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Legal Stuff
We won’t include a bunch of legal terms here, but the book should only be shared
in its entirety. Do not share screenshots, reproduce or copy specific text,
paragraphs or images for use on your site without the appropriate credit and links
back to the author.
About The Author

Mitchell Harper has launched 5 successful companies, generating over $200M in

sales and raising $125M in venture capital. He has been featured in the New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Inc, FastCompany, Mashable,
TechCrunch and Bloomberg.
He is a voracious learner and has always had an obsession with productivity, high
performance and what makes people great. He is currently the CEO of
PeopleSpark — software that helps companies track and improve their culture,
productivity and communication.
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Tweet about this book
About PeopleSpark
Employees. Engaged.
What’s the secret to creating an amazing company culture like Facebook,

Southwest Airlines, Google and Virgin? Listening to your employees more than
once a quarter or once a year.
PeopleSpark is software that tells you how your employees are feeling, what’s
going well and what’s slowing them down so you can share praise and catch
issues before they become a big deal.
Learn more and try it free
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Table Of Contents
Introduction
Planning
10 Years
Priorities
Thinking
Inner Voice
Self Sabotage
Energy Cycles
Wellness
Stress
Subconscious Mind
Conclusion
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BEFORE WE START
Introduction
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Extreme productivity separates average people from exceptional ones.
But what exactly is productivity and how can you become more
productive? Since 2001 I’ve built 5 companies and have been obsessed
with constantly improving the return on my time invested. As it turns
out, the surest way to achieve your goals faster is to audit where you
spend your time and why.
Being productive doesn’t mean using a particular goal setting system or

even necessarily working longer hours. To be in the top 1% of the
world’s most productive people requires significant alteration to your
psychology, routine, expectations and communication style. All of
which I cover in this book.
Whether you want to make more money, lose weight, find a partner, be a
professional tennis player or even the next president of the United States
being powerfully productive improves your odds of success
significantly.
Let’s get started…
P.S. Make sure you follow me on your favorite social network before
continuing. I’m always posting new content:

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CHAPTER ONE
Planning
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To say I’m obsessed with productivity and timeROI is probably an
understatement. For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated with
the art and discipline of goal setting. Over the last 10 years I’ve probably
tried every system there is. And none of them worked. So I decided to
build my own hybrid approach, which I’ve been using since 2011.
There are thousands of articles that talk about the impact of goal setting
so I’m not going to go there. What I do know, though, is there’s no
onesizefitsall approach. By hacking together the best approaches from
various systems and mentors, I’ve created something that I would
estimate has helped me to be 10x more productive over the last few
years.
I take it to the extreme, though, so I’d say you can at least 3x your
productivity by following this simple system at the start of each week.
What do I mean by productive? I mean getting more leverage from the

resources I have and accomplishing more while exerting less personal
effort. I mean defining a clear roadmap for the next 12 months that’s
balanced across the important areas of life, which are health, business,
relationships and contribution. I mean knowing what to say yes
to — not because it sounds interesting, but because what you say yes to
is in context and part of the roadmap you’ve defined for the coming
year.
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Before any goal setting or productivity system will work, though, you’ve
got to have the right people on your team. That means the right leaders
(if you own a company), the right partner (if you’re married), etc. Fix
your people problems first otherwise they’ll slow you down massively.
That lesson is hard to learn but easy to give.
The system I’ve been using for a while is pretty basic and there are 4
parts. I’ve shared it with maybe 20 people I know (employees, friends,
relatives, etc) and it’s changed their lives by dramatically boosting their
focus, productivity and clarity. Basically it will make you outcome
focused so you stop doing stuff just to be busy.
#1 — Goals categorized by area of focus
Every year starting on December 1st, I spend about a month

