photo credit: lepiaf.geo

Why only three? Okay, it seems to be much fewer than many list of productivity in the blogosphere. I can always come out with more but a list article has not always been my favorite. And more than that it’s exactly relevant to the first point I want to share.

1. Less quality

Or in a better word, change your perspective of the quality standard that you need.

I’m taking an example of how I wrote this article. Who said that only a list with a lot of points is a better article? Fewer points per article can help me to generate more articles. It is churning as what Scott H Young called it.

If your quality threshold is too high, you’ll kill many great solutions before they have time to incubate. Sometimes an idea takes time to develop, before it can become an adequate solution. Churning allows those ideas to grow for a time before they are prematurely stopped.
~Scott H Young (How to Increase Your Creative Output)

More than that, Toastmasters International has taught me to stay with a maximum of 3 points per message I deliver. Why? With the limited time that it gives (approximately 5-7 minutes for most speech), it’s the number of points you can deliver effectively. And more importantly, your audience must be able to grab the message, to digest them, and even better, to persuade/inspire them to make actions.

2. Less quantity

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been missing last month, I’m practicing an idea that Leo Babauta shared in his book The Power of Less (review). It’s called the 3 projects rule. List 3 of your most important projects and do them. Don’t add any more projects before you finish ALL of them.

Why only 3 projects? Again it’s the power of less quantity; the idea helps you to focus. Taking on too many projects will be useless if you end up starting but not finishing most of them. Leo also emphasized on finishing all three projects before you can take up another one. You can take any exception, and the best, you can’t keep on procrastinating the project that you dislike.

In my case, that project was my Java certification that I’ve been procrastinating for almost a year. Once I made the step to seriously working on them, focusing my time on them, I can actually complete them in only two weeks. Even more I can take the next step in the certification.

When you have no choice but doing them, you’ll be amazed that things that what you’ve been procrastinating for can actually be completed in less time than you’ve always thought of.

3. Less brainy

If this is really the brain of Homer Simpson, no wonder he makes so much action. Often, they are silly and stupid, but the point is that he’s doing it.

I was presenting on GTD (Getting Things Done) last weekend. My purpose was to introduce and persuade my audience to practice GTD. You can watch it here. Warning: Reading the next paragraph may spoil the fun of watching.

The message did not come across pretty well, the power point was not clear enough and the worst, I was nervous. I lost confidence in my message as I thought that my audience was thinking that GTD is too complicated. I was getting too brainy in thinking that my subject is too brainy for my audience.

Thankfully, I included the last step, the “Just Do It” step. I jumped and caught the attention of my audience more than the other. And at the end, I got the best prepared speech speaker award for the evening.

I don’t despise GTD. It’s been very helpful to me, especially GTD inbox for Gmail that I’ve been using. My problem is the paralysis of analysis. Often there comes a time to be confident with the decision you picked earlier and just do it. Even if sometimes it may make you look stupid like Homer Simpson.

Concluding thought

Here they are, the three “less” for more productivity:  less-quality to generate more, less-quantity to focus on things that matter more, and less-brainy to do what you have decided to do. Again, it’s turning limitation into advantages. Less is not always less, less has its power, and often, less is more!

For more things about the power of less… read The Power of Less by Leo Babauta (review).

Less-ing for more,
Robert