4 Principles of

Productivity
Productivity is a tricky balance. On the one hand, if you treat yourself like a slave, flagellating
yourself, locking yourself into a quiet room and not allowing yourself to have any fun, ever, then
you’re going to get burnt out and things will slowly come apart.
On the other hand, if you are too lax on yourself, if you give yourself free time whenever you
want it, if you don’t hold yourself accountable to schedules or commitments, well, then you
wouldn’t get anything done, would you?

In the past several years, I’ve written four books, hundreds of blog articles and newsletters,
managed a staff of full-time employees, done speaking tours on three different continents, and
somehow managed to maintain relationships with friends and family.

I don’t say that to brag. It’s just that I’ve been self-employed for my entire adult life, and I’ve
been forced to find that Goldilocks balance of productivity—not too much, not too little.

Below are four principles I’ve discovered in optimizing my work:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 Productivity Is Personal
 Focus on the Quality of Your Work, Not the Quantity
 Eliminate Distractions While You Work
 Schedule Time for Work—and Goofing Off

1. PRODUCTIVITY IS PERSONAL
Some people have a strange fetish about the productivity of other people. It’s like productivity
porn for them or something. They sit around in a circle jerk learning about what Jeff Bezos eats
for breakfast on Thursdays or the exact time Elon Musk takes a shit or that Sheryl Sandberg uses
a—GASP—paper notebook to manage her schedule.

Seriously, just stop.

There’s nothing wrong with learning new systems of efficiency. But at the end of the day,
productivity is a very personal thing. What works for me—or Jeff Bezos, for that matter—
probably won’t work for you. And even if it does, it will probably change one day.

I used to be a die-hard night owl. For years, I couldn’t even remember my own name before 10
AM. I did my best writing at 3 in the morning, blasting heavy metal into my skull through my
earbuds.

Now my most productive days occur when I wake up between 6-7 AM and I bang out my best
work before noon.

So which one of those is the “right” way to be productive?

Answer: shut your mouth when I’m talking to you.

The goal is to uncover your own personal psychology around what makes you more productive.

This begins with figuring out your values—what exactly you stand for. Values are a compass for
your behavior and, therefore, the engine of your productivity.

Once you’re clear on what you value, you need to understand that motivation doesn’t fall like an
apple from a tree. It’s a result of action. Doing a little of something motivates you to do more of
that thing, which creates more motivation in a virtuous productivity loop.

If you’re struggling to get started, then ask yourself why. You don’t procrastinate on a task
because you’re a lazy sack of shit, but because it challenges your identity. To overcome that
procrastination, you must understand your own psychology.

Remember, productivity is personal. Your key to productivity is finding what you value and
understanding how to take action, not devouring biographies of accomplished individuals and
copying what works for them.