There have been 3 Eras of Productivity in modern times, each defined by a seminal book:

近代以来，生产力有3个时代，每一个时代都有一部开创性的著作来定义。

The Values-First Era at the dawn of corporate America told us that character was the most important thing. If you were a virtuous person, living according to principles and high ideals, you’d be successful. But then the cutthroat corporate culture of the 1980’s set in, and everyone realized they had to look out for their own interests.

The Goals-First Era came next, proclaiming that we should have clear goals to help focus our efforts. No one was going to give us a handout, so we had to ruthlessly drive toward the outcomes we wanted to happen. But goals too lost their luster. As the new millennium began and the uncertainty in the world spun seemingly out of control, we started looking for a process to follow.

We are now deep in the throes of the Process-First Era. A little over halfway through, if the average 25-year cycle holds. People march under the banner of their favorite process: Theory of Constraints, Six Sigma, Design Thinking, Agile/Scrum, Getting Things Done, Lean Startup, Habit Loop. Every aspect of modern work is being systematically distilled down to 5 steps that promise results if you’ll only follow the process

美国企业时代的价值优先告诉我们，人品是最重要的。如果你是一个有品德的人，按照原则和崇高的理想生活，你就会成功。但后来80年代的企业文化开始了，每个人都意识到要为自己的利益着想。

接下来，目标优先来了，宣称我们应该有明确的目标来帮助我们集中精力。没有人会给我们施舍，所以我们必须无情地朝着我们想要的结果去努力。但是，目标也失去了光泽。随着新千年的到来，世界的不确定性似乎失去了控制，我们开始寻找一个可以遵循的过程。

现在，我们已经深入到了过程优先。如果按照25年的平均周期来计算，已经过了一半多一点。人们打着自己喜欢的过程的旗号前进。约束理论、六西格玛、设计思维、敏捷/Scrum、Getting Things Done、精益创业、Habit Loop。现代工作的每一个方面都被系统地提炼成5个步骤，只要你愿意按照流程去做，就一定会有结果。

When it comes to personal productivity, the Process-First Era is most clearly manifested in our obsession with habits. Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit (Amazon Affiliate Link) in 2012 kicked off a flurry of thought pieces, habit change frameworks, and products. Silicon Valley jumped on the bandwagon with a conference dedicated to creating habit-forming products. A stream of startups created wearable devices promising to help you stick to good habits.

The appeal of process-based habits is obvious: replacing a far-off outcome with a daily action makes it seem far more manageable. It gives us something immediate to focus on, in the midst of a highly uncertain environment. It distinguishes the fundamental building blocks of behavior out of which big achievements are made. The consensus is clear: goals are dangerous and unproductive — we should create habits instead.

说到个人生产力，"过程第一 "时代最明显地体现在我们对习惯的迷恋上。Charles Duhigg的书The Power of Habit (Amazon Affiliate Link)在2012年掀起了一系列的思想品类、习惯改变框架和产品的热潮。硅谷也加入到了这一行列，举办了一场会议，致力于创造习惯养成产品。一大群初创公司创建了可穿戴设备，承诺帮助你坚持良好的习惯。

基于过程的习惯的吸引力是显而易见的：用一个日常的行动来代替一个遥远的结果，让它看起来更容易管理。在高度不确定的环境中，它给了我们一些可以直接关注的东西。它将行为的基本构件区分开来，而大的成就就是从这些构件中产生的。共识是明确的：目标是危险的、无益的--我们应该养成习惯。

But I think we’ve gone overboard in our love affair with habits. Discrete achievements still matter. I don’t care that I wrote X number of words per day — I care that I’ve published a book. I don’t care that I dedicated Y minutes to prospecting new clients — I care that I have a client list.

We don’t need to throw the whole concept of goals overboard in order to start making progress. We need to reinvent what goals are and how they’re formulated in a radically different environment than the one in which they were conceived.