A quick Amazon search shows over 50,000 productivity titles—probably because as a society, we are obsessed with being productive. But what does productivity look like for Soloists?
My theory—and I’m curious for your experience—is that many Soloists approach productivity a bit differently:
My own (positive) experience with the classic Getting Things Done—and what seemed missing for Soloists (hint: joy + impact).
What happens when you lighten your cognitive load in organizing your work and life.
How some contemporary productivity books, especially Slow Productivity (Cal Newport) and 4,000 Weeks (Oliver Burkeman) are addressing a non-hustle and deeply satisfying way to work.
Why slow is often better than fast and less can be more.
The role of hitting your “enough” goal consistently in re-thinking how you want to work.
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00 - 00:50
Rochelle Moulton: Do fewer things at a reasonable pace with high quality. Slow it down so what we do matters more. Concentrate and obsess over quality. Hello, hello. Welcome to The Soloist Life, where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I'm Rochelle Moulton, and today I want to talk to you about productivity. I feel like there is a third rail here when we talk about soloists and productivity, because there is a whole school of thought that many of us have internalized, that productivity is about going 90 miles an hour and accomplishing an endless to-do list versus
00:50 - 01:29
Rochelle Moulton: productivity being about carefully choosing what you want to pay attention to so you can optimize your results. Optimize not maximize. So I love a good productivity book, you know, as much as the next consultant. And finally, just a few months ago, I read what many people consider the Bible, David Allen's Getting Things Done. I think I avoided reading it sooner, in part because it was old. I mean, even the updated version is almost 10 years old now, and technology has changed a lot. But I finally figured I'd give it a try. And let me tell you,
01:29 - 02:05
Rochelle Moulton: lots of it still applies even now. It did, however, feel more focused on a corporate executive type with an office and a staff, but nonetheless, I got plenty of useful advice. The main thing that hit me, maybe you could relate, was the cognitive load I was carrying from keeping too many open loops in my head. And the book helped me realize that I needed to not just get my projects all down in 1 place, and by the way, a project in getting things done land is anything with more than 2 steps. Okay? But it also needed
02:05 - 02:37
Rochelle Moulton: to identify at least 1 next action step for every project. So having both would give me a clear picture of what I wanted to get done. So I spent a few days vomiting everything in my head onto a master projects list for work, but also for my life because, you know, hey, we all have to manage both, right? And then it took a few more days because rando stuff would occur to me in the middle of doing something else, until finally I felt like I had a complete list of all of my projects. I had about
02:37 - 03:16
Rochelle Moulton: 75 of them, which apparently is not unusual. So I decided I needed an app for that, And I chose the paid version of Todoist.com because it seems simple and because I could share home tasks with my hubby. And I was super excited to sit down and start scheduling out all these projects. I jotted down at least 1 next action step for each 1, multiple steps for some bigger projects, and I was going to enter them all in Todoist. Right. I made it through scheduling maybe half a dozen next steps and it just did not feel right.
03:16 - 03:51
Rochelle Moulton: It felt like drudgery, even though some of the projects and action steps I was scheduling were going to be fun. And I'm the kind of person who loves a good list and feeling organized. So I stopped and paid attention to that emotion and I realized it was resistance to pre-scheduling every day. Because 1 of the things I adore about being a soloist is the flexibility to work on the things I want when I want. So I pivoted a little bit. I only put the big recurring things in my to-do list so I could take them off
03:51 - 04:33
Rochelle Moulton: my calendar, like my weekly Monday writing time, my podcast production items, some social media. And then I added monthly, quarterly, and annual things, Everything from the monthly package to send to my bookkeeper, to quarterly text filings, and advance notice of birthdays, so I get cards and gifts out on time. I kept all of my next action items with their respective projects. So instead of scheduling them on a calendar or with Todoist.com, I could just decide what I felt like working on when I had a bracket of time. Total game changer. I have a bird's eye view
04:33 - 05:07
Rochelle Moulton: of all of my projects and I can dedicate my energy to the ones that feel most important or call to me on a particular day. The next thing that this made me do was to get real about what I was actually going to do. And I just deleted some things because I knew I didn't want to do them ever. Even if doing them seemed like a good idea when I put them on the list. So the first thing that happened was I got some brain space back that I didn't even know I was using before. And
05:07 - 05:40
Rochelle Moulton: for those of you juggling lots of ideas and tasks, I know you can imagine what happens when the bees stop buzzing in your head. And then I got so excited by the time freed up in my calendar, I actually made a new product that I then launched a couple of weeks later. Pure experiment, pure joy. And the thing that was remarkable was that I didn't really have any more time than I had had before. It was simply quieting the voice in my head that said, you have too much to do to tackle anything else. So getting
05:40 - 06:18
Rochelle Moulton: things done definitely helped me to build structure around the holes in what I thought was already a very efficient system for managing my work and home lives. But even with his maybe someday list, which is a parking lot for the things you might like to do but haven't committed to yet, Getting things done still didn't get to the heart of the 2 most important things when I think about how productive any of us are. Deciding how to best focus our unique genius so that we're building a long-term body of work and a life that fulfills us.
