Ok… let me be honest. The title is a little misleading.
I’ve been interested in productivity for a while now and have taken insights from Steve Chandler’s “Time Warrior”, Tim Ferris’ “4 Hour Work Week”, and Gary Keller’s “The One Thing.” All of these books have been useful, but none have upgraded my productivity game quite like Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky’s “Make Time.”
An intriguing thing about “Make Time” is that both of the book’s authors made a career out of trying to make you less productive – they were both silicon valley tech fiends.
These guys understand the algorithms that sap our productivity. But they also understand systems – and based on their careers in tech, they have devised a straightforward, no-frills approach to making you more productive.
The busy bandwagon & infinity pools
When it comes to productivity – we are faced by two kryptonites:
The busy bandwagon – The busy bandwagon describes our constant need to stay “busy” at work – checking emails, responding to teams messages, hopping on random work calls etc etc. We constantly feel “busy” but are we really being productive?
Infinity pools – Then there are infinity pools… Which is any form of media where you can click “refresh”.
We’ve all been down that rabbit hole, or let’s say, drowned in that infinity pool. We tell ourselves – “Let me just check my DMs” – and before we know it we’ve gorged on our 99th Tiktok reel.
The busy bandwagon and infinity pools are both formidable threats to our productivity – sapping our time and resourcing, diminishing our drive and our focus.
Against these parasitic foes, any system too complex is doomed to fail. I’ve tried “productivity apps” I only spend more time on my phone. I’ve tried the fancy schmancy to do lists – I stutter at the second or third bullet point – often neglecting my key objective.
A simple, condensed system is the key – which is exactly what we find in the book.
Highlight
Much like Garry Keller’s “The One Thing” – The author’s of “Make Time” also contend that “something magic happens when you start the day with one high priority goal.”
So set yourself one primary objective. Just one. Don’t make it too hard or too easy. Something challenging but manageable. Time block it in your calendar and get to work.
You won’t be able to hide from it by ticking off something simple on your to-do list – like take the rubbish out.
One objective. One goal. No excuses. You will feel like a complete idiot if you don’t do it.
When it comes to selecting it, don’t choose something you always do, then you won’t really be becoming more productive will you?
Choose something you want and need to do but never seem to get round to doing.
When it comes to selection – I feel like gut feeling comes in handy but useful heuristic we could steal from “The One Thing” is – “What’s the ONE Thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
Laser
“The successful warrior is the average man with laser-like focus”
Productivity is quality over quantity. This means beating the busy bandwagon and infinity pools away with a stick when you’re trying to get productive. Bin distractions, get in laser mode and smash your highlight.
The authors of make time have given us a goody-bag of tools to deal with our two nemeses, but these are my top few for each.
- This one kind of applies to both – skip the morning check-in and declare war from the off.
Hopping off the bandwagon
Schedule email time – once , MAX twice a day – whoever it is can chill.
Reset expectations – protect your space at all costs – don’t accept unsolicited calls, decline and positively get back to them when you’re ready.
Getting out the pool – It’s all about making the pool inaccessible.
Delete socials – absolutely necessary, you can chat to your babes after your highlight.
Logout and change your password – make it forgettable like Xadal3uUljw8oI9.
Throw your phone on the roof – ok maybe not up there – but out of sight out of mind.
Energise
If you’re going to complete one task a day – make sure you’re firing on all cylinders when you do it – here are the books top tips to keep you popping.
- Leverage caffeine – a gamechanger since the 1600s – if you’re feeling slumped it might be worth a shot prior to your highlight.
- Take a nap – legends from every era did it. Lay down and conk out for half an hour – and see if you feel any better.
- Meditate – a gateway to focus – I’ve found that mindfulness meditation works best – Headspace and waking up are two great apps I’ve used.
Reflect
Productivity is often described as being more “intentional” with your time – not simply increasing your output. For intentionality we need reflection – enabling us to mould a system and apply tools that work for us.
Experiment, trial, reflect, remould, repeat.
If you give “Make Time” a read, you will also find that I have only included a sliver of insights provided. The options are endless.
To (again) shamelessly quote Bruce Lee –
“absorb what is useful, discard what isn’t and add what is uniquely your own.”
