I think I amat least somewhat more productive than average, and people sometimes ask me forproductivity tips.  So I decided to just write them all down in one place.

Compoundgrowth gets discussed as a financial concept, but it works in careers as well,and it is magic.  A small productivitygain, compounded over 50 years, is worth a lot. So it’s worth figuring out how to optimize productivity. If you get 10%more done and 1% better every day compared to someone else, the compoundeddifference is massive. 

What you work on

It doesn’tmatter how fast you move if it’s in a worthless direction.  Picking the right thing to work on is themost important element of productivity and usually almost ignored.  So think about it more!  Independent thought is hard but it’ssomething you can get better at with practice.

The mostimpressive people I know have strong beliefs about the world, which is rare inthe general population.  If you find yourself always agreeing with whomeveryou last spoke with, that’s bad.  Youwill of course be wrong sometimes, but develop the confidence to stick withyour convictions.  It will let you becourageous when you’re right about something important that most people don’tsee.

I make sure toleave enough time in my schedule to think about what to work on.  The bestways for me to do this are reading books, hanging out with interesting people,and spending time in nature.

I’ve learnedthat I can’t be very productive working on things I don’t care about or don’tlike.  So I just try not to put myself in a position where I have to dothem (by delegating, avoiding, or something else).  Stuff that you don’tlike is a painful drag on morale and momentum.

By the way,here is an important lesson about delegation: remember that everyone else is alsomost productive when they’re doing what they like, and do what you’d want otherpeople to do for you—try to figure out who likes (and is good at) doing what,and delegate that way.  

If you findyourself not liking what you’re doing for a long period of time, seriouslyconsider a major job change.  Short-term burnout happens, but if it isn’tresolved with some time off, maybe it’s time to do something you’re moreinterested in. 

I’ve been veryfortunate to find work I like so much I’d do it for free, which makes it easyto be really productive.

It’s importantto learn that you can learn anything you want, and that you can get betterquickly.  This feels like an unlikely miracle the first few times ithappens, but eventually you learn to trust that you can do it.

Doing greatwork usually requires colleagues of some sort.  Try to be around smart,productive, happy, and positive people that don’t belittle your ambitions.  I love being around people who push me andinspire me to be better.  To the degreeyou able to, avoid the opposite kind of people—the cost of letting them take upyour mental cycles is horrific. 

You have toboth pick the right problem and do the work.  There aren’t manyshortcuts.  If you’re going to dosomething really important, you are very likely going to work both smart andhard.  The biggest prizes are heavily competed for.  This isn’t true in every field (there aregreat mathematicians who never spend that many hours a week working) but it isin most.

Prioritization

My system hasthree key pillars: “Make sure to get the important shit done”, “Don’t wastetime on stupid shit”, and “make a lot of lists”.

I highlyrecommend using lists.  I make lists of what I want to accomplish eachyear, each month, and each day.  Lists are very focusing, and they help mewith multitasking because I don’t have to keep as much in my head.  If I’m not in the mood for some particulartask, I can always find something else I’m excited to do.

I prefer listswritten down on paper.  It’s easy to addand remove tasks.  I can access themduring meetings without feeling rude.  Ire-transcribe lists frequently, which forces me to think about everything on thelist and gives me an opportunity to add and remove items.

I don’t botherwith categorization or trying to size tasks or anything like that (the most Ido is put a star next to really important items).  

I try toprioritize in a way that generates momentum.  The more I get done, thebetter I feel, and then the more I get done. I like to start and end each day with something I can really makeprogress on.

I amrelentless about getting my most important projects done—I’ve found that if Ireally want something to happen and I push hard enough, it usually happens. 

I try to beruthless about saying no to stuff, and doing non-critical things in thequickest way possible.  I probably take this too far—for example, I amalmost sure I am terse to the point of rudeness when replying to emails.

I generallytry to avoid meetings and conferences as I find the time cost to be huge—I getthe most value out of time in my office.  However, it is critical that youkeep enough space in your schedule to allow for chance encounters and exposureto new people and ideas.  Having an open network is valuable; thoughprobably 90% of the random meetings I take are a waste of time, the other 10%really make up for it.

I find most meetings are best scheduled for 15-20 minutes, or 2 hours.  The default of 1 hour is usually wrong, and leads to a lot of wasted time.

I havedifferent times of day I try to use for different kinds of work.  Thefirst few hours of the morning are definitely my most productive time of theday, so I don’t let anyone schedule anything then.  I try to do meetingsin the afternoon.  I take a break, orswitch tasks, whenever I feel my attention starting to fade. 

I don’t thinkmost people value their time enough—I am surprised by the number of people Iknow who make $100 an hour and yet will spend a couple of hours doing somethingthey don’t want to do to save $20.

