Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University, has studied the irrationality of how we use our time and has helped create a new smart-calendar app, Timeful, which helps us learn things about what works and what doesn’t as it relates to productivity.
The World Is Working Against You
Our default is now a constant, aggressive chain of siren songs from our environment
- Most of the entities in our lives really want us to make mistakes in their favor
- If you followed every directive from your surroundings these days you’d quickly be broke, obese, and constantly distracted
Control Your Environment Or It Will Control You
If you banish distractions and control your calendar you can make sure your environment is ripe for productivity
- We think that we make decisions on our own but the environment influences us to a great degree
- Research shows distractions make us stupid
- Your surroundings should make the things you need to do easy and things you shouldn’t do hard
No, You Don’t Need An Email Break
You tell yourself you need an email break, and that you’ll be rejuvenated and work better afterward.
- In fact, research shows that frequent email checks can temporarily lower your intelligence more than being stoned
- Constant emailing reduces mental ability by an average of about 10 IQ points
- This effect is similar to missing a night’s sleep
Write everything down
Most people do not write down the things they need to do, but when they do write things down they are more likely to follow through on them
- Calendars can make you happier
- Schedule things that make you happy and energized and schedule them more often to make yourself happier
Sum Up
The world is not designed to help you achieve your long term goals
- Passivity is not going to get you where you want to go
- Optimize your workspace for what you need to achieve
- You have about 2 hours of peak productivity, use them wisely
- Switching tasks reduces effectiveness as your brain transitions
When You Do What You Do Is Key
All hours are not created equal
- You have a window of 2-2.5 hours of peak productivity per day, starting a couple hours after waking
- Guard those hours for important tasks
- Designate that part of your day as “protected time”
- Alertness and memory, the ability to think clearly and to learn, can vary by 15-30 percent over the course of a day
- Early morning is also when you are most disciplined
- The longer people have been awake, the more self-control problems happen
The Four Horsemen of the Productivity Apocalypse
Meetings
- Schedule your work time on your calendar
- Multitasking
- Structured procrastination
- Doing little things that give us the feeling of progress instead of deep work makes progress
- Avoid these four and you will see an 80/20 style jump in productivity
