Productivity principles
Spend more time implementing wisdom, not collecting it.
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
Ep.292: Single Purpose Notebooks
Assign 1 notebook to 1 idea. It helps your brain focus on that topic (cognitive context) and do deep work, faster. The Notes App on your phone represents all topics and contexts. Your brain has a harder time focusing when there are multiple potential cognitive contexts.
Single notebooks help create a ritual that can accelerate your creative exploration of an idea.
Productivity Principles:
1. Do fewer things.
2. Work at a natural pace
3. Obsess over quality.
What daily goals/tasks should you focus on? Use this sequence.
1. Mission: Decide your overall vision. Example: I want to speak French
2. Projects: Figure out the best, most engaging method of learning French for you. Is it podcasts, a course, etc?
3. Daily Task/Goals: Study this course or listen to the podcast for 15 mins every day. Ignore tasks that do not contribute to your mission.
Spend money on tools that make your deep work easier, more efficient, and more meaningful. It’s a signal to yourself that you take this seriously. Investment in the tools should be proportionate to the value you are creating. Don’t spend 100k gear on recording your podcast that no one listens to.
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The Greg McKeown Podcast
Episode: The Art of Subtraction with Leidy Klotz
Solve by addition’ is not the only option. To make things better, instead of adding things/doing more, think about what you can subtract/do less of. ‘
Aim for building a system that makes the execution effortless.
GTD - Getting Things Done
Episode: Projects and Someday Maybe Lists
GTD definition of a project: A multi-step outcome achievable within a timeframe of a year.
What is a projects list: inventory of all your currently active projects
Identify potential new projects by zooming in on current issues or problems. If it’s demanding attention then potentially turn it into a project. This will ensure you take consistent action.
Review your projects weekly.
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Beyond the To-Do List
Episode: Francesco D’alessio pm finding the right productivity tools for you
The best productivity tool is the one you will use.
3 Steps to finding the best productivity tool (RTO): 1) Research the product to ensure it’s a fit for your specific needs 2) Try the product diligently for 90 days 3) Optimise for accelerated productivity.
Put Rules first, not Tools. If you have a problem sticking to a To-Do list, it won’t matter what tool you use to make the To-Do list.
The Productivity Show: Asian Efficiency
Episode - The TPS Era show
To become more productive, implement one new tactic each week - no big, dramatic changes are necessary.
3 top resources:1) Get rid of your hiccups. 2) Batteries 3) Organise your hats
Thinking Time Questions: You are all doing too much and not strategizing enough. So, make specific time to pause and think about strategic ways to get where you want to and accomplish the things you want to. (Bonus point - Use a journal for this exercise). You can also use ChatGPT to brainstorm specific questions to solve your current problems.
Kaizen: Aim to make small improvements every day. Over time, this will pay huge dividends.
Productivity routines and tools are more important when you are not feeling your best (feeling sick or low energy). You must stick to your batching, scheduling, or Pomodoro technique during low-energy times so you still have a sense of accomplishment and control.
Do a weekly review to access your current productivity routine and look for gaps. This will be difficult in the beginning but over time it will become easy and an essential feedback loop for refinement.
Knowing what music to play while you work can unlock your most productive version.
Be intentional with your day.
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Tim Ferris Show Podcast
Episode#728: Seth Godin- Coaching Tim on overcoming resistance, Lessons from Isaac Asimov, Writing secrets
Blog posts are like comic books. The reader is asked to figure out how the subject moved from one panel to another. The reader is asked to be a participating voice.
Seth writes to provoke the reader’s attention on a subject or a problem.
Declare the genre of your post upfront. Tell what readers can expect to learn about upfront.
How to know when you ship your writing - Tell people something they already sort of know in a way that they will be grateful to share and forward to other people.
Improve writing cadence by creating a character version of you whose job is to notice things and write about them daily.
What is good writing? Assertion at the beginning of a sentence creates tension (curiosity) followed by a release that lands the idea. Example: You don’t need more time, you just need to decide.
Stop and think if you should continue doing what you have been doing. Create a vacuum, a space to contemplate your next move, or a pivot.
To ship high-quality work, be prepared to produce a lot of mediocre work. It’s a game of output.
Decide your genre and stick with it. Tell the readers that this is your lane and they can count on you to keep showing up.
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Deep dive with Ali Abdaal
Episode: High-Performance Psychologist - The Secret to Happiness is Vulnerability
How to compliment someone: Complement the person, their behavior, or their choices, not their looks.
Your judgment comes from your past experiences. Your brain creates filters. These filters are based on the past through which you will see the future. If you don’t like what your brain is projecting, question the filter you're using.
Use stillness to quiet the brain. Pay attention to your intuitions about the situation you are in.
Your mind is governed by fear and other survival-based emotions. If you know who you are deep down, the mind cannot paralyze you with its fear tactics. “Our only task in life is to know our truth and live from that truth.”
Fear will always exist. It’s what we do in the face of it that matters.
All misery comes from the clash between reality and your expectations.
Remove the words or phrases that don’t serve you i.e. I can’t.
There is no ‘should this happen’ in nature. It just happens. A tiger is eating a gazelle. From the tiger’s perspective, it should happen. From gazelle’s, it shouldn’t.
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I hope you found this useful.
Much Love
PM