There is a podcast I listen to called Optimal Living Daily that reads blog posts with permission from the authors each morning.
Today’s reading was from a Cal Newport post titled “Do What Works, Not What’s Satisfying: Pseudo-Striving and our Fear of Reality-Based Planning. You can read the post here or listen to the podcast.
The Pseudo-Striving Hypothesis: It’s significantly more pleasant to pursue a goal with a plan entirely of our own construction, then to use a plan based on a systematic study of what actually works. The former allows us to pseudo-strive, experiencing the fulfillment of busyness and complex planning while avoiding any of the uncomfortable, deliberate, often harsh difficulties that populate plans of the latter type.
Cal Newport
This concept will challenge you to consider the work you do. You must look in the mirror and ask yourself if are working really hard, but avoiding the difficult work that will make a difference.
My Story
The idea of pseudo-striving got me thinking about the difference between productivity and accomplishment.
Specifically, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Throughout my career, I can think of days where I was very productive – responded to many emails, attended meetings where decisions were made, and saw progress on presentations or personal work on my plate.
However, I wonder if those days could be tied to what we were trying to accomplish with the business.
Did the productive work move us closer to our KPIs – sales targets, market innovations, shifts in demographics, or the other accomplishments on the list?
Or were we productive and not accomplishing the right things?
The post has me thinking about my work today and asking what activities would look like that are productive and tied tightly to the business objectives.
Are they the same?
What might I stop doing and replace with something else?
I also wonder if sometimes it’s OK to wander from the KPIs to discover something new.
The photo might be “pseudo-striving” – going through old notebooks to see if there were notes I wanted to keep.
Or, maybe it’s purposeful wandering to find a note that sparks a great new idea?
It’s a fine line between the two. An awareness of the trap should help us be more intentional.
Your Turn
When you think about pseudo-striving, what elements of your day fall into that bucket?
What keeps you busy, but doesn’t move you closer to accomplishment?
How might you shift your priorities to remove pseudo-striving activities?