On zero outputs
My favorite productivity principle is: Avoid zero outputs. Spend less time figuring out how you can get more done and more time making sure you get something done. Broken down into two rules:
- Don't do things that have zero value.
- When something important requires a variable input from you, do not put in zero of it.
This is extremely not original to me (see #4 here and #2 here, for example). But maybe you haven't seen it before. (And even if you have, it's worth seeing often.)
Here are some applications of those rules:
- Do not read or study in a way that will cause you to retain nothing.
- Do not take a note in a way that neither helps you understand it now nor will ever help you understand it later.
- Do not ask an LLM to generate reference material if, when you need the material, it will be easier and more accurate to simply to ask the LLM then.
- During writing projects, do not go too long without writing.
- Do not go too long without exercising.
How does one avoid zero outputs?
- Know what you are trying to accomplish.[^1]
- Use whatever legibility and accountability mechanisms work for you. These might include checklists, reminders, or a squirt gun that your roommate is allowed to use on you if you haven't written a page by dinnertime.
- Make it easy to get started--e.g., by keeping a list of small but non-zero tasks or by stopping work in a place that will make it easy to restart.
- Be comfortable with small wins. When I'm studying math, I often see a chapter of a book that looks exciting, but wind up only grasping a sentence or two, because need to stop and improve my understanding of a preliminary idea. When I'm done, writing a clear one-paragraph note about it to myself is not only a good way to test my understanding but a way to make the progress feel real. It's a reification of a non-zero output.
There's a cynical, grouchy side to this part of productivity discourse: it reminds us that so much of what we do is useless, and we so often do none of what we should be doing. But there's an optimistic, motivating side, too: the path to significant progress is often shorter than we think, because so much of significant progress is making any progress.
[^1] The failure mode of not knowing this is remarkably common, especially in professional contexts, where there are so many activities available that give one the feeling of being involved but might not actually make progress toward any goal.