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Want to do 160 Productive Hours a Month? You Need Systems, Not Goals
Systems vs. goals
- If you do something every day, it’s a system.
- If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal.
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Key Ideas
Do what is important
Want to be more productive? Don't ask how to make something more efficient until after you've asked "Do I need to do this at all?"
17 hours of unproductiveness weekly
People work an average of 45 hours a week; they consider about 17 of those hours to be unproductive.
Tim Ferriss's tips for productivity
- Manage your moods: If you start the day calm it's easy to get the right things done and focus.
- Don't check email in the morning.
- Before you try to do it faster, ask whether it should be done at all.
- Focus is nothing more than eliminating distractions.
- Have a personal system; most productive people have a routine.
- Define your goals for the day the night before.
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Key Ideas
Measure Output, Not Input
Systems are the best way to progress since they reward effort and we control all the variables. However, we need to have a sense of direction in those efforts, to know what we are trying to...
Use the 80/20 Rule
... to constantly question yourself if your focus, time or money is on the things that generate the majority of the results.
The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle states: 80% of the output or results will come from 20% of the input or action. The little things are the ones that account for the majority of the results.
Reserve Mornings for Deep Work
Our working memory, alertness, and concentration gradually improve a couple of hours after waking up, peaking at about mid-morning - our brain’s natural peak productivity period.
Take advantage of this state, by scheduling your most important work for this period. Focus on performing Deep Work, meaning you get to work free of distraction for a long period of time.
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Key Ideas
The Pressure Of Time
Most leaders have familiar approaches to managing time: setting goals, planning, delegating, tracking commitments, and creating to-do lists. While these approaches do help in self-organization, the...
Sustainable Productivity
Instead of increasing the number of productive hours, we can focus on getting the right things done in a timely way. We also need to restore and balance ourselves, our colleagues, family and environment, instead of a neurotic or pathological focus on deadlines.
Find out what's truly important to us and use the finite resource of time wisely.
Phantom Workload
Phantom workload looks like real work but results in massive unproductivity and even conflict in an organization. The pressure to meet unrealistic expectations causes a vicious cycle of further workload.
Leaders need to take a hard look at what is being avoided or not addressed. Facing difficult tasks that were 'swept under the carpet' earlier strengthens them further to make hard decisions and face difficult people and situations.