Cal Newport, calnewport.com/the-procutivity-funnel, accessed 9/28/23
Overview
Cal describes productivity as existing in three discreet parts which work to funnel disparate potential tasks into executable actions. Activity Selection, Organization, Execution. He calls this model The Productivity Funnel
Notes
The Funnel
Selection
First, out of the infinite possible actions, some actions must be selected to be acted upon.
Organization
Next these tasks must be organized in a sensical fashion. The primary purpose of this stage:
- remember tasks
- decide which tasks to action next
newport suggests the use of certain tools like Trello or Asana (I would put notion in this group)
Execution
this stage is about deciding in each moment which task to action. Using tools like Time Blocking
Activity Selection is only a small part of Productivity
There exists critique on productivity about being too focused on the capitalist drive to maximize accomplishment. This is only centered on which tasks we prioritize in the activity selection stage
This detailed definition also adds nuance to anti-productivity criticism. A lot of this recent debate loosely associates the term “productivity” with an exploitative capitalist drive to maximize accomplishment. When viewed against the specificity of the productivity funnel, however, it becomes clear that this critique more accurately concerns only the activity selection level.
idea: A well tuned prod system can allow for bigger gaps of minimalism and break from activity because we can see how it fits into our lives. Without a clear picture on goals and tasks we could easily fall into mindless busyness on times when no work actually needs to get done