People who don’t have a “Productivity System” are more productive

I spend what many would call a ridiculous amount of time tinkering with my “systems”. I enjoy it, but I also like to think it helps me work smarter and faster than those unfortunate saps who just toss a bunch of files into a folder and keep a single TextEdit document open. Or worse, people who manage their lives by setting and un-setting flags and unread statuses in their gmail or whatever. ::shudder::. I goggle at the insanity of living inside an email client. I know better than that!

But, I’ve noticed something lately while standing behind these workflow?-what-workflow? types. I’m astonished at how quickly and efficiently they do things. Their “system” (it shouldn’t even be called that) is a mess, and yet they find everything easily and quickly.

This is very upsetting. After years of trial and error all I seem to be able to find quickly is error. “Now, where did I put that thing?” “Hang on, Emacs won’t start for some reason.” “This app is usually so fast, I’m not sure what’s going on today.” And so on.

Considering all of the time and effort I’ve put into this, I have to question the whole concept of having a “productivity system.”

It’s making me think, and I don’t like where it’s going.