Productivity has nothing to do with how much you do, and everything to do with how much you accomplish. The three ingredients of productivity are your time, attention, and energy. Managing your attention and energy not time is crucial to being productive. Managing your time becomes important only after you understand how much energy and focus you will have throughout the day. By being more productive you can earn more money and build wealth.
Productivity has nothing to do with how much you do, and everything to do with how much you accomplish.
The Productivity Project
Chris Bailey
Rule of 3
The absolute best technique I’ve found to work deliberately and with intention, every day is the Rule of 3. You decide at the beginning of each day, what three things you want to do by the end of the day. You want to extend the idea to the start of every week, month, and year. Set the three tasks you want to do for the week and day. If you want to work deliberately and do more, the rule of 3 is an uber productivity hack.
Managing Energy
Energy is the fuel you burn throughout the day to be productive, and without it, your productivity is toast.
You must do the most mentally demanding tasks on your Biological Prime Time. It is in the morning for me. During your Biological Prime Time (BPT), schedule time in your calendar to work on your three most important tasks. You want to handle the tasks that need the most energy and focus.
You need to block off your Biological Prime Time (BPT) in your calendar. Keep that time open for the high-impact tasks and projects that will come your way. Be defensive of your Biological Prime Time (BPT). It is your time to be ultra-productive. For example, you can create content in the morning. And schedule your meetings and appointments together so when you switch gears, you can tackle them all at once.
Managing Focus
One of the best ways to maintain focus is through Single-tasking. It is effective in taming a wandering mind and carve out more attentional space.
The Pomodoro technique is a simple but effective technique for Single-tasking. You simply decide on what task to undertake and set a timer for 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of break.
Mindfulness can be an effective process to strengthen your attention muscles. Mindfulness is simply Single-tasking. You can carve out space around tasks, which lets you become aware of what you’re feeling and what you’re thinking about.
Two effective techniques for generating ideas are walking or sitting in an undistracted place. You may sit for about 15 minutes and writing whatever ideas come to mind.
Exercise
Exercise is worth your time and is one of the best things you can do to become more productive. The more active you are, the more energy you’ll have to burn. It allows your brain to fight stress in a productive and controlled way.
Sleep
Sleep is one of the best and simplest ways of exchanging your time for energy. As Chris Bailey puts it “for every hour of sleep you miss, you lose at least two hours of productivity. The costs associated with not getting enough sleep are that great”.
The key to a good night’s sleep is how early you get to bed. In other words, to get enough sleep, going to bed at the right time is key. How early you go to sleep and not how much longer you sleep in the morning. You must be consistent in going to bed early and rising early.
Maintenance Tasks
Maintenance tasks are essential because they support your personal life and work. These tasks include activities such as clearing out your inbox, cutting your nails, sorting through mail, preparing lunches, and buying groceries.
You can handle maintenance tasks in two ways. Either create a Maintenance Day or a Maintenance List. I have my maintenance day on Saturday. I collect all my low-return maintenance tasks on a list. The list includes everything from going grocery shopping to cutting my nails and do them all on Saturday.
Batching or lumping together your maintenance tasks-whether on a Maintenance Day or with a Maintenance List-helps you eliminate spending too much time on them.
My Take
The most effective way to stay productive is by managing your energy and focus not your time.By being productive you can earn more money and build wealth.
Practical Insights
- Go for a run or walk to improve your thinking
- Earn more money and build wealth
- Practice meditation to improve your attention muscle
- Check my email three times every week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon at a specific time (3 pm or 4 pm).
- Keep email reply to a maximum of five sentences
- Drink only water and little to no coffee
- You need to prioritize by separating your tasks from high value to low value.
- Exercising or playing sports
- Investing in a creative hobby
- Spending time with friends and family
- Going for a massage
Buy the Book:
Book Link #ad: The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey
