I’m convinced that investing time and resources in improving productivity (especially early in your career where the gains might last for longer), including perhaps via coaching, will often be worthwhile. But when I have looked at coaching sites, they seem to be phrased in terms of addressing pre-existing issues.
E.g. from your site: “swift behavioral changes to increase productivity, decrease procrastination and anxiety, and remove paralyzing stress (if present)”. I have no problems with procrastination, anxiety, or stress. I think I’m pretty productive already, I’m just hoping to get better.
Would you still recommend reaching out to coaches and having the free calls, even if 1) I’m not sure what I’d gain from their coaching, 2) I don’t match up very well with some/all of the examples described on their site? Why/why not?
In your case, a run-of-the-mill productivity coach, who focuses on good habits, may not be ideal: It would take a lot of effort for small gains (due to diminishing returns).
But you could try coaches who aim to help you in mid- and long-term planning and strategies, and/or with clarifying values and thought patterns that influence those larger decisions. To give you two examples from within the EA/rationalist community (more names here), Lynette Bye has written about how you can prioritize projects on her blog and Pamela J Hobart introduces herself as a “philosophical life coach who helps intellectuals to clarify their thinking and values”. Depending on your line of work, consider looking into consultants to get radically different viewpoints on longer term planning because being extremely efficient in the small scale of hours or days won’t matter if you’re working towards the wrong goal (or the right one with the wrong strategy).
About your two last questions: Some people are happy to meander through existence to chance upon an interesting self-discovery. Based on your question, my guess is that you are not one of them, and therefore randomly meeting coaches will just feel like a frustrating waste of time. So if you’re not sure what you’d gain from a given coach and/or you don’t resonate with their public materials, this is a great way of discarding their names when doing your coach search!
No major change in thoughts I don’t think. I reached out to Lynette and it didn’t seem like a great fit. I’ve also reached out to another coaching service mentioned on the Forum and have an introductory call soon. But I haven’t been pursuing this very proactively, and haven’t actually had any coaching yet so there hasn’t been anything that would lead me to change my views much.
I’m convinced that investing time and resources in improving productivity (especially early in your career where the gains might last for longer), including perhaps via coaching, will often be worthwhile. But when I have looked at coaching sites, they seem to be phrased in terms of addressing pre-existing issues.
E.g. from your site: “swift behavioral changes to increase productivity, decrease procrastination and anxiety, and remove paralyzing stress (if present)”. I have no problems with procrastination, anxiety, or stress. I think I’m pretty productive already, I’m just hoping to get better.
Would you still recommend reaching out to coaches and having the free calls, even if 1) I’m not sure what I’d gain from their coaching, 2) I don’t match up very well with some/all of the examples described on their site? Why/why not?
In your case, a run-of-the-mill productivity coach, who focuses on good habits, may not be ideal: It would take a lot of effort for small gains (due to diminishing returns).
But you could try coaches who aim to help you in mid- and long-term planning and strategies, and/or with clarifying values and thought patterns that influence those larger decisions. To give you two examples from within the EA/rationalist community (more names here), Lynette Bye has written about how you can prioritize projects on her blog and Pamela J Hobart introduces herself as a “philosophical life coach who helps intellectuals to clarify their thinking and values”. Depending on your line of work, consider looking into consultants to get radically different viewpoints on longer term planning because being extremely efficient in the small scale of hours or days won’t matter if you’re working towards the wrong goal (or the right one with the wrong strategy).
About your two last questions: Some people are happy to meander through existence to chance upon an interesting self-discovery. Based on your question, my guess is that you are not one of them, and therefore randomly meeting coaches will just feel like a frustrating waste of time. So if you’re not sure what you’d gain from a given coach and/or you don’t resonate with their public materials, this is a great way of discarding their names when doing your coach search!
Thank you! Great points. Based on your post, this comment, and some brief additional reflection, I’ve booked an intro call with Lynette.
Hi Jamie, it’s been about a year and I wondered if you had new thoughts based on your experience?
No major change in thoughts I don’t think. I reached out to Lynette and it didn’t seem like a great fit. I’ve also reached out to another coaching service mentioned on the Forum and have an introductory call soon. But I haven’t been pursuing this very proactively, and haven’t actually had any coaching yet so there hasn’t been anything that would lead me to change my views much.