Also, don’tfall into the trap of productivity porn—chasing productivity for its own sakeisn’t helpful.  Many people spend too much time thinking about how to perfectlyoptimize their system, and not nearly enough asking if they’re working on theright problems.  It doesn’t matter what system you use or if you squeezeout every second if you’re working on the wrong thing.

The right goalis to allocate your year optimally, not your day.

Physical factors

Very likelywhat is optimal for me won’t be optimal for you.  You’ll have toexperiment to find out what works best for your body.  It’s definitely worth doing—it helps in allaspects of life, and you’ll feel a lot better and happier overall.

It probablytook a little bit of my time every week for a few years to arrive at what worksbest for me, but my sense is if I do a good job at all the below I’m at least1.5x more productive than if not.

Sleep seems tobe the most important physical factor in productivity for me.  Some sortof sleep tracker to figure out how to sleep best is helpful.  I’ve found the onlything I’m consistent with are in the set-it-and-forget-it category, and Ireally like the Emfit QS+Active.

I like a cold,dark, quiet room, and a great mattress (I resisted spending a bunch of money ona great mattress for years, which was stupid—it makes a huge difference to mysleep quality.  I love this one).  Not eating a lot in the few hours before sleephelps.  Not drinking alcohol helps a lot, thoughI’m not willing to do that all the time.

I use a ChiliPad to be cold while I sleep if I can’t get the room cold enough, which isgreat but loud (I set it up to have the cooler unit outside my room).

When traveling,I use an eye mask and ear plugs.

This is likelyto be controversial, but I take a low dose of sleeping pills (like a third of anormal dose) or a very low dose of cannabis whenever I can’t sleep.  I ama bad sleeper in general, and a particularly bad sleeper when I travel.  It likely has tradeoffs,but so does not sleeping well.  If youcan already sleep well, I wouldn’t recommend this.

I use a fullspectrum LED light most mornings for about 10-15 minutes while I catch up onemail.  It’s great—if you try nothing else in here, this is the thing I’dtry.  It’s a ridiculous gain for me. I like this one, and it’s easy to travel with.

Exercise isprobably the second most important physical factor.  I tried a number ofdifferent exercise programs for a few months each and the one that seemed bestwas lifting heavy weights 3x a week for an hour, and high intensity intervaltraining occasionally.  In addition to productivity gains, this is alsothe exercise program that makes me feel the best overall.  

The third areais nutrition.  I very rarely eat breakfast, so I get about 15 hours offasting most days (except an espresso when I wake up).  I know this is contraryto most advice, and I suspect it’s not optimal for most people, but itdefinitely works well for me.

Eating lots ofsugar is the thing that makes me feel the worst and that I try hardest toavoid.  I also try to avoid foods that aggravate my digestion or spike upinflammation (for example, very spicy foods).  I don’t have much willpower when it comes tosweet things, so I mostly just try to keep junk food out of the house.

I have one big shot of espresso immediately when I wake up and one after lunch.  I assume this isabout 200mg total of caffeine per day.  Itried a few other configurations; this was the one that worked by far the best. I otherwise aggressively avoid stimulants, but I will have more coffee ifI’m super tired and really need to get something done.

I’mvegetarian and have been since I was a kid, and I supplement methyl B-12, Omega-3, Iron, and Vitamin D-3.  Igot to this list with a year or so of quarterly blood tests; it’s worked for meever since (I re-test maybe every year and a half or so).  There are manydoctors who will happily work with you on a super comprehensive blood test (andservices like WellnessFX).  I also go outof my way to drink a lot of protein shakes, which I hate and I wouldn’t do if Iweren’t vegetarian.

Other stuff

Here’s what Ilike in a workspace: natural light, quiet, knowing that I won’t be interruptedif I don’t want to be, long blocks of time, and being comfortable and relaxed(I’ve got a beautiful desk with a couple of 4k monitors on it in my office, butI spend almost all my time on my couch with my laptop).

I wrote customsoftware for the annoying things I have to do frequently, which is great. I also made an effort to learn to type really fast and the keyboardshortcuts that help with my workflow.

Like mostpeople, I sometimes go through periods of a week or two where I just have nomotivation to do anything (I suspect it may have something to do withnutrition).  This sucks and always seems to happen at inconvenienttimes.  I have not figured out what to doabout it besides wait for the fog to lift, and to trust that eventually italways does.  And I generally try toavoid people and situations that put me in bad moods, which is good advicewhether you care about productivity or not.

In general, Ithink it’s good to overcommit a little bit.  I find that I generally getdone what I take on, and if I have a little bit too much to do it makes me moreefficient at everything, which is a way to train to avoid distractions (a greathabit to build!).  However, overcommitting a lot is disastrous.

Don’t neglectyour family and friends for the sake of productivity—that’s a very stupidtradeoff (and very likely a net productivity loss, because you’ll be lesshappy).  Don’t neglect doing things you love or that clear your headeither.

Finally, torepeat one more time: productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anythingat all.  Think more about what to work on.