Why even the very best productivity system isn’t the solution for procrastination or perfectionism (move over David Allen!’)

Productivity for Perfectionsists… (what you’re doing wrong, and what you’re doing right and don’t realise)

As I was preparing for a recent interview on ‘Productivity for Perfectionists’, one of the examples I thought it might be useful to talk about (which we didn’t get to!) was the difference between creating a system or a set of rules to solve a problem or resolve a situation, versus allowing a system or a set of rules to evolve to fit what we are doing naturally. It’s a common enough question that I thought I’d share my perspective separately from that interview.

It ​looks as if​ the system is giving us some structure and some support to get things done, right?

I’m not so sure…

Productivity is All About Systems. (isn’t it??)

We so often assume that a set of rules, or a system, or a ‘boundary’ is going to be the solution to a sticky problem we have.

Take Louise. Louise is a coach, she’s creating some new projects that she’s hugely passionate about and found herself in a muddle about whether, and what to charge for.

Cathy, I need to set up some rules here so I know what to do. Can we talk about that?