Conscious Growth.com

May 21st, 2008

Meaningful productivity is one pathway toward fulfillment and long-term success. It helps you meet internal needs by taking conscious action toward your goals. To be productive, you only need (1) to know what to do and (2) then do it.

Many productivity books today only emphasize the “doing it” part. Getting Things Done uses a simple system to boost your time-management skills so that get more work done in a day. The 4-Hour Workweek teaches you to save time by deleting, ignoring or outsourcing non-essential work. Both of these books have tremendous value at the skill level; teaching you how to do things efficiently.

Meaningful productivity is more than a skill set though. It balances action with purpose; competence with character. Why? Because efficiency without direction is like straightening chairs on the deck of the titanic. It looks good, but you’re still going down. On the other hand, direction without efficiency is like hiring a preacher to do your plumbing. Great ethics (hopefully) but do they have the ability to do the job well?

For long-term success, you need an equal amount of both: knowing what to do and the best way to do it. Since most of us have resources for how to get things done, let’s figure out what needs doing. Arguably, this is the more challenging of the two.

To help you out, let’s look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

The needs are stacked and supported from the bottom up. So if you are struggling for air from an asthma attack (physiological), spending quality time with your wife (love/belonging) or hiking the Appalachian Trail (achievement - esteem) won’t help you much. You address the base need.

Many people overlook the importance of lower needs. For example, let’s suppose you’re passionate about your career (achievement - esteem). So you work long hours at your job; sometimes working nights and weekends. To meet deadlines, perhaps you ignore family time (love/belonging), proper rest and a healthy diet (physiological).

Here’s the problem though. Sacrificing a lower need for a higher one creates short-term success with a crumbling foundation. Eventually, your body gets too sick and forces you to rest. Or your marriage is void of love and there’s no relationship to save. In the Seven Habits book, Covey calls this process the P/PC Balance. Put simply, your long-term production of higher needs depend on how well you maintain your lower needs.

Start at the Bottom

The bottom is usually the best place to start. Learn to take good care of your body first because without it, you won’t produce much. Some of these needs include:

• Getting a Good Night’s Rest
• Exercising a Few Days a Week
• Taking Consistent Breaks from Work
• Eating a Healthy Diet
• Drinking 8-10 Glasses of Water a Day
• Having an Outlet for Sex

Moving Up

Everything you want flows from of a deeper need somewhere in the pyramid. For example, perhaps you want a new car. But why do you really want it? What deeper need is it fulfilling? It may be for social status and achievement (esteem). Perhaps it is to please your wife (love/belonging). Maybe it’s only to get you to work (safety). Whatever the case, you don’t act from wants. You act from needs.

Spend some time observing what you do and why you do it. The goal is to find the deeper need and determine if that action will most appropriately meet that need. With time management, perhaps a lower need must be met first.

There’s no one answer I can give you. Your needs depend on your situation. They are unique to you and only you can realize what they are. Perhaps you don’t need to start by working out in the morning. Perhaps you need to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with someone. If in doubt, satisfy the lowest needs first because they support everything else.

Self Actualization

Advertisers are great at hitting deeper needs. If you only buy their product, you will have your hair blowing perfectly in the breeze, be chased by hundreds of beautiful women, or have finally “made it.” Of course, when you buy the product, that illusion quickly fades.

Meaningful productivity is learning to see through projected meaning. It’s not about wanting or achieving more, but learning to need less. It’s a progressive movement to self actualization and experiencing your own potential. Through inner-contemplation, you skip non-essential pursuits and address higher needs by maintaining lower ones. As Einstein said, “Make everything as simple as possible but no simpler.”

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