s a good thing. Even if we complain about it, or hold spiritual values that say otherwise, I find that my clients (and me… ) orient around this question.
Are you getting it done? Are you being productive enough? And did you realize that your desire for productivity is contributing to global warming, debt, and business struggle?
The problem isn’t productivity… it’s capacity.
What is ‘capacity’?
Capacity is, simply put, the quantity something can contain. How much water a glass holds (oh, about a dram or two), how many people can fit around a Passover table (24! What? Aunt Joan brought six cousins with her? No problem!)…
How many things can you get done in a day, week, year?
The idea of abundance is very alluring- there’s plenty! There’s plenty to go around, there’s plenty for everyone, there’s no reason you can’t do it/have it all.
Unfortunately, this runs smack into a very troubling spiritual teaching.
The physical world is a limited place.
There is an unlimited amount of love, mercy, and peace available. There is, however, a limited amount of fresh water, fossil fuels, and arable land for growing food. There is an unlimited amount of creativity and connection. There is, despite our best efforts, a limited number of seats at the table (we’ll have to find an extra table for those six cousins…)
In the Sufi take on the creation story, Source is described as ‘veiling’ itself, in order to create the physical world. The physical, 3D, dirt and grass reality we live in is distanced from Source, because otherwise we’d all be dissolved into Oneness, with no individuality discernable at all.
The things that are unlimited are the things that are less ‘distant’ from Source, and thus are without physical form: love, compassion, mercy, creativity, etc…
Surrender to the fact that you have limited capacity.
One of the first groups I ever ran, before Heart of Business even existed, was a six-week “Success” group. Every week, people would write down their goals and tasks for the next week. And every week we’d come back to find that everyone, everyone, without fail was leaving about 50% unfinished.
The issue wasn’t productivity: the issue was capacity. They were all overestimating their capacity by about 100%- they thought they could do twice as much as they actually could.
It’s this inability to judge our capacity that leads to debt: you spend more than you have. It also leads to global warming, which is also a kind of debt, in that we are spending more energy, from other sources, than we have in ourselves.
It also leads to business struggle- trying to do more than you really can, means you end up exhausted, cranky, and feeling like a failure.
This was a profound insight for me, when I realized that what was making my life so crowded, was also what was maxing our credit cards at the time, and was also contributing to the ravaging of the planet.
Just accepting one’s true capacity is a big step towards contributing to healing our families, our communities, and the world. And yet, and yet…
Is that it? Give up on your ambitions and your goals? Play small? Or is there way to deal with your capacity and still grow your business?
Keys to Business Capacity
• Get honest.
How many times in the last days, weeks, or months have you said: “I meant to get it done… why isn’t it done yet?” That’s a clue that you are way overestimating your capacity.
It’s okay. Take a deep breath, be gentle with yourself, and realize you haven’t done anything wrong. You’re caught up in a culture that makes routine overestimating capacity and living on credit.
Admit to yourself: “I’m way over capacity. It’s literally impossible to do all of this.”
• Clear cut.
Clear cutting is a miserable thing to do to a forest, but it’s fine thing to do to with a to-do list.
This is the challenge: make a list of everything you are trying to get done in the next week, and erase half. Yes, a full half. Do it right now. Get a piece of paper, do a brain dump of the 12-25 things on your plate.
Now, cross off half of them. I know it’s rough, but it’s going to happen anyway. Better that you choose, rather than you simply run out of time.
• Notice what’s really important.
There are some things that are more urgent, and some things that aren’t. There are some items that help you feel alive and well, and some that don’t.
When you realize what your capacity really is, it becomes easier to say “no” to things that just don’t fit, and easier to say “yes” to the things that are important in your life.
There’s tons of other things that go here: having the right tools (like a larger computer monitor, or the right pruning sheers in the garden), having an office that is set up efficiently, getting regular exercise, etc.
That’s all good stuff, but the foundation of it all, I’ve discovered, is to really face the reality of your capacity. As you settle into the truth of what’s possible in this finite world of ours, I bet you’ll discover a lot more of the limitless abundance of love and peace and compassion in your heart.
And with more of that love, we’ll have more time and capacity to make this world a much more wonderful place.
I’m curious- how do you face your capacity?
14 Responses
This is huge, Mark. Wow.
I don’t normally “do the exercises in the book,” but I just did the brain dump and came up with 27 things I “should” do in the next week. I couldn’t quite cross off half (about 11) – which I think is telling.
How do I face it? Honestly, it takes a toll. Health-wise, stress-wise… and it gets to the point where my partner says, “I miss you” because I haven’t been investing in the people who matter most. Argh.
I think, for right now, I face it by extreme guilt and anxiety. But since I read this article, I’m open to shifting that habit.
One last thought: I was talking to a fellow creative person today and we both agreed that generating more work than I can complete is a double-edged sword for a creative mind. I can see ideas that I may never bring to fruition, but it’s so hard to let them go, you know?
This process is a great exercise – and I’d love to know how to say “no” in the moment, when opportunities arise – rather than backing out of them after committing.
Whew! This sure is a hot topic for me today!! Thanks, Mark!
– Jen
Hi Mark
This really rang bells with me too. Goes way beyond ‘time management’. I will have a go at the exercise and see how it works for me.
thank you
Mary
Jen- what a way to dig into it! If you stick with the practice, it will bear fruit. It may also be worth a revisit to pages 4 through 6 in my book. For those that don’t have it, those pages can be seen also in the free excerpt.
Mary- It does go way beyond time management- I’m so glad it rang bells with you, too. Tell as many people about this as you can. I believe it’s one of the keys to shifting to a sustainable society.
And please do come back and report how the exercise turns out!
