Tag: productivity

Qwerty efficiencies

Posted on by philipdodson

Those are the 6 top left letters on an English language keyboard and all the other letters in this layout we’re supposedly placed in this arrangement so that the most used letters were in a difficult position to slow typists down so that mechanical typewriters didn’t jam or break.

We still continue with this system today yet we don’t have to as modern touch screens on our phones won’t break by typing too quickly. Well depends just how furiously you can type!

The fact is people are now looking into a different keyboard layout based on today’s users.

But why? What benefit will this have for the human race? ok, for the English speaking humans in this case.

Ok, so it might make typing more efficient.

Who says being more efficient is a benefit though?

QWERTY or not, our lives do not have to be constantly improved by meaningless changes or upgrades. We don’t have to be more efficient.

No one seems to seek improvements in empathy, kindness, compassion, love and other more meaningful things, strangely.

This could be achieved by spending less time looking to be more efficient because more efficient people tend to get given more to do not less. We’d be better off being kindly, lovingly, and wonderfully inefficient.

A big balled hyper-achiever

Posted on by philipdodson

Over many years now there has developed this culture of having to be super productive, a doer, action taker, no talk all do and so on. If you are not on top of your game, then you are a loser. What app do you use for this and that? how many hours do you put in? being an achiever is everything.

It is almost how we seem to measure our worth and if you are not ‘on fire’ then that’s it the scrap heap awaits you. It is a very macho affair too, you need to have ‘big balls’.

Now I’m not suggesting we sit on the sofa all day and never do anything. The point I’m making is that it’s OK to talk and not do, it’s OK not to be super productive every moment of the day, it’s OK because we are worthy human beings regardless of what we do or achieve.

The fact is, it is far more important to be singularly focused on a purpose that matters. More important to do deep focused work for a block of time each day and get the priorities done, than it is to be a constant big balled hyper-achiever to claim the prize of most worthy person. We drown ourselves in ‘guru’ speak and spend endless hours measuring just how much we’ve done in the ‘BIG is beautiful’ tasks Olympics.

We get sucked into the ‘productivity’ vortex and spend most of our time doing stuff that does not really matter in order to fit in.

Productivity, like a hamster on a wheel, is the lifeblood of the industrial machine that cares only about squeezing more to make more profit for the owners.

One purpose, one focus, get what really matters done and then spend all the rest of the time talking, walking, sailing, painting, with friends, family…doing stuff that creates memories that matter. No one will sit at the end of their journeys and say ‘if only I’d done more tasks and worked longer’.