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What's Microproductivity? The Small Habit That Will Lead You To Big Wins
Your Brain Is Limited
So by breaking a larger project down into smaller to-dos, it will be easier for you to identify what step you should take next.
These smaller steps should be written down on a list.
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Key Ideas
Excuse-making
It's a defense mechanism you use in the battle between your positive self-identity and the common challenges of everyday life.
This habit comes down to an inherent need to protect your ego.
The self-serving bias
It encourages you to claim your successes and to deflect your failures.
When something good happens, you take the credit, but when something bad happens, you blame it on something out of your control.
Common types of excuses
- Lies: This is one of the worst types of excuses—a straight-up lie.
- Self-handicapping excuses: Such as “I don’t have the skills to do that”, or “That’s not my job.”
- Blame-shifting excuses: Instead of putting the blame on your lack of abilities, you accuse external factors for your missteps or lack of performance.
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Key Ideas
Completion bias
It's where your brain specifically seeks the hit of dopamine you get from crossing off small tasks and ignores working on larger, more complex ones.
Small wins and motivation
Out of all the things that can boost our mood and motivation, the single most important is making progress on meaningful work.
Just like we love crossing small tasks off our to-do list, being able to see that we’re even one step closer to a big goal is a huge motivator. The problem is that these “small wins” are hard to measure.
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Key Ideas
'Eat that Frog'
This is a productivity method developed by Brian Tracy. The 'frog' refers to the most important and most impactful task you have to complete.
If you work on it first thing every morning, you'll be more productive and successful, and you'll reach your goals more quickly.
Clarify your goals
If you don't know what your goals are, most likely you won't be able to identify and prioritize the specific tasks you need to work on to achieve those goals.
Write your major goals down and break them into tasks. Your goal tasks are your frogs, the things you want to work on first thing every day for greater productivity and success.
Think long-term
... to make better short-term decisions.
If you question the consequences of doing/not doing a to-do before you start on it, it not only makes it easier to find your frogs, but it also makes it easier to find time-wasting tasks that are better deleted from your list or delegated to someone else.