‘Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.’
– Confucius
Working in this way is liberating, fun and super-productive. Sometimes as a Productivity Ninja you will seem to others like you have special powers. Sometimes it will even seem that way to you.
However, a Ninja is very different from a superhero. A Ninja is just a regular guy or girl, but with tools and skills and a very special mindset. There are no super powers and no kryptonite.
As a Ninja, you’ll develop a reputation as someone who delivers, someone who is reliable, makes good decisions and takes their work seriously. Apart from when you wear your Ninja mask. Keep that private.
Ninjas are passionate, indispensable and calm under pressure. Ninjas get things done in a way that seems, well, magical.
As a Ninja, what were once routine tasks become opportunities for fun, discovery, experimentation and the unleashing of your inner geek. Thinking about the process of your work as well as the work itself will help you to love what you do, whatever that may be. You will gain excitement and motivation from being better at doing what you were doing before; you’ll be less stressed about it; and you’ll experience a momentum in your work that you never thought possible. But it’s not all plain sailing either.
‘The best brewer sometimes makes bad beer.’
– German proverb
By seeking ultra-productivity, using unorthodox means and for a host of other more ‘human’ reasons, Ninjas are prone to screwing up once in a while. In old time management books, the time
management ‘gurus’ would paint themselves as a picture of superhero perfection. They’d give you detailed planners to fill in, have you performing high fives in celebration of continuous massive achievement and leave you as the reader wondering how on earth they managed the impossible. Well, don’t believe a word of it. We’re all prone to screwing up – no matter how organized, how intelligent, or how seemingly perfect we are or are trying to be. Yes, you too.
We can aim for perfection and fail, or we can aim for Zen-like Calm, Ruthlessness, Weapon-savviness, Stealth and Camouflage, Unorthodoxy, Agility, Mindfulness and Preparedness, and succeed. Yes, we’ll make mistakes. No, we won’t be perfect. But what we will do is increase productivity in ways you never thought possible before.
It simply isn’t possible for me to make you a superhero and if you want that, there are plenty of other books out there that will promise it but won’t deliver. It’s an unrealistic dream, a fantasy never fulfilled.
But it is possible that we can make you a Ninja.