06:19 - 07:00
Rochelle Moulton: And figuring out how to avoid falling into hustle, hustle, and then more hustle. Being productive is not about making a huge list and ticking things off. Even if, like me, you get a little thrill when you cross off a completed task. We don't want to get better and faster at doing everything on a list that isn't exactly what we want to invest in over the long term. And let's face it, even soloists can fill our list with other people's agendas and action items. We want to slow down and invest meaningfully in those activities that have deep
07:00 - 07:42
Rochelle Moulton: value to us. So I found myself exploring a series of books, some would call it Going Down a Rabbit Hole, that were either explicitly about productivity or struck me as productivity centered even if the titles didn't quite match up. The last 1 I read probably hit me the most, and that was Slow Productivity, the Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport. And shout out to Erica Goody for that recommendation. At its simplest, he espouses 3 ideas. Do fewer things, work at a natural pace, and obsess over quality. And those 3 just felt like they
07:42 - 08:21
Rochelle Moulton: jive so well with the soloist mindset and how we can distinguish ourselves with our body of work. It's really a terrific book, and I encourage you to read it for the examples he gives and the mindset he encourages. I also loved 4, 000 Weeks, Time Management for Mortals, and frankly, anything by its author, Oliver Berkman. He does a delicious job of making you realize we have only so many weeks to live, 4, 000 if we're lucky, and therefore can never ever get everything done we might want to do. So his message is, why try? Instead, double
08:21 - 09:00
Rochelle Moulton: down on what really matters to you in your life and in your work. Now obviously I'm not doing justice to a deep, rich book, but I'm trying to make a point. Both of these books are quite similar in their big idea that slow is better than fast and less can absolutely be more. I'm glad I read both, and if this topic speaks to you, I highly recommend them. But there's more. During the same few weeks I read Slow Productivity and 4, 000 Weeks, I also happened to reread Greg McCowen's Essentialism, The Disciplined Art of Doing Less,
09:00 - 09:45
Rochelle Moulton: which was published back in 2014. It wasn't marketed as a productivity book, but the message is the same. Do fewer things at a reasonable pace with high quality. Slow it down So what we do matters more. Concentrate and obsess over quality. It's kind of the essence of the soloist mindset, right? The anti-bro hustle model. It's been interesting stepping back after absorbing these books because I've been seeing the same trend with my one-to-one clients. Once they hit their enough revenue goal consistently, it's about going deeper, about having fewer offerings and consolidating their time so they can optimize
09:46 - 10:28
Rochelle Moulton: their impact, professionally, personally. It's like they're climbing Maslow's hierarchy of needs to the top of the pyramid. And that's why I wanted to start a conversation about productivity for soloists. Because when we're productive in a way that's joyful, and we're building our impact, doing our best work, that's when we're contributing at our very highest level. Working in your genius zone at Whatever pace is right for you not only feels amazing, but it's your highest best use out in the world. So I'd love to hear what you think on this topic and perhaps explore this some more
10:28 - 10:48
Rochelle Moulton: with a guest or 2 if this topic resonates with you. So shoot me an email to rm at Rochelle Moulton dot com if you've got something to say about this. I'll be putting links to each of the books I've mentioned in the show notes so you can check them out. Alrighty then. That's it for this episode. I hope you'll join us next time for the soloist life. Bye bye.