Most advice is calibration. Eat less (because you’re inclined to overeat). Study more (because you’ll probably wait too long and cram right before the exam). Procrastinate less (because you’ll probably spend days stressing about trying to do the thing that if you just did it now, it wouldn’t be all that bad). I try to […]
Should You Set Deadlines for Your Goals?
Say you have a personal goal: you want to build a business, lose weight or learn a language. Does it make more sense to set a deadline for that goal (i.e. I want to speak conversational French in 9 months) or should you ignore it? I think this is an interesting question because, on the […]
What’s More Productive: Counting Hours or Tasks Accomplished?
I’m a big fan of setting constraints to get work done. If you make work a scarcer quantity, you’re more likely to use time wisely and get things done than if it feels like an endless to-do list. There’s two key ways you can do this: restrict your hours or restrict your workload. Restricting hours […]
Don’t Be Busy
The most useful and counterintuitive productivity advice I was ever given was don’t be busy. Do less things. Commit to fewer responsibilities. Don’t try to fill your schedule up. It’s strange advice because busyness is one of the things we most associate with productive people. Think of the CEO who works 100 hour workweeks or […]