If you want to understand the importance of collaboration in the workplace, just look at the tools you use. There’s Slack and other IM tools for constant communication. Email and project management tools to send updates and important information. And Google docs, Dropbox, and others for working in real-time.

Leverage is the secret weapon of productivity:

Automate one process, save hours every week, reinvest that time, repeat

An early workout every day beats 99.9% of productivity and health advice.

Keep it simple. People who get up early and workout are rarely poor performers in bad health.

periodic reminder: have you taken a minute to write down what your actual problems are lately? the practice of properly describing a problem often reveals its solution

Don't tell people what you're going to do. Tell people what you're doing. Life is a single-player game until you actually start playing.

I remember my boss used to say: "We don't have problems. We have situations."

That always changed the perspective from panic to action. Immediately.

It's rarely missing tactics that prevent people from succeeding.

More likely than not, it's something much deeper; inner work that has been neglected.

Tactics can be found in abundance online, in books, and on podcasts. But there's more to it.

Shift your focus from being busy to being impactful

Evaluate your daily activities not just by how much you've done, but by how much they contribute to your long-term vision

Success lies in the art of closing the loop

Start each week with an endgame in mind — a clear vision of what 'finished' looks like for you

You may have the best ideas in the world...

But if you don't have a system to bring those ideas to fruition, no one will ever know

Earlier you wake, the less Mondays suck.

Prioritize tasks based on impact, not just urgency

I don’t know of a better sleeping routine than being in bed by 10pm and waking up at 6am

If a task has been on your to-do list for over a week, break it down into smaller tasks and just focus on tackling one of those smaller tasks today

A not-to-do list is just as important as your to-do list

Getting up at 5am and working for 4 hours straight on deep work with no distractions is how you win

The only statistic you should care about is time-to-action.

Improving your urgency redefines your ability to get sh*t done.

Morning antistress tip.

Feeling overwhelmed by your to-do list?

Just rename it to "might-do list".

Feels immediately different, doesn't it?

Personal productivity is actually quite simple:

• Write down everything on your mind
• Identify the things that are active right now
• Choose which ones need to be done today
• Complete the thing before moving on to another
• Rinse and repeat

99% of your productivity relies on your ability to prioritize and then focus.

Expiring TODOs.

I came across the idea from @stephsmithio

These are TODOs that self-destruct after a specified period of time

Unfinished tasks clutter up mental space.

If you don't act on something within a month of thinking about it, trust me it is NOT important.

The people who can turn 30 minute meetings into 5 minute meetings are so great

Sunday is the reset day, the day you prep for the week

-Wash / lay out your clothes
-Plan your meals
-Get your groceries
-Schedule your time blocks
-Plan your workouts
-Set your budget
-Fill the gas tank
-Get your mind right

Preparation on Sunday = Success the rest of the week

If you are working on something technically challenging for multiple days, CLOSE YOUR TABS at end of day.

The next morning, bias to old ideas are gone and your brain will get the chance to develop new ideas and only most important ideas from yday surface.

The productivity system that makes me $1M/year:

(steal this)

1. Open apple notes.
2. Add the tasks that need to get done today.
3. Do them.

Productivity is one of my pet topics, because it's always dogged me a bit, especially early in my career. I'd pull long days and nights and then realize I only actually worked (as in, typing in code, debugging stuff, and thinking about problems and their solutions) maybe 20% of the time. Upon talking to coworkers, this seemed to be normal, a part of the expected friction costs incurred working in an office environment. Meetings, shooting the shit with coworkers, lunch, email, and, er, stuff.

The advice I find I have to give more frequently than any other in my career as a manager, a board member, an advisor, and a friend is for people to more directly leverage their leaders.

I deleted all productivity apps a while ago and I couldn’t be happier.

Using several apps to become more productive actually makes you unproductive. You waste valuable time that you could use for work.

Take a pen and a paper or simple note app, write down your tasks, and cross them when you finish. Simple and effective.

I hate calls. They kill my workflow.

That’s why I have a "zero-tolerance no meeting policy."

If we can’t complete a project without “hopping on a quick call”, we aren’t a fit.

Surprised by how many companies are cool with this.

Steve Jobs was into deep work and hands-on management before it was cool. What a memo from 1986

🤝

Years and years ago, I helped the Weekly World News make a book.

While their periodical was weekly, it certainly wasn’t news. They were just four people in a small office in Florida. They gleefully made stuff up every week. They had a few filing cabinets of stock photos, and they invented stories featuring UFOs, aliens, “scientists” (in quotation marks) and various other diversions for folks trapped in the checkout supermarket line.

There plenty of great books on strategy but they won’t help if you can’t ship

Been testing a simple productivity "hack".

Each AM, I pick todos. For each, I write an expected completion time + a total for the day.

As I go, I cross-ref predictions & actuals.

Been surprisingly motivating to try meeting the forecast and surfaces where time is being wasted.

Не можу думати, сидячи перед ноутбуком. Literally. Треба вставати і кудись йти, просто щоб почали з’являтись цікаві думки.