brainstorming goals for the different areas of my life. I scribble those
goals down — even if they aren’t clearly defined yet. I come back to
them whenever a new goal comes to mind and add it to the unsorted,
messy list.
Once the list is finished, the goals are moved into areas of focus that are
important to me. Those areas are:
1. Family
2. Marriage
3. Financial
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4. Giving Back
5. Investing
6. Travel
7. Fun & Hobbies
8. Possessions
9. Stuff
It’s no mistake family and marriage are at the top of the list. The areas
here come from Ted Leonsis’s great book The Business Of Happiness.
His book will change your life and is a mustread.
Ted is a personal mentor of mine and is part of Revolution Growth,

through which Steve Case sits on the board of Bigcommerce (my
previous company). He is also owner of the Washington Wizards NBA
team, which makes flights to Washington exciting.
After you move your goals into the areas of focus, you prioritize them.
Most important goals at the top of the list, least important at the bottom.
Easy.
#2–12 month timeline
The next step is to use something like Google Docs, Photoshop or Trello
to create a horizontal timeline of the calendar year. You then go about
roughly placing your goals across various months of the year — about
where you’d expect to complete that goal.
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For example, if you plan to hire a head of marketing early next year, put
that goal in February. If you plan to take a trip to Japan later in the year,
place that goal in October.
After you’ve placed all of your goals on the timeline, you end up with
something like this:
This is the timeline I created back in December 2013 for the 2014
calendar year. For privacy reasons I’ve blocked out most of the goals,
but you can see that I categorize goals by color as they’re laid out on the
timeline.
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As you progress every week, you move the green bar across the timeline
to represent where you currently are in the year. As you achieve your
goals, you grey them out, like this:
Again, I’ve just blocked out the details. You can see that by the end of
December 2014, I’d achieved all but one goal for the year. Goals that
were really important for the year are marked with a magenta color as
they’re completed — just to remind me of their importance as I look
back on them.
You might think it’s weird to position your goals on a timeline like this,
but it’s incredible what it does to your subconscious mind. By writing
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something down and giving it a completion date, you find your goals are
almost automatically completed within a few days of that date.
Your brain works behind the scenes to figure out the resources, team,
advisors, communication, planning, etc you need to get something done.
#3 — Draft look back statement
You can’t predict the future. Or can you?
Once I’ve laid out my goals on the timeline, I then write a 2–3 page look
back statement. I start by asking myself this simple question:
It’s December 31 2014. Knowing you’ve achieved all of your goals,

how would you describe the year when you look back?
I look across all of my areas of focus and the goals I’ve set, and I write a
story that talks about the success I’ve had during the year. Now you
have to remember I’m writing this before the year has even started. I
write this on December 31st of the previous year for the upcoming year.
Why do this? It comes back to your subconscious mind. The power of

writing something down can’t be underestimated. If you’re a visual
learner, the timeline locks the goals in your head. If you’re an audible or
kinesthetic learner, the look back statement locks the goals in your head.
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So how do you write a look back statement? Organize your list of goals
not by area of focus but by overall priority. Start at the top of the list
with the most important goal you will achieve next year and work your
way down.
Then just write a paragraph describing what achieving that goal means
for you today (remember, you’re standing a year in the future from now)
and why achieving it was so important for your life.
You must write these paragraphs in past tense, as in, you’ve already
achieved them. This is another way to trick your brain and subconscious
mind. Your brain has no idea if what you’re telling it is true or not and it
assumes everything you say is true and works to make it so.
This has been proven over and over again by science.
#4 — Wheel of life
I’ve borrowed the wheel of life from Tony Robbins. It’s a simple
construct that helps you grade each area of focus every week. For areas
where you grade yourself low (on a scale of 1 to 10), you dedicate some
time and focus to boost your rating — say from a 4/10 to a 7/10.
Your wheel of life is structured as a circle and the areas you want to
focus on are included as spokes on the circle, like this:
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Areas you’re doing well in get a rating of 8, 9 or 10. Areas where you’re
doing OK get a 5, 6 or 7. Areas where you’re struggling get a rating of 1,
2, 3 or 4.
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The analogy Tony uses for the wheel of life is a tire on a car. If you look
at how you connect each of the spokes on the wheel — and if that were
a tire on a car — how would the car drive?
A high performance tire is round, so if you look at the example wheel of

