The author, Kelly Markey, is a Nobel Nominee and Global Best-Selling Author
“The effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input” refers to the meaning of productivity as depicted in the dictionary. We have a plethora of insights on how to manage personal productivity. We are bombarded with the fundamentals of organising obligations, ambitions, and habits to competently and dependably complete what matters most.
Ryan Fuller, in Harvard Business Review: The Paradox of Workplace Productivity, “defines productivity as value produced divided by resources (cost or time) required. This means that personal productivity is much more than just completing tasks; it’s the value of the tasks you get done compared to the time and money you spend on them. To increase personal productivity, measuring how much you spend on your different tasks is essential to ensure it aligns with what’s most important to you.” “What’s most important to you” strikes a chord with me. Time, energy, resources, and outcome are all part of the equation. No matter how intelligently intentional you are about your productivity, it will form a base of brouhaha if it is vain and shallow. You may have ticked off the stereotype checkboxes. “It’s the value of the tasks you get done” strikes a greater chord with me. Can you sense the advantage of your existence to just ticking off boxes? Come to the corporate round table to find versions of your humble self and birth authentic productivity.
In January 2021, the world woke up to the news that New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden, genuinely reflected on her productivity and decided to resign. “I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice.” These were the words from Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s youngest Prime Minister in 150 years, announcing her decision to resign on 7 February 2021. “I’m a politician who is first and foremost a human,” Ardern said of the announcement, explaining that after six “challenging” years, she felt she would be doing a “disservice to New Zealand” if she continued in the job.
In 2019, Ardern spoke with LinkedIn News. Here are some takeaways:
On balance: “Pick something important to you and be disciplined about that one thing.”
On allyship in politics: “The idea of supportive environments and politics doesn’t always seem like it goes together. In every workplace, we should create environments where we look out for one another.”
Advice for women entering the workforce: “There are times when things will get tough. Always back yourself.”
On flexibility in the workplace: “We’re not beings who exist over here in compartments at work and over here in life . . . we need to keep making sure we’re creating environments where people can juggle those responsibilities.”
How important is it for YOU to speak up about your well-being, the welfare of others, and where humanity is heading? How do you assess what you have ‘in the tank?’ What changes will you make to your productivity? Are you content with the status quo of just ticking the boxes and remaining on your path? What is a human-first approach to you? What insights are you leaving the world with while you are being productive? You need to chew on your contemplating pen and establish what your tentative outline is and what partially hems you in. We have a stubborn populous and carnal incontinence regarding the truth about productivity. We all boast the status of being busy and achieving. What are we achieving? Does your productivity shrink the platform of meaningful ascent?
This self-examination may be gleefully brutalising, but you must enhance your objectives.
Step away from just ticking boxes and regarding yourself as productive. Escape appropriately contrite with new zeal to focus on what makes our world productive. Put your hand at the helm and make it matter with the time, effort, and resources you use. Become acutely aware of how YOUR PRODUCTIVITY can change the narrative. There exists a form of asymmetry in relation to accommodating approaches and proposals. Understanding that lives are derailed. Many still live in a bubble due to a noteworthy intellectual and cultural gap. Compassion for all forms of discrimination experienced globally requires acknowledgment and rectification. Zooming into the extensive posture of the spectrum from responsibilities to scrutiny. Mandating the process to include but not limited to, this schemer of targeted solutions can form the justification for change:
Impartial collaboration – how productive are you about this?
A plan to decline the systemic discrimination culture – What creativity have you sparked with this?
Rational destabilisation of inhumane laws – output is the real intelligence.
Conviction of acts of cruelty – efficiency tells the story
Conscious awareness of negative culture and behaviour – yield with action
Insight to bias – the ostrich syndrome is not productive
Custodianship clause – what part do you play in the equation?
Decolonisation legislature – how do you close the gap regarding psychological aspects of the colonial experience?
Authentic liberation – where do you stand?
Call out and address community, society, national, and international rhetoric – how are you doing that now?
The practice of genuine UBUNTU – act like you mean it.
Create a global Royal Commission Standard of guiding principles – vital productivity
Regardless of citizenship, culture, or creed, every race should be factored into the ethics of a solution. An execution that spawns and generates variable manifestations of healing. Change the narrative from complacency and fleeting accountability. Create global industry standards for recognised practices, enforce Royal Commission standards, and introduce hefty penalties when actions are not challenged or changed after the problems are identified. Refrain from just ticking boxes. Comprehend, model, and action PRODUCTIVITY IN YOUR SOLUTIONS. Productivity is hyped. What makes a material difference is the quality that you produce. Was the effort valuable? “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” – Salvador Dali. Productivity is not just using your time, money, and energy wisely. It is making a difference in what you produce.
What is authentic productivity to you? Plausibly persistent with your progressive patronage, assets aplenty, leader of the pack, flock tactics, still grappling with the sins of the past and the struggle to atone, honing in the vicissitudes of management styles, sitting in opulent silence, reunited with the surrendered mobile phone, or simply illustrating portraits of academic poise with hints of esteem. We are all fashioned differently. Dabble in seeking what gives vital productivity meaning to you, then live by it. Breathe it, and permit it to fashion you and the world in prominent ways.
“Whatever you do, do it well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.” – Ecclesiastes 9:10. This scripture offers insight into living an uncut life.
Substantiating your life with meaningful pursuit. Keep yourself busy with activity – an activity that makes a material difference. Take accountability for what is entrusted to you as a custodian. Why bother to do anything in an average way? If it is worth doing, then do it with excellence. Never get trapped in a culture of entitlement, demanding a reward to match your effort. Reward yourself by living to your highest values. You cannot be productive at anything when you are not equipped with the right tools. Mindset, ambition, knowledge, and wisdom are the greatest tools.
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