How to Start Tasks & Stay Motivated for Ultimate Productivity

Motivation can be a difficult state to achieve. Even if we’re lucky to experience periods of increased drive, our energy can easily disappear without much warning. It’s important to have the right mental frameworks in place when we’re trying to motivate ourselves. This is an important topic for me personally right now, because lately I …

How To Increase Focus & Reduce Distractions with Task Batching

It’s easy to think of productivity as working longer hours with more effort. But when we boil it down, productivity is all about avoiding distractions while maintaining focus. Time batching is a technique we can use to focus on our most important tasks while avoiding unnecessary distractions. In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of …

Unlock Delegated Task Efficiency With The Waiting For List

Productivity is easy when we have something to work on. But other times we need other people to help execute the tasks and projects that matter to our core goals. The Waiting For list is a core component of the GTD methodology that allows us to stay on top of work that other people perform. …

Make Your Work Meaningful With The Six-level GTD Framework

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.— Ferris Bueller Deep down, I think everyone wants to find meaning in their work. We want to spend our time working toward something that really matters to us. That’s the difference between being motivated to work …

Smarter Faster Better: Secrets of Productivity in Life & Business

Charles Duhigg wrote the book Smarter Faster Better, in which he discusses the eight secrets of being productive in life and business. The first half of this book comprises the secrets of self-motivation, creating effective teams, focusing with mental models and setting effective goals. Part two dives into managing others, making effective decisions, leveraging creativity …

How to Absorb Data with Scaffolding, Disfluency & Systems

Charles Duhigg wrote the book Smarter Faster Better, in which he discusses the eight secrets of being productive in life and business. One of the eight principles is how to absorb data in a world plagued by information overload. In this post we’ll discuss methods to improve our understanding of data. We’ll also run through …

How To Leverage Innovation In The Creative Process

Charles Duhigg wrote the book Smarter Faster Better, in which he discusses the eight secrets of being productive in life and business. One of the eight principles is leveraging the creative process to drive innovation. In this post we’ll apply the ideas of creativity and innovation to several examples, including Disney’s Frozen. But first, where …

How to Make Effective Decisions with Forecasting & Probabilistic Thinking

Charles Duhigg wrote the book Smarter Faster Better, in which he discusses the eight secrets of being productive in life and business. One of the eight principles is making effective decisions by forecasting the future. In this post, we’ll discuss using probabilistic thinking and Bayes’ theorem to make better forecasts. And better forecasts are the …

How to Manage with Lean Manufacturing & A Trust Culture

Charles Duhigg wrote the book Smarter Faster Better, in which he discusses the eight secrets of being productive in life and business. One of the eight principles is how to manage others effectively. In this post, we’ll run through the Toyota Production System, which relies heavily on a culture of trust. We’ll examine five types …