The Best (Secret) Productivity Hack — Paying Off Systems Debts
Productivity is all about getting things done. Getting Things Done, in fact, is the title of a terrific book by David Allen that I’ve given a Lunch & Learn on. But oh, what to do when you can’t get things done, due to frustrating issues that keep getting in your way?
A little-talked about area of productivity is the concept of paying off systems debts. “Systems debt” refers to the cost you incur for having work around or stop to fix a frustrating issue. Here are some examples to make the idea easy to grasp:
1. You log into your email on a desktop computer, only to realize you don’t remember your password. Your password book isn’t nearby, so you pause to look for it. You can’t find it, so you must reset your password to gain access. When you get back on your smartphone, you have to re-type your new password, which you have already forgotten because you failed to write it into the passwords book you couldn’t find.
2. Your printer isn’t working. To get the page to print, you need to change the ink that has run out. Two pages later, you need to change the paper because it has also run out, but you can’t do that because you’re out of reams of paper. You stop by the store to buy more, then the paper jams before your print job finishes.
3. You’re headed to work, but your car is low on fuel (or your metro card has expired). You go to the gas pump (or the MTA subway card machine) and insert your credit card to pay for it. Your credit card has expired, and you haven’t activated its replacement that you (luckily!) put into your wallet. Your phone is dead (or has no signal because you’re underground) so you need to charge it (or walk up the stairs and exit the station) to call your bank. You activate the new card, pay for your gas (or metro card), and now you’re late to work.
In each case, you’ve experienced a systems failure. When systems break down, it can be as simple as forgetting to change the toilet paper or as complex and technical as having to fix your wi-fi router and figure out your work email password to send a pitch deck to a client from home after reinstalling and renewing Office 365 to make an edit first, which messes up the formatting. In either case, you are slowed down from being able to achieve your goal, and that slowdown is frustrating because you haven’t expected it or allowed time for it. The frustration escalates to another level when one-time systems failures (i.e. oops, forgot my password) become chronic failures (i.e. if you don’t file your work papers, you find yourself always searching piles of papers on your desk).
The biggest issue occurs when complex systems failures stack. It can become “one of those days” where it seems like everything goes wrong. Since you didn’t pay attention to them, many of the things that were in your control are no longer in your control. You don’t take care of your health? You get sick. You’re sick and you have a deadline? You go into work anyway, stay late to finish it, and stay sick longer. You promised your friend you’d make it to her birthday party next time, and flake again? It’s because you’re still not feeling well, you’re not rested, and out of budget for the month. Systems debts. When you don’t pay attention to your systems, or let your systems debts grow over time, they tend to escalate to the point that you feel ineffective at accomplishing anything. It’s the anti-productivity.
Good news — there is a solution to this problem. If you’re trying to chop down a tree with a dull axe, you’d finish faster if you stopped to sharpen the axe. Of course, you would be more efficient if you had a sharp axe in the first place. When you keep chopping into the tree with a dull axe, not only does it take longer, you’ll expend more energy, and you won’t be prepared to chop down the next tree with any speed. Living this way is common. People are unproductive due to their significant systems debts.
The solution is obvious: fix the systems failures. Pay the debts before the interest grows and it accumulates still more. Yet rare is the person who commits to fixing each failure, all the way, every time. It’s up to you to decide how complete of a solution you implement, but the best fix is a permanent one. Where that isn’t possible, don’t just fix it once, or fix it when you feel like it, but fix systems failures as often as they arise, as much as you can. In daily life, this looks like the following: Keep all your kitchen knives sharp. Charge your phone whenever it drops below 50% (yes, this reduces your battery’s capacity over time, so fine, let it drain all the way once a week). Polish your scuffed shoes when you take them off instead of before you need to put them on. Fill your gas tank when you’re at a quarter tank, not after you’ve been on empty for 20 miles. To avoid arriving five minutes late, leave 15 minutes early. As much as possible, get enough quality sleep. Buy a reusable water bottle and keep it handy so that you drink more water. Eat what is good for you. Go grocery shopping before you run out of food in the fridge. Keep an emergency reserve of frozen meals in the freezer. The list goes on and on.
One of the biggest systems adjustments I’ve made in recent months was to unsubscribe from 90% of my email mailing lists. It was affecting my ability to respond to personal and professional emails. When I did respond, it wasn’t hours later, but sometimes days or weeks. All my “quality” emails were buried under a mountain of ham (that’s not a typo, those are the mailing list emails you choose to sign up for). My solution? I unsubscribed from 100+ email lists. Yes, that’s One-Zero-Zero-plus sign. I had no idea that I was subscribed to that many email lists! I unsubscribed and kept a list (in case I wanted to rejoin later). As of this writing, I’ve unsubscribed from 138 lists. Think about it. If you add yourself to one list a week, you can get to this level in 2–3 years. In my case, it was 7–8 years’ worth of email lists, many of which I wasn’t even looking at any more. I overcame my emotional barrier of “having to be in the know” by making sure that my Apple News was set up with the publications I enjoy and was accessible with the flick of a finger. I recorded the list of what I was unsubscribing from to address my fear of losing something and being unable to regain it. The reduction of information clutter has made an immediate difference in my ability to respond to email, it stopped me from feeling so overwhelmed, and stopped functioning as a major source of distraction in my day.
What systems in your life need fixing? Don’t stop now. You’ve taken a few minutes to read this article. Now take one more minute to write a brief list of systems debts you have, then figure out how you can pay them off.
Once you start paying off your systems debts, you’ll find yourself more time-rich, with more energy, and with a greater ability to focus. And that makes you more productive!
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If you found this article helpful, let the author know: zachary@cochrancoachingllc.com.
