This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.
ABOUT
- Title: The Productivity Project
- Sub-title: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy
- Author: Chris Bailey
- About the author: Chris Bailey is the creator of the blog ayearofproductivity.com, where we has written well over 200,000 words on productivity. He turned down two job offers to embark on a year-long journey of productivity experiments to learn and become as productive as possible. He has been featured on popular media outlets including The New York Times, The Huffington Post, TED, Lifehacker, and much more.
- Pages: 304
- Published: 2017
- Link to book
HIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY
RECOMMENDATION
TOP 20 TAKEAWAYS
1. Productivity tactics exist to help you accomplish everything you need to do in less time, so you can spend more time doing what is actually important to you.
2. Productivity has nothing to do with how much work you do, but how much you accomplish.
3. The three ingredients to productivity are time, energy, and attention, and they are all very interconnected.
4. The best way to measure productivity is to ask yourself a simple question at the end of each day: Did I get done what I intended to?
5. To boost productivity, you have to identify the most high-impact and important tasks and devote all your time, energy, and attention to those tasks. Forget, minimize, or outsource low-impact tasks.
6. The best technique to work deliberately every day is to follow the Rule of Three. Before your day, decide what three things you are going to accomplish. Do the same for the week at the beginning of each week.
7. We all have our own “Biological Prime Time,” which is the time(s) of day where we have the highest energy levels and focus. Energy naturally fluctuates over the course of the day so you want to work on your most important and intensive tasks during that time.
8. Nearly everyone procrastinates. The science behind procrastination comes down to a task’s attributes. A task that has these six attributes is more likely to be one you procrastinate on: boring, frustrating, difficult, unstructured or ambiguous, lacking in personal meaning, lacking in intrinsic rewards.
9. The limbic system and pre-frontal cortex are two areas of the brain that battle with each other when you make decisions. The limbic system is the emotional, instinctual part of the brain. The prefrontal cortex is the logical part of your brain that thinks long-term.
10. The best way to keep the internet from wasting your time is to simply disconnect from it when working on high-impact tasks and to disconnect in general throughout your day.
11. Research shows that the character trait most highly correlated with procrastination is impulsiveness.
12. Working longer hours can make you feel like you are more productive, but in reality, you won’t achieve much more than you will when working far less hours with more focus and attention.
13. Maintenance tasks are things like laundry, watering plants, and cleaning your inbox. Rather than doing a few of them every day, schedule one day where you buckle down and get all your maintenance tasks done in a single day. You’ll get more done per unit of time and your mind will not have to think about them during the week.
14. Simplifying what you take on will help you perform better on what you do decide to take on. It will create more attentional space around these activities, which can allow you to think more deeply about them and focus better. Shrink the unimportant.
15. Externalize your tasks by writing them down or keeping them on your phone through apps. This reduces stress and can help your mental space and organization. The brain is meant for creating ideas, not holding them.
16. There are seven areas that we devote attention and energy to every day: mind, body, emotions, career, finances, relationships, and fun. Listing your commitments to each will allow you to see a portfolio of your life. It will enable you to take a step back and see the big picture.
17. Create room for your brain to let ideas flow to you. Think of how ideas always come to you during things such as a shower. Go on walks, take a shower, go walk through an art gallery, or simply sit in your home. This carves out time to let your mind wander.
18. Practicing meditation and mindfulness can make you more productive by making you calmer, happier, and more focused. Research shows that your performance increases substantially when you are happier.
19. Pay attention to what you eat, what you drink, and how often you exercise. This will help your mind and body, which will ultimately help your productivity.
20. A downside to committing to being more productive is that you will be hard on yourself when you are not. It is important to not be so hard on yourself. Stay happy along the way.
What I Liked
Benefits For Your Life and Career
10 ACTIONS YOU SHOULD TAKE
1. Begin meditating. It doesn’t need to take long and it doesn’t need to be complicated. Simply sit for 5-10 minutes and focus on your breath. Keep your mind from wandering and bring it back in when it does.
2. In addition to optimizing your time, optimize your attention and energy as well to become your most productive.
3. After each day, ask yourself “Did I get done what I intended to?”
4. Identify your most important and high-impact tasks and focus your efforts there. Don’t let the unimportant take away your time, attention, and energy.
5. Before each day and at the start of each week, identify and write down what three tasks you want to accomplish.
6. For a week or two, keep track of your energy levels throughout the day. You will be able to identify your Biological Prime Time. Once you know when that is, you can shift working on your most important tasks during that time.
7. Overcome procrastination by combating the six triggers of procrastination. Think of ways to make a task more attractive and how you can take care of each trigger.
8. Don’t use your phone or look at it between 8:00 pm and 8:00 am.
9. Work less to do more. Set shorter deadlines and create urgency (see Parkinson’s Law). Use Pareto’s 80/20 principle to work on the most important.
10. Go on walks more frequently. Don’t listen to music. Simply let your mind wander.
RESOURCES
The Productivity Project can be found on Amazon at this link here if you are interested in reading.