“I’m just so busy.” How many times have you heard a friend or coworker say this? Perhaps in a tone of exhaustion, but with a detectable hint of proud self-martyrdom? How many times have you said it yourself?

I practice a new habit: if I’m stressed or anxious - I work out. Been doing this for 2 months. Result -> best shape in 2 years.

No matter the size of the business, there'll always be an unlimited number of tasks left to do, processes left to improve, and contingencies left to plan. The work is truly never done, so regardless of how much effort is put in, you'll inevitably end the day unfinished. All you can control is what you're willing to let slide. Most days that should be most things.

Genius Execution > Genius Strategy

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is eliminate the task.

I'd always take 4 hours of intentional focussed work over 8 hours of unfocussed time

As a knowledge worker (developer, writer, creator, etc.) If you have zero distractions, and complete focus, it's really hard to work more than 4 hours in a day.

If you're working more than 8 hours in a day there's some gross inefficiencies. You're not working your brain enough.

The biggest transition for me when I started college was learning to get organized. There was a point when I couldn't just remember everything in my head. And having to constantly keep track of things was distracting me from whatever task I was doing at the moment.

So I tried various forms of todo lists, task trackers, and productivity apps. They were all discouraging because the things to do kept getting longer, and there were too many interrelated things like past meeting notes, calendar appointments, idea lists, and lab notebooks, which were all on different systems.

I gave up and started just tracking in a single text file and have been using it as my main productivity system for 14 years now. It is so essential to my work now, and has surprisingly scaled with a growing set of responsibilities, that I wanted to share this system. It's been my secret weapon.

If you’re like me, you’re maybe a jobbing dev taking on contracts and occasionally your own gigs (and by-and-large this works out OK) but maybe you secretly hate yourself for being terrible at estimation, and wish you were better at it.

If that sounds like you, read on!

My yoga teacher always starts class with this line:

"Congrats. The hardest part is over. You showed up."

I feel like that mindset applies to most other things.

Worrying about a task often is far worse than the task itself. Starting is the hardest part.

The secret is showing up every day and not looking for secrets.

When was your last vacation? When was your last weekday off? And did you actually allow yourself to enjoy that time away from your desk?

Считается, что продуктивность основывается на эффективном управлении временем. Казалось бы, все просто — меньше тратишь времени на ерунду, больше — на достижение своих целей. Однако, если посмотреть на опыт людей, добившихся выдающихся результатов в искусстве, политике и бизнесе, то становится понятно, что залог их успеха точно не в том, что они больше времени тратили на работу, чем остальные. Уинстон Черчилль стал выдающимся политиком, хотя работал не больше, чем его предшественники и последователи, а Элон Маск стал наиболее выдающимся современным предпринимателем, хотя тысячи других предпринимателей и стартаперов работали не меньшее количество часов над своими проектами.

My favorite productivity hack is saying no

Creatives have two ways of working: beer mode and coffee mode.

Anything done asynchronously is a form of automation.

You're replicating your current self to be available for a task in the future, w/o the need to be there.

Examples:

1. Recording a Loom is automation
2. Using a Calendly is automation
3. Writing a handbook is automation

The day you normalize 4 hours of focused work a day is the day your life will completely change.

You don't learn, then start. You start, then learn.

A framework to re-evaluate how you spend your most valuable resource: time.

Do I need this in my life? If no, eliminate.
If yes, ⬇️
Does this require critical thinking? If no, automate.
If yes, ⬇️
Am I the best person for this? If no, delegate.

Eliminate. Automate. Delegate. 🔁

In my lifetime I’ve tried a dozen todo apps. In the beginning they all seem different, novel and special. Slick UI, shortcuts, tags, subtasks, the list goes on and on.

But all our stories were the same: I start using the new app, then after awhile I stop using it.

Do the most important thing first each day and you'll never have an unproductive day.

To be more productive, eliminate distractions.

Imagine how effective you would be if you weren’t anxious all the time.

You can’t think and do product at the same time.

I am sad how well arbitrary deadlines work.

Discipline is a cheat code to life

A key to being able to get things done is to work with what you have.

I see a lot of people hold back from doing anything, because they’re waiting for the perfect thing to show up.

The perfect tool. The perfect project. The perfect idea. I call it perfection paralysis.

You probably couldn’t pull it off before but you probably can now if you’re WFH:

When you feel your energy wane, take an afternoon nap.

I bet you’ll get WAY more done in the day with a 20 minute break than you will trying to power through.

The difference between motion and action.

Motion:
-talk to a personal trainer
-research your book idea
-explore different types of meditation

Action:
-do 10 squats
-write 1 sentence
-meditate for 1 minute

Motion feels like progress. Action is progress.

The less choices you have to make everyday, the better

Make a few important decision everyday, autopilot the rest

A few good choices throughout the day will make for a better day

Which makes for a better week
Which makes for a better year
Which makes for a better life

3 Hard Truths You Must Accept:

1. Your mentality is a reflection of your daily habits.
2. Your physicality is a reflection of your daily habits.
3. Your spirituality is a reflection of your daily habits.

