Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by world-renowned marketing expert and best-selling author Seth Godin. It’s a short, but intriguing, essay about work and what is required to create lasting value, often short- and long-term objectives of the product development and marketing functions.
__________________________________________________
Making something is work. Let's define work, for a moment, as something you create that has a lasting value in the market.
Twenty years ago, my friend Jill discovered Tetris. Unfortunately, she was working on her Ph.D. thesis at the time. On any given day the attention she spent on the game felt right to her. It was a choice, and she made it. It was more fun to move blocks than it was to write her thesis. Day by day this adds up... she wasted so much time that she had to stay in school and pay for another six months to finish her doctorate.
Two weeks ago, I took a five-hour plane ride. That's enough time for me to get a huge amount of productive writing done. Instead, I turned on the wifi connection and accomplished precisely no new measurable work between New York and Los Angeles.
More and more, we're finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren't. I can appear just as engaged (and probably enjoy some of the same endorphins) when I beat someone in Words With Friends as I do when I'm writing the chapter for a new book. The challenge is that the pleasure from winning a game fades fast, but writing a book contributes to readers (and to me) for years to come.
One reason for this confusion is that we're often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work. The distractions come along with the productivity. The boss (and even our honest selves) would probably freak out if we took hours of ping pong breaks while at the office, but spending the same amount of time engaged with others online is easier to rationalize. Hence this proposal:
The Two-Device Solution
Simple but bold: Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something.
Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking... anything that doesn't directly create valued output (no need to have an argument here about which is which, which is work and which is not... draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. If you don't like the results from that line, draw a new line).
Now, when you pick up the iPad, you can say to yourself, "break time." And if you find yourself taking a lot of that break time, you've just learned something important. Go, make something. We need it!
Copyright © 2011 Seth Godin. All Rights Reserved.
__________________________________________________
Making something is work. Let's define work, for a moment, as something you create that has a lasting value in the market.
Twenty years ago, my friend Jill discovered Tetris. Unfortunately, she was working on her Ph.D. thesis at the time. On any given day the attention she spent on the game felt right to her. It was a choice, and she made it. It was more fun to move blocks than it was to write her thesis. Day by day this adds up... she wasted so much time that she had to stay in school and pay for another six months to finish her doctorate.
Two weeks ago, I took a five-hour plane ride. That's enough time for me to get a huge amount of productive writing done. Instead, I turned on the wifi connection and accomplished precisely no new measurable work between New York and Los Angeles.
More and more, we're finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren't. I can appear just as engaged (and probably enjoy some of the same endorphins) when I beat someone in Words With Friends as I do when I'm writing the chapter for a new book. The challenge is that the pleasure from winning a game fades fast, but writing a book contributes to readers (and to me) for years to come.
One reason for this confusion is that we're often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work. The distractions come along with the productivity. The boss (and even our honest selves) would probably freak out if we took hours of ping pong breaks while at the office, but spending the same amount of time engaged with others online is easier to rationalize. Hence this proposal:
The Two-Device Solution
Simple but bold: Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something.
Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking... anything that doesn't directly create valued output (no need to have an argument here about which is which, which is work and which is not... draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. If you don't like the results from that line, draw a new line).
Now, when you pick up the iPad, you can say to yourself, "break time." And if you find yourself taking a lot of that break time, you've just learned something important. Go, make something. We need it!
Copyright © 2011 Seth Godin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts
Response to Are You Making Something?
ReplyDeleteI found this article intriguing as is it something myself, a college student, is all too familiar with; procrastination. While I found the short essay by world-renowned marketing expert and best-selling author, Seth Godin, to be extremely relatable and informative, I couldn’t help but think his solution to the problem lacked a realistic response.
While most people would love to have a computer to work on and an iPad to play on, the reality is most people in our society cannot afford it. Perhaps the real problem lies not in us using the same device for work and play, rather we as a society have compromised our work ethic with distracting entertainment we relentlessly feed into.
The real solution lies within ourselves. When we make the conscious decision to sit down and get work done we need to take this decision seriously. As in, do not pull up the web browser and immediately check your email, Facebook, Twitter and the like. Save that as the reward for after you have accomplished something.
It is all about will power. We indulge in social technology the same way an alcoholic does a 6-pack. We know we don’t need it, we know it will only keep us from being productive, but who can deny the refreshing and exciting taste of new notifications or new follower requests? Let’s face it, procrastination feels good. But, just like Godin says in his article, the pleasure of it will fade fast. However if we spend our time writing something concrete and valuable, it will contribute to readers for years to come.
So before you tweet, blog, tag and post anything, ask yourself if this was really worth your time. Will power is something you can develop over time and the best part? It’s FREE. So before you run off to Apple to purchase your iPad in hopes of it solving all your productivity issues, consider sitting in front of your computer with absolutely no distractions pulled up for a solid 20 minutes. If you can’t be productive after that, then maybe you should reconsider if this “work” is really working for you.
-Cori Bracey
coribracey@hotmail.com
Well said, Cori. Thanks so much for offering your perspective here.
ReplyDeleteThere's no question that maintaining a high level of productivity requires focus, commitment AND discipline. Even with such a commitment in place, there are so many distractions these days, as you pointed out, that's it's relatively to get off track. In my experience, sustaining this level of focus over a long period of time requires extensive practice and training. And the professionals who master this approach are usually quite successful.
Just think how much better the world would be if we increased productivity across the board, both personally and professionally.