The Tyranny of Project-Based Productivity.

How many “projects” do you have right now? According to Getting Things Done author David Allen, you are likely to have between thirty and one hundred and fifty open projects.

Is that true? Well, it depends on how you define what a project is. The Getting Things Done definition of a project is anything that requires more than one step to complete. Inevitably, with this definition, you will have plenty of projects.

The problem with this definition of a project is the overwhelm it generates. That many projects require a lot of reviewing. You will have countless folders to keep on top of, which means you will have many places to keep looking at to ensure the right tasks are done at the appropriate time.

However, if we change the definition — and you are free to do that — it is possible to minimise this overwhelming and over-organisational system.

For me, a project is a unique, desired outcome that takes time to accomplish. This means anything I have yet to try potentially is a project. However, moving house is a project, as it’s not something I do very frequently.

With this definition, I have very few projects. Instead, I have processes for doing my work and chores. Using processes instead of projects to get my work done simplifies the work and gives me a structure within which I can work that minimises the steps I need to take to complete a piece of work.

Let me give you an example of this in play.

Imagine Aston Martin decides they are going to build a new car. This car is so revolutionary it will need its own factory. For a car company like Aston Martin, it already knows how to design and build a car (they have processes for that). However, while it may have built factories before, it’s not something they do every day. This means building the factory will be a project.

Building the cars that go through the factory are not individual projects. Making a car is a process. Each vehicle is built the same way, which means Aston Martin can optimise and refine the method for producing the vehicles to operate at the most efficient level.

Treating each car as a project would be inefficient. Projects require planning, meetings and discussions. If you already know how to do something and have the resources to do it, all you need is a trigger to begin the process.

To give you an example of this personally, I write a blog post each week. To write a blog post, I need to:

• Decide what I will write about

• Write the first draft

• Edit the draft

• Create the blog post image

• Publish the blog post

If you define a project as anything requiring more than one step, writing a blog post each week would be a project. Yet, I would never consider writing a blog post a project. It’s just something I do each week, and I have a process.

Now, if I were at the beginning stage and wanted to create a blog, that would be a project. There is a lot to consider. For example, where will I host my blog? How often will I publish a blog? And what topic will I write on?

Once you have made those decisions, consistently writing a weekly blog post will become a process.

Processes can be refined. For instance, when I began writing my blog posts, I was discovering the best time to write. Eventually, I settled on Monday mornings. The editing is done on Tuesday morning, and I publish the blog at 10 am KST on Wednesday. None of these three steps were in my initial plan. But over the years, I have refined my process, so now, on a Monday, once my morning coaching calls are complete, I will open up my writing software and begin writing that week’s blog post.

The process begins on Sunday evening when I decide what I will write about, and that begins a chain of tasks that results in a published blog post each Wednesday.

Years ago, when I worked in a law office, we had between five and fifteen new cases each day. Had we treated each new case as a project, we would’ve been swamped trying to decide how to begin work on each case. Instead, the law firm had a process for managing cases.

When a new case came in, we created a file for it. We inputted the data into the firm’s client management software and printed the necessary documents and the case checklist. The checklist was the same for each case, and once that was printed out, it was stapled on the front cover of the case file. Now all we needed to do was go through the checklist.

Each case had unique aspects, but the process for taking a new case to completion was the same. Whenever there was an issue with a case, we handed it over to a senior lawyer, who would review it (part of the process) and then instruct us on how to proceed best.

The missing piece of any process is the trigger that gets things started. For Aston Martin, that would be a customer order or a particular production run. Writing this blog post is a task in my task manager that reminds me to decide what I will write about; for my law firm, it was the instructions from the client.

If you want to build efficiency into your days and weeks rather than treating every multistep task as a project, look for the processes. A process can be used for anything you may have to repeat — doing your employed work, cleaning your home, doing the laundry etc. — all you need is a trigger. That could be a given day; for example, cleaning your home every Saturday morning. Once you have a trigger and a process, you have fewer projects, which means less to “review” each week.

Thank you for reading my stories! 😊

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