The Cascade Effect of Productivity
December 18th, 2007
I’m a big fan of multiple projects. I cannot think of myself doing just one thing. Sure, sometimes it becomes difficult to focus my energy on one important thing as I easily get distracted in other non-important projects. But I’ve also experienced that if I work diligently on one project, irrespective of how tired I am, I also tend to work very well on other project.
I’m not talking about learning skills from one project and applying it to another project. Irrespective of the nature of two project domains, if we work diligently and responsibly on one project, I think we tend to achieve better results on another project as well.
I’m talking about the passion to achieve best performance, the confidence we gain by accomplishing small tasks or milestones, the discipline and sense of time management we develop by executing multiple projects efficiently, the vision we develop to foresee what’s coming to us and plan accordingly, and the sense of loyalty and feel of satisfaction that we are executing our job responsibly.
I’m talking about the cascade effect. They are of two types – the positive and the negative cascade effect.
If I slog well during my day time job, I tend to produce more code when I go home for my part time project. If I produce more code in the evening, I tend to help my wife happily in cooking and doing dishes. If I help my wife in daily household stuff, I become more satisfied and tend to think more positive. When I think positive, I tend to generate more ideas for my projects, for my blog and also for my book. And the positive cascade effect continues…
Same is the case with negative effect. If I screw up in early phase of my day, I continue to be less productive for all future tasks in a day.
The conclusion is obvious. Whatever project or task we are starting our day with, let’s start it with bang! Let’s give our best shot to whatever task we are doing. The positive cascade effect will help us to achieve more by the end of the day.
Have a positive cascading effect!
