The productivity hack no one wants to talk about

Welcome. I’m Anna Codrea-Rado and this is my newsletter about the behind-the-scenes of my creative career.

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The productivity hack no one wants to talk about

The complicated relationship between efficiency and wealth

Anna Codrea-Rado

Aug 20

People like to ask me for advice about getting stuff done – and I love to oblige. If the Pomodoro Technique did brand partnerships, I’d be its biggest shill.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe in the power of productivity advice – getting up early, eliminating distractions and lasering your focus does yield results. But lately, I can’t shake some nagging, uncomfortable, questions. Are my recent professional achievements down to efficiency, or was it money that made the biggest difference? Did I earn my productive output, or did I buy it? Is "have money" the biggest productivity hack that no one wants to talk about?

I explored this idea in a personal essay for Business Insider recently, putting my own relationship between productivity and wealth under the microscope. It all started last year when I hired a part-time bookkeeper and I realised, "Oh, it's a hell of a lot easier to manage my time when I'm paying someone else to do my admin." As I write that, I’m embarrassed at how obvious it sounds. Although I could be forgiven; few (if any) articles about the daily routines of the world’s top CEOs mention how much work gets delegated while they’re banning meetings and not checking emails until noon.

It's a tricky conversation to have, but one that I think is important. Because here’s the thing – there’s only so much control we have over our personal productivity levels. To quote from my own story:

Many are hindered by organizational issues that the rich can buy their way out of — by having the financial resources to quit a job and work for themselves or by having the harder-to-quantify social capital that helps some manoeuvre through a company with greater ease than others.
It's not only organizational constraints that impinge on our ability to be productive but also the headwinds of gender-, class-, and race-based socioeconomic systems.
The answer is more transparency — or, at the very least, context.

So, the next time someone asks me for my top tip on managing one’s time, I’m going to tell it to them straight: have money.

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💌 P.S.

WHAT I’M UP TO

I’m back home now after a three-week visit to family abroad. Here’s a picture of my grandfather with a hand-delivered copy of my book. It was an important reminder of what a privilege it is to do a job that I can pick up and take with me anywhere

FROM ME TO YOU

“That’s the real factor determining whether you can take productivity advice at face value: privilege. Let’s talk about that — who has it and who doesn’t, and what you can do when you don’t.” In researching my productivity and wealth essay, I re-read this brilliant NYT piece by Alan Henry from 2019 about succeeding when you’re marginalised or discriminated against at work
“During the Q&A one student asked what had been the biggest obstacle to my career … I think he was expecting me to say something about writers’ block, or discipline, or some minor creative quibble, but I answered, very honestly, money. People actually gasped.” The Guyliner calling bullshit on the idea that money can’t buy happiness. (Via Otegha Uwagba’s now-shuttered newsletter 😭)
I’m endlessly fascinated by the Islander-to-Influencer career trajectory that reality shows like Love Island offer contestants, so was super interested in Lauren O’Neill’s investigation into the personal and professional costs of going on these shows
“I felt as if someone had put a wheel lock on my life and my tyres were grinding in reverse.” Sirin Kale on quitting a job she hated is brilliant
As someone who spends too much time on YouTube, I thoroughly enjoyed Sinéad Stubbins’ confronting analysis of her obsession with Alexa Chung’s hair tutorials
In my continuing quest to read Great Books That Aren’t New, I just finished Jon Ronson’s Psychopath Test. I didn’t realise how much of it is about how bonkers journalists/journalism is and I’m very here for it
If you’re interested in starting your own newsletter, Substack is currently running a great series sharing all the resources you need to get started (and have been kind enough to use my work as an example in the materials!)
Every now and then, you stumble across something delightful and charming on the internet. This interactive of the hidden melodies of subways from around the world is that.

FROM YOU TO ME

In my last instalment, I wrote about my writing habits. Here’s Dalia Dawood, a London-based freelance journalist, with a practical tip for cracking on with an assignment when you’re up against self-doubt:

If it's a 1,000-word article, I'll set aside the first hour or so to come up with a rough structure for what to include. Then, I'll break up the piece into smaller, manageable chunks: 30 mins = 100-word intro, one hour = 200 words on X section, etc. Somehow, it feels less daunting and more achievable than just saying to myself 'write the whole thing today and revise/edit/chop it tomorrow'. I don't necessarily do it chronologically either, often I leave the intro til the end, for example.

So, tell me. What came first for you, the money or the productivity? Post your thoughts as a comment or just hit reply to this email and let me know. I’ll share my favourite in the next issue.

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