This website covers knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints, amongst other topics. Opinions expressed here are strictly those of the owner, Jack Vinson, and those of the commenters.

Too Busy Being Unproductive to Learn to Be Productive

Too Busy Being Unproductive to Learn to Be Productive is another of Dave Pollard's pieces on the topic of finding the right work environment. 

But most people don't learn to use [productivity tools] unless they either stumble on them themselves, or they are shown by someone how to use them (and write them down so they'll remember how later). And most of the time we're just too busy being unproductive to do either. If you're skeptical, spend a half hour observing a co-worker at his/her PC and you'll be astonished: It's like watching someone being tortured -- awkward workarounds, unnecessary steps, time wasted searching in the wrong places the wrong way. The cost to every enterprise, and our economy as a whole, must be gargantuan.

This is one of the reasons I am on a personal effectiveness kick.  When I was in the corporate world, we had a consultant deliver some time management training and then come back for one-on-one sessions after about a week.  They walked each of us through the basics of the training and showed explicitly how it related to what we were doing at our desks.  I found this infinitely more informative than the discussion on its own.

I also hear some ringing of TOC, but rather than "productive," I'd say "effective."  Productivity is usually the wrong measure, unless you are already focusing on the constraint.

KM and TOC yields strategy

Coffee might not be so great, depending