There was a story of a small plane that crashed landed in a jungle in South America.

Fortunately, all the passengers survived. And most of them comprised of hard-working, straight-line engineers.

Without any delay, the engineers sprang into a flurry of activity.

They grabbed every sharp object they could find and with their makeshift ‘machetes’, they started beating a path to make their way out of the jungle.

Feeling confident in themselves, they relentlessly chop-chop-chopped their way for 7 hours until they got tired and took a break.

Fortunately, the most junior among them decided to use that opportunity to climb up a tree and from the canopy, survey the landscape. He took one look around and gasped in horror.

Apparently, the survivors had chopped their way in the wrong direction and had gone further INTO the jungle.

If they had stopped to just take a moment to survey their location at the crash site where they started, they would have reached a city… only an hour away.

Don’t get me wrong.

This post isn’t meant to be a jab on engineers.

The lesson from this story is: don’t confuse activity with accomplishment.

And don’t confuse productivity with progress.

Productivity Does Not Equal Progress

Conventional wisdom states that in order to achieve anything of worth, you need to work hard.

It’s true.

To succeed in anything, the element of hard work is indispensable.

But remember: just like yourself, there are many, many people working really, really hard.

And like many working-class Singaporeans, you may have used your productivity as a base indicator for how much progress you’ve made in life.

But the truth is: productivity DOES NOT equate to progress.

If hard work was the undisputed answer to wealth and success, then the hardest working professions like labourers, construction workers, nurses or even teachers would be much wealthier and happier than everyone else.

But that is not the case.

The ones who get ahead, the ones who are the most effective and the ones who make the most progress are those who set clear directions, upgrade their processes and build systems.

Taking massive action is one thing.

But it may potentially lead to ‘no-thing’ if you’re taking action in the wrong direction.

An obsessive focus on productivity may not necessarily be the best thing for you to have.

It might be much wiser to change your focus from productivity to progress.

So how do you do that?

Here are some ideas.

3 Ways To Shift From Productivity To Progress

Strategy #1: Never begin a project without first understanding your ‘Why’

It is no surprise why Simon Sinek’s ‘Start With Why’ movement is widely popular.

It got people to take a good hard look at their lives and ask themselves ‘why’ they do what they do.

Leaders of organizations paint and chart beautiful goals with the hope of inspiring their people to get behind it and move with full speed ahead.

But at the end of the day, goals are still the ‘what’.

Leaders like you and I can go a long way by taking the time to connect everyone’s ‘why’ with the goal of the organization.

It is easy for us to get caught up in the glitz and glamour of goals and forget the reason why we pursue those goals in the first place.

The reality is that our ‘why’s are the fire that burns our fuel to succeed. Our why keeps us persistent when our projects inevitably get difficult or start going off the rails.

So never forget to always attach meaning to your work.

As Friedrich Nietzsche would say: “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”

Strategy #2: Always do regular self-evaluation

Regularly schedule a check-in with yourself and ask: “Am I on the right track? How much progress have I made since my last check-in?”

The treadmill of achievement can be very seductive. Once we gain momentum, we feel the need to go harder, run faster, get stronger.

When that happens, it is always healthy to balance out the Yang of the eternal hustle with the Yin of quiet introspection.

Would greatness be worth it if you enslave yourself to your goals in the process, watching the other areas of your life deteriorate as you continue to drudge treacherously up the mountain?

It’s not worth it.

Take a pause.

Pause not just to enjoy the mountain air during the climb.

Pause so that you can course-correct and explore a path that is more efficient than the one you’ve been taking.

Strategy #3: Get an accountability partner to give you reminders

As a coach, my job is to help you become the best version of yourself without necessarily having to work harder than you already are.

Even without a coach, you still can find someone close to you, like a mentor or a friend to keep you accountable to ensure that you prioritize progress over productivity.

You give this person the green light to call you out if you’ve been going too aggressively, and remind you to check-in with your ‘Why’ and do a self-evaluation from time to time.

Remember: the path of success doesn’t have to be a lonely road.

Being successful means being able to enlist the right partners on board to help you get to the next level. 

Enlisting partners along the way is not only more effective, it is also wise.

Hard work will always have a place in the peak performer’s arsenal.

But it is not more or less important than other qualities such as mindset, patience, wisdom, resourcefulness and emotional intelligence.

Advancement towards your goals need not be a monotonous trudge, mixed with endless pain and suffering.

Sometimes all it takes is a few tweaks to your thinking and habits.

Optimize, not maximise. You’ll find that progress is much sweeter than productivity!

If you’re interested to know how to achieve MORE results with LESS effort, MINUS stress and PLUS progress, PM me or text me at +65 9672 0180 and we can have a chat! 😃