There is no dearth of advice on how to increase productivity. From simple time-tracking principles to a more efficient work space, there is much we can all do to increase our productivity. There are also countless productivity tools and apps available today geared towards helping us manage our work and daily lives. Despite this, I find that very little emphasis is put in managing negative productivity.

I’ve been reading old post from one of my favorite bloggers of all time, Sacha Chua, and her post about negative productivity caught my eye. For those following her blog for sometime now, we all know how her productivity will put most to shame. Well, here’s what she has to say about negative productivity and how to handle it.

“The trick to dealing with negative productivity is to catch yourself – ideally, shortly before you mess up, but shortly afterwards is fine too. Do not make things worse in the process of trying to fix things.”

She goes on to say that “it’s better to detect your periods of negative productivity on non-critical operations than to” catch them too late and end up with a bigger mess in your hands.

I know this principle is something that isn’t new. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The same is true for things that decrease our productivity. Catching it early on is something that we all need to do, but if you are to do that you must make it a habit to check yourself regularly for things that might be affecting your productivity and fix what ever needs fixing whenever you can.

Image via M2SYS Blog

Originally posted on February 28, 2012 @ 11:19 pm