# Ep. 251 — the Efficiency Trap  URL:: https://share.snipd.com/episode/0260b562-a743-46ed-a63a-520fe6d66da0 Author:: Deep Questions with Cal Newport ## Highlights > Productivity Systems: Tools that Speed up Common Tasks > Key takeaways: > - The third category of productivity systems and tools speed up common tasks through the use of new high-tech tools. > - Zapier automations are an example of automating the digital movement of information on a machine. > - Auto complete features on email clients like Gmail and tightly integrated note capture technologies also fall into this category. > - While they can be useful for pain point reduction, their impact on actual output may be minor. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > This then brings us to the third category of productivity systems and tools. And that is those that speed up common tasks. So take something you're already doing and simply tries to make it faster or more efficient. Just typically through the use of new high technology tools. So for example, Zapier automations. I can now, when doing some sort of activity, have an automation on my computer where I press a button and it takes this file and renames it and automatically moves it over there. So you can start to automate some of the digital movement of information on your machine. Something like auto completes in an email client like Gmail does. That's an example of this category of productivity tools or system. I'm typing a common phrase. It finishes it for me. It saves me some time typing it. I'm typing an address in the two field and an email and it automatically suggests the name and I can click on it and that saves me a little bit of time. Tightly integrated note capture technologies fall into this. I have a complicated Evernote type setup where I want to just very easily have this workflow where I can take all this different type of information that gets sucked into this one system or it gets labeled and I can view it in different views. If you look at productivity YouTube is a real focus on this category of productivity tools and systems. I've taken these things I do and they're all hooked up and integrated and automated and I've reduced the number of clicks I need to do. I've reduced the number of type and I need to do. Everything moves really quickly to where it needs to go with minimum input from me. So here's the thing about this final category of productivity tools and systems. They can sometimes be useful largely where they overlap with pain point reduction. So these are techniques you could use for pain point reduction. But for the most part their impact on your actual output is minor. So it comes to producing things of value using your mind. ([Time 0:13:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9a840d3a-b832-4254-94f3-5c9da4e02814)) - Note: [[Automation]] should not be exhaustive. When it's used in [[Personal Knowledge Management|PKM]] too much, it can become [[Productivity Porn]] instead. --- Title: Ep. 251 — the Efficiency Trap Author: Deep Questions with Cal Newport Tags: readwise, podcasts date: 2024-01-30 --- # Ep. 251 — the Efficiency Trap  URL:: https://share.snipd.com/episode/0260b562-a743-46ed-a63a-520fe6d66da0 Author:: Deep Questions with Cal Newport ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > Productivity Systems: Tools that Speed up Common Tasks > Key takeaways: > - The third category of productivity systems and tools speed up common tasks through the use of new high-tech tools. > - Zapier automations are an example of automating the digital movement of information on a machine. > - Auto complete features on email clients like Gmail and tightly integrated note capture technologies also fall into this category. > - While they can be useful for pain point reduction, their impact on actual output may be minor. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > This then brings us to the third category of productivity systems and tools. And that is those that speed up common tasks. So take something you're already doing and simply tries to make it faster or more efficient. Just typically through the use of new high technology tools. So for example, Zapier automations. I can now, when doing some sort of activity, have an automation on my computer where I press a button and it takes this file and renames it and automatically moves it over there. So you can start to automate some of the digital movement of information on your machine. Something like auto completes in an email client like Gmail does. That's an example of this category of productivity tools or system. I'm typing a common phrase. It finishes it for me. It saves me some time typing it. I'm typing an address in the two field and an email and it automatically suggests the name and I can click on it and that saves me a little bit of time. Tightly integrated note capture technologies fall into this. I have a complicated Evernote type setup where I want to just very easily have this workflow where I can take all this different type of information that gets sucked into this one system Or it gets labeled and I can view it in different views. If you look at productivity YouTube is a real focus on this category of productivity tools and systems. I've taken these things I do and they're all hooked up and integrated and automated and I've reduced the number of clicks I need to do. I've reduced the number of type and I need to do. Everything moves really quickly to where it needs to go with minimum input from me. So here's the thing about this final category of productivity tools and systems. They can sometimes be useful largely where they overlap with pain point reduction. So these are techniques you could use for pain point reduction. But for the most part their impact on your actual output is minor. So it comes to producing things of value using your mind. ([Time 0:13:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9a840d3a-b832-4254-94f3-5c9da4e02814)) Note: [[Automation]] should not be exhaustive. When it's used in [[Personal Knowledge Management|PKM]] too much, it can become [[Productivity Porn]] instead.