Improvement or decline is a reflection of your daily habits.

Capisce?

Tip: Break tasks you procrastinate into smaller, low-energy ones. It helps.

We procrastinate if a task is...

• Boring
• Frustrating
• Difficult
• Ambiguous / unstructured
• Lacks personal meaning
• Lacks reward (e.g isn't fun)

Knowing why helps.

Your job might be a series of tasks. Tasks are work where money is traded for time and effort. You put in a fixed amount of time, expending effort along the way, and you get paid. In the end, tasks are completed and it’s up to the boss to weave those tasks together into something useful.

Time management is one of those issues we all face, but (ironically) feel like we don’t have the time to address. But, as Benjamin Franklin once said, time is like money. Without being managed properly, how do you know where it’s going?

I have a confession to make: I’m the type of person who gets to inbox-zero daily. I sheepishly admit this, because in a world where busy equals productive, it almost seems like a dereliction of duty to not have an inbox bursting at the seams.

Okay I am okay at the productivity thing.

My philosophies:

• Trello everything
• Batch when possible
• If it isn't on my calendar, it won't get done
• Permanent do not disturb on everything

You can probably count on your fingers the number of times you’ve completed 8 hours of work in an 8-hour workday. Whether it’s endless meetings, constant emails, or coworkers popping in for a “quick chat,” your productivity rarely makes it through the day.

Your time is the most important asset you have.

When making plans, think big. When making progress, think small.

What’s the best time management strategy out there? Unfortunately, anyone who tells you they have the answer to that question is lying.

The ultimate productivity hack is saying no.

Not doing something will always be faster than doing it. This statement reminds me of the old computer programming saying, “Remember that there is no code faster than no code.”

Workspaces ranked by productivity:

1. shower
2. running
3. whiteboard
4. pen and paper
5. sleeping ...
6. on a computer

Consider two loading docks at small companies.

At the first, a tractor-trailer filled with heavy boxes shows up. The sole worker on the dock is tasked with unloading the trailer, asap.

Habits are easy to keep up as soon as you stop treating them like chores to reach a distant goal and start treating them like little adventures every single day.

The maximum success is reached when you are never busy.

It is easiest to do the most when you have nothing to do.

People tend to avoid the important work they fear by doing unimportant work that wears them out.

They suppress anxiety with exhaustion, but they do not address the source of the problem.

Недавно в очередной раз в разговоре всплыла тема использования мессенджеров в противовес электронной почте и я в очередной раз признался в сильной нелюбви к мессенджерам, которые требуют синхронного общения. То есть, если вам написали в мессенджер, то ждут ответа здесь и сейчас, тем более, что в большинстве мессенджеров видно, что вы сообщение получили и прочли.

Knowledge Work 101:

People over-estimate what they can accomplish with ten hours of distracted work and under-estimate what they can accomplish with two hours of undistracted work.

Focus is everything.

Since we launched Hill Charts in Basecamp we’ve been fielding many interesting questions. One common question is: how do we catch more problems in the uphill phase so they don’t surprise us later?

The interruptions and resulting small chunks of time are why you need to work 60 hour weeks to get 35 hours of actual work done.

When I don't have time to stop and reflect is when I most need to stop and reflect.

Last week I stumbled upon this article titled "GitLabbers share how to recognize burnout".

It list these points to recognize burnout:

You don’t need any more hours in the day, you just need to spend them better.

Mind hack that has worked well for me for either macro or micro decisions:

"What is the most important question I have been actively ignoring?"

Календарь дел основан на простом принципе: как не планируй, в конце концов, на решение задачи придётся потратить минуты, часы и дни. Календарь дел предлагает систему прямого управления временем. Все дела, все встречи, все задачи планируются в единственном месте — в календаре. Личные задачи ничем не отличаются от рабочих, они занимают время и их надо сделать, поэтому личные задачи планируются вместе с рабочими.

Productivity is for machines, not for people. There’s nothing meaningful about packing some number of work units into some amount of time, or squeezing more into less. Think about how effective you’re being, not how productive you’re being.

This is what my calendar looked like one year after we started Wistia. And this is what my calendar looked like last year, 10 years after we began.

See anything that’s changed here in the last 10 years?

Look at all those meetings. I dreamed that someday my calendar would be full of important things to do. Being busy felt like natural byproduct of success. This is what the calendar of someone who is running a 100-person company should look like, right?

Let me ask you a question.

How many times have you sat down to get something done and asked yourself the same question: “Where should I start today?”

Whether you’re a student, employed or an entrepreneur, we all face the same challenge.

It took me 18 months to write The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck. Over that time period, I wrote somewhere in the vicinity of 150,000 words for the book (about 600 pages). Most of that came in the final three months. In fact, I can confidently say I got far more done in the final three months than I did in the first 15 combined.

What do the calendars of entrepreneurs, VIPs, and famous business people look like?