Does It Advance My Goals?
29 March, 2024
It seems that every week, there’s something new that one guru or expert or the other touts as the way to increase your productivity. To help you do more in the time you have. To help you better use all those hours in the day.
In many cases, though, the people who adopt those solutions find them disappointing. That something being breathlessly touted new rarely lives up to its hype.
Before you adopt (or even just investigate) any new technique, system, or application ask yourself these questions:
- How, if at all, will this advance my goals?
- What can this do that the tools or systems or techniques that I use can’t?
- Do I need to change the way I do things, or force them into a new framework?
- Will the time I spend adapting to this new system or technique or tool be worth it?
If, after answering those questions, you still think it’s worthwhile delving deeper then jump in. Spend two weeks with the app or system. Note the positives and negatives. Then, at the end of two weeks, decide whether to continue with it.
For the most part, I find that after asking those four questions I have no desire to delve into something. It’s not because I’m a hater or afraid of something new. It’s because I can’t find a compelling reason to make the shift. As I’ve said in the past, I prefer to tweak and not hack. I don’t believe that I need to shoehorn my way of doing things into someone else’s system.