The Craziest Productivity Hack I've Found
Crazy it works
I’ve read a lot of productivity books.
I’ve learned a lot of things.
Every now and then, I come across a productivity exercise or routine that is utterly and completely… crazy.
This one comes from one of my favorite authors, Chris Bailey (he’s getting a lot of airtime recently), in his book The Productivity Project.
If you haven’t read this book, it’s a great one. Basically, he spends an entire year testing out all the productivity routines and hacks imaginable. It’s entertaining, to say the least. Unlike most productivity books, it’s pure documentation. He doesn’t preach at you.
The practice
One of the practices he tested was meditating for 35 hours for one week.
When I read that, I made a mental note that no matter how productive he was, I wouldn’t try that. That’s just extreme. I can barely meditate for 30 minutes a day, let alone hours.
Anyway, here’s what he learned from it.
The first thing he said was that it increases his focus more than any other practice he tried.
Kinda saw that coming.
The second thing was less obvious.
“It let me manage my time better, because it made it much easier for me to identify what was important, which let me work smarter instead of just harder.” - Chris Bailey
He said that the reason for this wasn’t so much the meditation as much as it was the simple fact that he didn’t have nearly as much time. Since productivity is defined as “Accomplishing what you intend to do,” therefore, he had to use the remaining 20 hours of his week incredibly carefully and efficiently.
Time vs energy
After reading that, I thought, “Cool, so it made him more intentional, no big revelation there.”
But that’s not entirely true.
It did more than that.
I didn’t realize just how big of a deal that was until later on in the book when he compared his productivity from this experiment to another experiment. One that some of you are already doing.
Working 90 hours a week.
This one really surprised me.
He said that after working 90 hours a week, he accomplished only slightly more than when we worked 20 hours a week during this other experiment. In case you’re wondering, yes, he tracked and measured his productivity quantifiably; this isn’t a “best guess” scenerio.
That doesn’t make sense until you realize that time isn’t the only resource being used. Productivity is the sum of your time, energy, and attention.
Working 90 hours only focuses on the time aspect of the equation.
More time doesn’t mean more productivity.
By limiting the amount of time to 20 hours a week, it forced him to work with significantly more energy and attention. Enough that it leveled the playing field with a 90-hour work week.
That right there shows us just how important energy/attention management is.
“By controlling how much time you spend on a task, you control how much energy and attention you spend on it.
Same same but different
I’ve learned a very similar thing, but less directly, and it took me much longer to identify. Thankfully, because I don’t want to go through what Chris did to learn that. That’s intense and one of the wildest productivity experiments I’ve seen.
The last few months, I’ve basically stopped managing my time.
Instead, I manage my energy and attention.
The difference was instant and remarkable.
Behind my paywall are the tactics I used to quietly build my life.
Away from the spotlight.
It costs as much as a Starbucks coffee, and I promise you it’ll be worth more.