<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Building Mental Narratives: Productive individuals construct mental models, visualizing their day as a story with specific targets, which helps them stay focused and methodical.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Control Over Speed: Real productivity is not about being the busiest, but about slowing down to follow the mental model, staying in control, and methodically accomplishing important tasks.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Preparedness and Mindfulness: Using “if-then” scenarios to plan for various situations and making intentional choices throughout the day can lead to better focus, increased mindfulness, and purposeful action.</li></ol>

Using Positive Mental Models To Improve Focus

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Beyond Work: Productivity transcends work-related achievements; it’s about efficiently managing life’s daily stresses to accomplish tasks without compromising what’s truly important to us.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Understanding Priorities: Recognizing and prioritizing what matters most, whether it’s family, health, or work, is central to being productive.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Optimizing Resources: Productivity involves making the best use of our energy, intellect, and time to achieve the most meaningful outcomes with minimal effort, as described by Charles Duhigg in ‘Smarter, Faster, Better’.</li></ol>

What Does It Mean To Be Productive?

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Autonomy and Meaning: Embracing personal autonomy and finding meaning in our actions are key to boosting motivation, as they allow us to feel in control rather than being passive executors.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Choice Over Chore: Viewing tasks as choices rather than chores can significantly increase motivation, as the act of choosing engages the brain’s motivation centers and leads to proactive behavior.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Reframing Tasks: By reframing tasks as meaningful decisions and connecting them to larger goals, we can transform chores into self-motivated actions and live more productively and richly.</li></ol>

Motivation Is About Making Choices

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Stretch and SMART Goals: Distinguish between ambitious ‘stretch goals’ and smaller, actionable objectives, using the SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound) to create a structured approach.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Motivation Through Achievement: Setting and achieving smaller goals helps maintain momentum and motivation, contributing to the larger aim of fulfilling stretch goals.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Incremental Progress: Break down large goals into manageable parts and focus on making small but significant steps to create a domino effect towards achieving the ultimate objective.</li></ol>

How To Set The Right Goals

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Psychological Safety: A successful team is built on psychological safety, where team members feel secure to express ideas without fear of negative consequences</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Equality and Listening: The key elements of psychological safety are equality in conversation—ensuring everyone speaks roughly the same amount—and ostentatious listening where team members actively listen to each other</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Culture Over Personalities: Contrary to common belief the success of a team is less about the individual personalities and more about the team’s culture and the quality of interactions among its members</li></ol>

A Productive Team is a Psychologically Safe Team

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Productivity Redefined: Charles Duhigg presents productivity as a means to achieve success with less stress, emphasizing the importance of a managed mindset over mere to-do lists.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Autonomy and Meaning: The book highlights that having control over one’s work and finding meaning in it are essential for motivation and maintaining productivity.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Goal Setting and Teamwork: Effective goal setting, using mental models for focus, and building high-performing teams are crucial strategies for enhancing performance and achieving long-term success.</li></ol>

<ol>
<li>Strategic Choices Over Long Hours: Productivity is not about working longer, but about making strategic choices that align with our goals and values, leading to effective use of time.</li>
<li>Planning and Mental Models: Taking the time to plan and create positive mental models increases focus, sets better goals, and prepares us for success, rather than just appearing busy.</li>
<li>Psychological Safety and Team Success: For team environments, fostering psychological safety is crucial for productivity, as it encourages a culture of open communication and mutual respect.</li>
</ol>

Conclusion

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Power of Habit and “master of the life hack” (GQ) explores the fascinating science of productivity and offers real-world takeaways to apply your life, whether you’re chasing peak productivity or simply trying to get back on track. “Duhigg melds cutting-edge science, deep reporting, and wide-ranging stories to give us a fuller, more human way of thinking about how productivity actually happens.”—Susan Cain, author of Quiet   In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Charles Duhigg explained why we do what we do. In Smarter Faster Better, he applies the same relentless curiosity and rich storytelling to how we can improve at the things we do.    At the core of Smarter Faster Better are eight key concepts—from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making—that explain why some people and companies get so much done. Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics—as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters—this book reveals that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don’t merely act differently. They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways.   Smarter Faster Better is a story-filled exploration of the science of productivity, one that can help us learn to succeed with less stress and struggle—and become smarter, faster, and better at everything we do.

productivity

Productivity

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Remote Work

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Personal Development

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Books

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Human Resources

Charles Duhigg is an American journalist and non-fiction author. He was a reporter for The New York Times, currently writes for The New Yorker Magazine and is the author of two books on habits and productivity, titled The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business and Smarter Faster Better.