Thanks, Mark. What an eye-opener for me. I’ve always stuck to the Productivity Playbook. I’m a To Do List Guy and a “workaholic.”
As I was reading your article, I mentally went back to the past couple weeks of To Do Lists and realized how many things I was pushing into the next day. It’s more of a Hope List.
The thing I struggle with the most is letting go of some of my ambition. Will I still be successful if I take a break? Can I pay the rent if I play soccer with my kids instead of submitting proposals on Saturday? Should I be honest and tell that client I need more time, or should I blast through another all-nighter?
I just sat in JFK overnight working. I purposefully did not get a hotel because I thought I would be more productive staying in the 24-hour terminal creating graphics.
Now I ask myself… is this what I started my business for?
Lots to think about here.
Yes, everyone, a big eye-opener. What I love is how the synergism of these two articles — the one on capacity and the one of working when one is inspired to work rather than necessarily 9-5.
I reorganized my ‘to do list’ to include the creative things I want to do this week along with those items like coaching calls and classes,etc that are already in my schedule. That was an eye opener and made it easier for me to take about have of the creative items and place them on a ‘hold list’. I can review that list later once the other list is complete or nearly so.
Plus, today, my daughter really needed some help on a project for her acting class and rather than saying, ‘sorry, not can do. I have to get to me work list,’ I took an hour and helped her. It was great fun and helped me realized that’s one of the reasons I’ve created my business and life this way.
It was truly ‘on purpose’ for me. Thanks Mark.
Hi David- it’s a big eye-opener, isn’t it? I so support you in caring for yourself, and not working into the ground.
I think it’s totally appropriate to have ‘pushes’ sometimes- it can feel great to commit yourself so completely that you get absorbed- but it has to be from a place of inspiration, or your doomed. Or at least, I’m doomed when that happens to me without the inspiration.
WOW! A great one! Thank you so much!
Will share with my clients and friends
You are so welcome, Rita.
Thank you!
That was a GOOD explanation for an ‘always-want-to-know-WHY?- kind of person like me.
A simple thing which has its roots much deeper.
I notice, understandig the WHY-part of things gives a great stability in things we all do. And that is worth everything.
I did your exercise, but also that has consequences. Now I have more time and am more relaxed, but start to enjoy myself a little bit too much to be properly in the work flow.. 😉
Finding balance is also something interesting. How does it feel? When am I in the perfect balance? How do you recognize the suitable state of mind where everything is optimal?
Greets, Johanna
Johanna- there is no perfect balance, is what I’ve discovered. Everything is in motion, and so we’re always leaning one way or another. By being in touch with my heart, deeply, I can hopefully lean in the right direction. I’ve learned to really trust that my desire to contribute and serve is in my heart, and if I need to rest, it will naturally arise once more.
Hi Mark! I especially love the correlation between overestimating capacity to get things done and patterns of running up debt. Very helpful for healing on both issues – I see the reflections.
Thank you!
Debra
Hi Debra- I realized this big time in watching certain organizations, and myself as well…
I love how clearly you spell out the relationship between spiritual abundance & physical limitation/enoughness here. And I really appreciate your humor, style, and depth of caring. Thank you, Mark.
I’ve been known to exclaim:
“Unconditional love is here to be applied to conditions!”
For me, a huge weight of guilt, stress, and anxiety lifted off of my shoulders when I decided to stop attending meetings about sustainability where, time & again, the conclusion was that all of us (our culture) needs to change, but only a section of the population consistently attended meetings about it.
I was biking past tens, hundreds of houses to go to these meetings, and realized:
“I just like large groups. I like people & talking. But I’m indulging an us/them paradigm, and I will never feel like I’m doing ‘enough’ for the environment… until I see people around me doing everything ‘they’… -wait- WE can. I can love my neighbors unconditionally, and see what happens to our conditioning.”
So, I estimated what my limitations were, socially: “How many people can I really know, care about, and keep in touch with?”
That’s how I started Neighbors On Purpose. Infinite (com)passion, focused by limitation… it has set me free.
With as my motivation “to live as if I really am a leader among leaders,” it became easy to cut out many activities that had seemed productive before, but weren’t as productive/effective as a deeper level of being is. There was mourning involved. Mourning of the capacity I THOUGHT I’d had, but realized I’d never had. I became human after that. Forgiving. More able to cope with reality. Less fanatical about ‘positive’ thinking. Better able to see & enjoy what’s true. Less strung out trying to manifest. More awake to the miracle that we’ve even come this far. More effective at everything I DO do.
The hardest thing to refrain from doing was flying to see family as often as I used to think I ought to. It just became absurd, though: the more grounded I was in my love of my parents & siblings (6 & 9 timezones away), and the more practiced I got in expressing my love for them, the less I felt like I had anything to make up for by visiting. At first they didn’t believe me, but I really gave up on flying.
The quality & depth of my relationships with family have increased exponentially as a direct result of this decision. So has the lightheartedness & frequency of our calls. We’re not ‘tiding ourselves over’ with Skype. This is it. This moment is all we have.
Now everyone agrees it’s so much more satisfying than flattering one another with occasional pilgrimages that only exacerbated nostalgia. Sure, we miss each other, but we know we’re doing our part for the next generations. We’re much more actively convivial & connected now – more aware of our immense capacity for pain… and love.
Thanks for asking, as I’m contemplating flying again, for service reasons, and it’s obviously a huge deal to me. I hope better, deeper, more powerful ways for me to contribute to this particular project (I won’t go into detail) become apparent soon.
Briana- fascinating, honest look- thank you so much for sharing your process and insights with your family. My own family is 3 time zones away, and it’s a big deal to us, too- not just for us, but for the kids to see their grandparents and cousins… Hard to figure out what’s right for each of us. And the open heart and infinite love is where it has to start and end.