Productivity: A Tool for More of What You Love
What is Productivity?
We read a lot about productivity tools — “Use Things for tasks, and here’s how I reach Inbox Zero.” Forget the tools. What is the tool for? That’s the important question. Need more time? For what?
Productivity is a tool for doing more of what you love. We increase the effectiveness of this tool by building sustainable systems and habits. Productivity can be a tool to start a business, to spend more time with your partner, or to get promoted. Shoot, you might even use productivity to do less. So before diving into tactics and details, it's important we get clear on what it is we want more of in our lives. What do we love? Without this clarity, productivity just becomes an endless game of checking boxes.
To create this clarity, a few simple questions I like to ask myself are:
Productivity as a means to what end?
What do I want more time for?
What do I really want?
In this article, I’ll share specific productivity frameworks, systems and tactics that have worked for me. This will be a living article that I update with new content regularly.
Last updated: 11/4/20
The Productivity Pyramid
To keep this article organized and easy to navigate, I'll be anchoring to Ramit Sethi's Productivity Pyramid. I've yet to create a framework unique to my approach, so we'll roll with this for now. The pyramid consists of three tiers: fundamentals, psychology, details.
The foundation is the fundamentals. This covers things like purpose, sleep and organizational frameworks. After that we have psychology — this is all about mindset and way of being. And lastly we have details, which includes to-do list systems, apps and simple tactics. Let’s build the pyramid baby!
Fundamentals
As the foundation of the pyramid, this is the most important part. If this isn’t dialed in, the rest of the pyramid begins to crumble.
Sleep
The first productivity fundamental I want to start with is sleep. I’m not here to make the case for more sleep. I think we all know the importance of getting 7-8 hours/night. Instead, I want to share specifics on how I’ve dialed up my sleep over the past couple of years. For many years, I struggled dialing it up. Here’s how I finally made it work:
Make it attractive
Time the bedtime routine
Set the target
Set a bedtime alarm
Yes, you are reading this correctly. I created a process to go to sleep earlier. Saying things like “I’m going to sleep earlier,” just wasn’t cutting it. I would set a time, and miss it consistently. So I gave it more thought. Here’s a more detailed rundown of my journey with these steps:
Step 1: Make it attractive
This step was huge — I had to experience the value in going to bed early to change my behavior. I had to crave it. After a few extended early mornings for deep work and days of feeling rested, there was no turning back.
Step 2: Time the bedtime routine
Prior to this process, I would say “I’m going to bed at 10:30pm.” 10:30pm would roll around and I would scramble to stop what I was doing. By the time I made it to bed it would be 11:00pm. I realized I had to identify the specific time to start preparing for bed. In the note below, I outlined all the steps leading up to falling asleep.
An iPhone Note where I jotted down how long it took me to get to bed and my shut eye targets.
Step 3: Set the target
By this point, I had two times: a time to start my bedtime routine, and time to fall asleep by. With that, it was easy to set my targets. Knowing it takes me 30 minutes to actually make it to bed, if I wanted to be asleep by 10:30pm, I knew I had to begin preparing for bed at 10:00pm.
The other key learning for me here was being realistic and starting small. If I’ve been going to sleep at 11pm for 6+ months, scaling that back to 10pm overnight was not realistic. A sudden change like that would not be sustainable. Instead, I realized moving back my bedtime in 5-10 minute increments made more sense. This is illustrated in the Notes screenshot above too.
Step 4: Set the bedtime alarm
And we now arrive at the easiest part! The same way I have an alarm to wake up, I have an alarm to hit the hay. With the numbers I ran above, this was easy to set. Note: the alarm should be set to begin bedtime prep.
Psychology
Once we’ve gotten the fundamentals set — covering things like sleep and purpose — we need fuel to get us through every day, the ordinary and the extraordinary. This might be my favorite part of the pyramid!
Be-Do-Have
Be-Do-Have is a key framework much of this section of the pyramid will ground on. As human beings we have a tendency to think in the frame of Have-Do-Be. Once we have that new apartment or promotion, we will be successful. Be-Do-Have encourages us to focus on our way of BEing first. That’s where the power lies. When we focus on who we get to BE to achieve our goal, the DO comes to us more clearly. Soon enough, we’ll HAVE what we’re after.
Your way of being is how you think and feel. For example, I can opt to view myself as a struggling consultant trapped in the corporate world. Or I can view myself as a resilient and free entrepreneur. When I view myself from that second frame, I act and behave differently. In tough moments, I might ask myself: “What would a resilient entrepreneur do in this situation?” That thought pattern can help trigger a more positive behavior.
I start most days with typing up an intention for the day and a few ways of being supporting that. Here are a few my favorite ways of being: powerful, free, loving, committed, of service, present, graceful, abundant.
Details
In this part of the pyramid, you can expect a combination of two things: 1) detailed templates that systemize the other areas of the pyramid, 2) simple and effective tactics, 3) app recommendations.
Pull over Push
Previously on an IG story, I recommended turning off phone notifications. There's a key detail under the how, that gives you the power to PULL your notifications. As opposed to having them pushed. Here are the steps for iPhone users (sorry Android friends):
In Settings, select the app you want to adjust notifications for (e.g. Messages, Twitter, Mail)
Deselect "Lock Screen" and leave the other two on (image below)
Turn off “Sounds” as well
That's it! Now when you get a notification, you won't be interrupted. When YOU want your news or messages, you just pull down from the top of your screen.
This is an example of a onetime action that locks in a good habit. James Clear breaks this down further and shares more examples of powerful onetime actions in this article.
A onetime action that supports me in being present.
Affirmation Passwords
This is a random, quick and fun tactic. I'm not religious about affirmations, but I do embed them into my day-to-day by making my passwords affirmations. My email password may be a goal or mantra I want to keep top of mind.
Coming Soon...
…more good stuff!
As mentioned, I’ll update this article regularly with my most effective systems and habits for doing more of what you love. Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified when that happens!
Last updated: 11/4/20