In This Episode…
After a stuttering start to get the podcast up and running again in the wake of COVID, this episodes sets out my stall for moving forward. However things aren’t all rose in the productivity flower bed.
Whilst I know a lot about productivity and have learnt and applied much of those lessons in the last 225 episodes, I feel there is still something lacking.
So in this episode I explore the following:
- The difference between knowledge and knowing.
- How I really feel about the progress I have made so far.
- Mulling over the possibilities of what might be the cause.
- Committing to doing things differently to get a better result.
Episode Transcript (Edited)
Hi, and welcome to today’s episode of the Profit Productivity Podcast. It’s your host, Michael Tipper. Who else would it be?
Welcome back.
I say welcome back because we’ve had the coronavirus hit and I had paused the podcast just before it all hit.
Then when it did hit, I got distracted and had to start looking at how to reengineer my business. But now I’m full on back into daily podcasting and looking at how to develop my own productivity.
So as I reflect back on the episodes I have recorded and there’ve been 225 of them over the last 18 months, I have made a lot of progress. I have learnt a lot about productivity and I’ve learned a lot about myself.
But as I return to broadcasting and sharing my ideas and capturing the experiences of developing my productivity, I’ve realised I’ve got to come back with more focus.
Because with the changes we’ve seen around the world, it’s never been more important to be able to get things done quickly and to be able to do them effectively and efficiently.
I’ve been mulling over the differences between knowledge and knowing, and the reason for that will become apparent in a second.
It’s really important to understand the difference between knowing and doing.
So in my power of focus seminars that I’ve run all over Europe, North America, and the UK over the last 18 months, a key principle of those seminars is the shift from knowledge based development, to behaviour based development.
It’s all well and good knowing how to be productive. It’s all well and good knowing that you should do certain things like set your goals or plan your day.
But actually doing them is different.
And so what I’ve been doing is reflecting on myself and asking myself “where am I with all of that knowledge I’ve gained over the last 18 months and also over the years I’ve been reading and applying the principles I’ve discovered?”
Have I truly got the message?
Now the purpose for doing this productivity podcast was for me to deepen and develop not my knowledge of this stuff, but my application of this stuff.
I could talk for hours about goal setting strategies, about planning, about looking at the challenges we face about dealing with procrastination, about getting focused and about avoiding distractions.
There’s a lot of stuff I could talk about over the years, but I found myself not always applying it.
It’s okay to know, but to do is different.
There’s a saying which is “to know and not to do is not to know”.
And I was often guilty of that and I realised a few years ago that I needed to do more with what I knew and that’s why I started this podcast.
For me, it was about treading the path and then sharing what I’d done with other people following in the tracks I’d left behind.
I have done that, but I’m starting to feel that my own progress is somewhat superficial.
I’m starting to feel that it’s sometimes an effort to recall the stuff that I’ve learned and begin to apply it.
It leads me to think I’ve not really changed myself and the growth I’ve tried to make has been relatively superficial.
It feels the depth is really lacking.
And I find that because there are times when I struggled to get things done. There are times when I find myself sometimes overwhelmed by the things I have to do.
I find myself doing things inefficiently and ineffectively, and then keep saying to myself, “well I know what I should be doing”, or “I know that I can do better”.
So why aren’t I now?
I’m not sure whether it is an identity thing. I’m not sure whether it is a belief thing. Maybe I’ve tried to do too much.
Perhaps I haven’t really got a deep enough knowledge and understanding of the things I’ve discovered because all of my knowledge is superficial and spread across a whole range of topics.
Maybe I’m just not using it enough.
Whatever it is, I don’t know.
But I do know something needs to shift. I do know that things have to move in a better direction.
I’m committed to finding out because I have realised with COVID-19 and the new changes forced upon us, never has it been more important to be productive, effective, efficient, and be able to get more of the right things done at the right time.
So I am effectively, I suppose, restarting my journey.
And this time it’ll have a greater depth, it’ll have a greater focus and I’ll have a greater clarity as I move forward in developing my own productivity skills.
And as I go forward, I’ll also be sharing those lessons with you.
So that’s today’s episode.
Until tomorrow.