life above, you’ll see that the spokes are connected with lines that are
jagged. If this were a tire on a car, the car would barely drive.
And that’s the idea. You need a focused approach to all the areas of your
life that are important to create a wellrounded tire. If you rate your
business progress a 10 and family a 2 then your wheel will be
off — and your car (your life) won’t drive (function) well.
See the 3 highlighted areas of focus in yellow? Those are the 3 areas you
choose to focus your efforts on over the coming week. Generally you
choose the 3 areas where you’ve selfrated the lowest.
You then take those areas and look at which of your goals you can work
on in the coming week to drive those ratings up.
In the example wheel of life, those areas of focus are:
1. Business
2. Learning
3. Health
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To improve each of those, you’d look at your goals timeline (part #2)
and pencil time in your calendar to work on progressing towards the
goals you’ve selected. It’s OK to add new goals to your list if you need
to as well. The idea is that a system is just a system. It’s there to provide
structure and to support you, but it’s not set in stone.
You should review all 4 parts of the system at least once a week and
pencil that time into your calendar as a recurring event. I like Sunday
afternoons or Monday mornings for an hour.
Once you’ve decided what you’ll focus on for the week, make sure you
block out that time in your calendar as well. It’s a forced discipline that
lets you “set and forget” so you end up with at least 50% (ideally 70%)
of your awake time accounted for. And that’s the time where you’re
making progress on the goals you’ve decided are important to you.
That’s it.
It’s a pretty simple system that works. The idea is that your yearly goals
define your quarterly focus which defines your monthly and weekly
priorities which are what you work on to improve the areas of focus that
are important to you.
I don’t believe you can be happy when most of your areas of focus
aren’t performing well. With this system, you’re forced to give attention
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to the things you’ve decided matter to you, so it keeps you progressing
on all fronts throughout the year.
Like all systems though, it only works if you stick with it. Once I came
up with the system it took me a few weeks to get used to it, but now I
can’t live without it.
I don’t think it’s a great system if you’re planning incremental gains in

your life over the next 12 months. For those, you can use Clear,
Omnifocus, Google Tasks or some other basic system. But if you want
to 10x your productivity, goals and progress then maybe give it a shot
and see how you like it.
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CHAPTER TWO
10 Years
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Creating anything that has a shot at becoming great (like a company)
takes at LEAST 5 years. In most cases it takes 7–10. Ask anyone who
has done it.
When you start anything new, it’s tempting to focus maybe 3 years out
at the most. “We don’t know how things will change beyond 3 years”.
That’s a valid point, but building something great is as much about
sticking it out as it is doing the work (such as creating a product and
finding customers).
You can’t win a marathon unless you put in the work and have stamina.
It’s the same with creating something that will eventually be great.
Most modern companies you think of as great took at least 5 years to get
on that trajectory and some took 10 years. Think Uber. Airbnb. Hubspot.
PayPal. Tesla. SpaceX. Chobani. GoPro. Spanx. The list goes on.
It took us 6 years to get Bigcommerce to any level of scale. And it will

take me at LEAST 5 years to get PeopleSpark to a comparable level of
scale. The good news is, I like to play the long game. Because that’s the
only game worth playing when it comes to achieving greatness at
anything — business, relationships, health, you name it.
Don’t believe the getrichquick gurus or the lose20poundstomorrow

infomercials. They are outright lying to you. Nothing good happens
without insane amounts of consistent, focused work.
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I truly believe that when you start anything, you should do it with the
intent of becoming the top 1% in your field, ideally the top 0.1%. And
do you think that’s a realistic possibility in 1, 2 or 3 years? No way.
There are heaps of great videos, lectures and presentations online about
“how” to be great. How to be a great musician. How to build a great
company. How to be a great manager. They teach the mechanics of
success, or what to “do”. But that’s it.
You know what absolutely none of them talk about? The time decay of
your passion, interest, patience and emotional energy. That’s hard to
maintain over 3 years let alone 5 or 10 years, let me tell you.
How often have you ended up bored with your workout routine? Your
partner? Your diet? Your daily routine? Your company?
The path to creating anything great is filled with doubt, fear and
frustration. People will screw you over, talk sh*t about you and try to
stop you from achieving what you set out to do. You’ve got to have the
emotional and mental fortitude to deal with that. Every. Single. Day.
The people that create greatness instill in themselves a daily ritual of

