• Level 1. You want the person to do exactly what you’ve asked them to do—no more, no less.
• Level 2. You want the person to examine or research a topic and report back to you.
• Level 3. You’re giving the person more room to p...

You need to systematically decide what deserves your attention now, what deserves your attention later, and what doesn’t deserve your attention at all.

How to do a weekly review:

• List Your Biggest Wins
• Review the Prior Week
• Review Your Lists and Notes
• Chec...

Spend 95% of your time on Quadrant 1 and 2 activities. Clear Quadrant 3 tasks quickly (delegate what you can) and eliminate all Quadrant 4 tasks.

How to design your day:

Plan days solely focused on tasks and refuse any meeting requests for that day

Shoo...

• Fight technology with technology. Example: _Freedom _lets you customize what apps and websites you can access during dedicated periods of deep work.
• Listen to the right music. Background music that’s familiar, repetitive, relatively simple, and not...

• Take responsibility for making the commitment
• Reaffirm your willingness to honour your commitment
• Explain why honouring your commitment is not the best outcome for the other party
• Offer to help solve the problem with them

How to create a Not-To-Do ...

• Limit instant communication. Turn off your notifications and opt for delayed communication whenever possible.
• Proactively set and enforce boundaries. Inform the relevant people you’re going offline for a period to focus on by setting an autorespond...

Start by defining what your productivity ideal looks like

Then break it down into a few powerful and memorable words

Finally, clarify the stakes by outlining exactly what you stand to gain if you achieve that vision and what you will lose if you don’t

If we want to be free to focus, we must eliminate everything standing in our way. That doesn’t mean simply saying no to a lot of bad ideas; it also means turning down a ton of good ideas.

Everything outside your Desire Zone is a possible candidate for elimination.

The...

• Sleep. 7-10 hours per night. Turn off screens an hour before bedtime.
• Eat. Eat natural foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, and meats. Be mindful when eating out.
• Move. Exercise itself is an energizer. Physical activi...

• Self. Use rituals to make it easier for you to follow through on your highest priorities. The 4 Foundational Rituals: morning, evening, workday startup, and workday shutdown.
• Template. Automate repetitive tasks with templates.
...

• Decide what to delegate.
• Select the best person.
• Communicate the workflow.
• Provide the necessary resources.
• Specify the delegation-level
• Give them room to operate.
• Check in and provide feedback as needed.

Design your work to focus on just one thing at a time.

• Batching: lumping similar tasks together and doing them in a dedicated block of time
• MegaBatching: organizing entire days around similar activities to enable you to stay focused and buil...

In a world where information is freely available, focus becomes one of the most valuable commodities in the workplace. 

Productivity is not about getting more things done; it’s about getting the right things done.

The core idea is a productivity system to help you focus on working on ...

Formulate: Decide What You Want

True productivity starts with being clear on what you truly want. 

The objective of productivity shouldn’t be efficiency or success, but freedom. Productivity should ultimately give you back more time, not require more of you.

Fre...

• Desire Zone. Where your passion and proficiency intersect. Here is where you make your most significant contributions.
• Distraction Zone. Things you are passionate about but have little proficiency for.
• Disinterest Zone. Th...

• Stages. Decide for each day if you’ll be Front Stage, Back Stage, or Off Stage. Reserve at least two days for Front Stage.
• Themes. Indicate what type of activities you’ll do on individual days during certain blocks of time. An easy way to start is to...

You can evaluate tasks, activities, and opportunities based on two key criteria:

• Passion: work you love and energizes you
• Proficiency: how well you actually do something that generates results that other people can measure and reward