Young David

I’m guilty of the typical geeky “productivity fetish” - it’s an engineer’s natural instinct to try to optimize, streamline, and “debug” their lives. I stumbled across a great article which puts this productivity obsession in perspective. Here’s my favourite quote:

“Shouldn’t we be striving for productivity in an attempt to have more time for ourselves, to do the things on that other to-do list, the one we label “some day when I have time” or are we pushing ourselves to be more productive so we can have more time to work, more excuses to not play with the kids, more reasons to let dust settle on that one, really important to-do list?”

My nonrelated friend, Simon Young, just twittered “Friday! Just worked out how many hours I’ve worked this week, about to tell the boss where to go. Damn, I am the boss.”

I was listening to an interview on the Startup Studio podcast a couple of days ago, and the featured entrepreneur made the distinction that working for your self is not a job, it’s a lifestyle, a different way of living, with higher highs, and potentially lower lows.

I’m in complete agreement. I work harder now than I ever did while employed. I’m far happier, and far more satisfied. Not because my previous boss was a jerk (not often, anyway..), or because I’m making so much money (not yet, exactly..), but because I’m doing what I love.

Last night I was up until 1am, writing a custom SugarCRM script to import leads from a web sign-up form, into a random target list, and dealing with outstanding email requests. It was challenging and fun. On MSN, I saw two entrepreneurial friends online with me, one who runs a web development business, and one who’s an Apple consultant. Both told me that, like myself, they prefer to work late into the night, because they are not interrupted, are more productive, and have a permanent backlog of work to complete. I know Simon (above) also recently did a couple of “wee-hours” sessions, editing video and writing copy.

Why do we do it? Why do we abuse ourselves, working harder that it is legal to work your employees? Because we do what we love (most of the time), we believe in our company’s future, and we think our bosses are worth it. (and incredibly sexy!)

Steve Pavlina has an post on his blog about the 8 positive changes he experienced after giving up TV for 30 days.

Since moving out of my folks house about 4 years ago, I haven’t watched much TV. My wife and I decided not to get a TV when we got married, and it’s a decision we’ve still very happy with. That’s not to say that we don’t watch TV episodes, or DVDs, but we’re not bound by the broadcast schedule of the SABC.

Steve’s article applies to more than just TV however - we certainly have time-wasting habbits / activities that we could do without in our lives - such as PC games..

This is the first time I’ve read Steve’s blog, and it’s a keeper