Newsletter: Balanced productivity

(Volume 1, Issue 8)

Topic of the week: A different way to frame productivity

Some people confound "hard work" with "smart work" as the path to productivity or getting things done in a given time period. We've all been guilty of grinding through the barriers to get to the other side. Persistence and overcoming failures is undoubtedly an important ingredient to productivity. However, as Einstein said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Persistence without thought is futile.

This image suggests another path to productivity:

The difference is mindfulness: being aware. Mindfulness allows for one to absorb feedback, and change, innovate, grow. What is a condition for mindfulness? Balance. The second pie chart above shows that hard work or persistence in balance with a healthy mind, body and spirit is productivity.

Productivity is sustainable with mindful persistence, keeping balanced while getting things done.

Quote of the week

 "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
 - Jalaluddin Rumi

Three recent articles

1. Are we in a Deja Vu moment all over again? Frank Martin points to a lurking banking sector risk that may be a second order crisis of the COVID-19 crisis.

2. Nine money and life lessons people learn too late in life by Morgan Housel: A Father's Day letter.

3. Compounding time as one of life's hacks. Do it by: (1) Journaling, (2) Napping, (3) Walking, (4) Reading, (5) Talking, (6) Experimenting.