selfbelief, patience and performance. They know greatness comes after
10 years of work. Whether it’s affirmations, setting goals with a
compelling “why” or via a coach, they train their emotions like most
people train muscles in the gym. And that’s what gives them stamina.
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The next time you see a great person or company, don’t refer to them as
an “overnight success”. Realize they got where they are with at least 5
but probably 10 years of brutally hard and emotionally draining work
that most people simply couldn’t handle. They made mistakes. Course
corrected. Asked for help. Kept at it when things got hard.
But never lost sight of their vision and their goals. That’s why they’re
great.
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CHAPTER THREE
Priorities
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Success is about many small efforts compounding over time to produce
something great. Too often, though, we fall into the trap of doing what’s
urgent and not what’s important.
People are always going to want more of your time. And the more you
give them, the more they’ll take. Remember — if you’re not working
on your own plan, you’re most definitely part of someone else’s.
So, how can you achieve massive success without working 168 hours
every week? The key is to shift your focus to spend more time on what’s
important and less time on what’s urgent.
Important means anything that will get you closer to your next milestone
or goal (you’ve got those worked out, right?).
Urgent means anything that has a perceived (note the emphasis)

importance to you or someone else, when in reality the world won’t end
if you don’t get to it now, or even at all.
Here’s the rub, though. Doing the urgent stuff makes you feel good.
They are the things you can put a tick next to in Wunderlist, Clear or
Asana and say to yourself “Wow, I got 18 things done today!”.
The important stuff takes longer, is harder and isn’t nearly as fun. But
it’s the stuff that will drive you forward and get you closer to your goals.
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How do you know if something is important or urgent? Simple — just
ask this clarifying question:
“If I invest time to do this, which goal will it get me closer to

completing and how?”
If the answer is “none” and “I’m not sure”, then it’s urgent — defer it.
If the answer is a specific goal and you can measure the impact that task
will have on getting you closer to your goal, it’s important — do it
now.
Let’s look at a few examples of each so you get a better idea of what I’m
talking about here.
Important:
● Finish plan for next quarter

● Start new content marketing campaign
● Hire another Rails engineer
● Create draft of pitch deck
● Fire poor performing sales rep
● Refine customer personas
● Find business coach
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Urgent:
● Reply to 154 emails in my inbox

● Get up to date on TechCrunch/Reddit/etc
● Return calls from friends/family/etc
● Decide on colors for office wall paint
● Update my ToDo list
● Rearrange office to maximize space
● Organize lunch with John
You get the idea. Now of COURSE sometimes you have to just get
something done that’s urgent. I get it. But I’m talking about the other
95% of how you allocate your time.
If you want to skyrocket your progress, do nothing but more important

tasks and less urgent tasks for the next 30 days.
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CHAPTER FOUR
Thinking
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Most people live in a reactive state. They work on stuff until someone
distracts them. Then they react to what the other person needs. That’s
true at home and in the office. And it’s the easiest way to keep spinning
your wheels for months or even years on end.
Look at the calendar of most people and you’ll find a good assortment of
the usual events like team meetings, oneonones, lunches, etc. You
might also find some personal events scheduled, such as family dinners,
soccer games, birthdays, etc.
But what won’t you find on 98% of calendars?
Time blocked out to just think. Blocks of 1, 2 or even 3 hours at a time

with no agenda. No additional attendees. No anything. Just “thinking
time”.
Time is our most precious resource. And where you spend your time
influences how you do in every area of your life. Want a better body?
Spend more time eating right. Want to be a better husband/wife? Spend
more time listening. You get the idea.
But how do you know if you’re working on the right things? You
guessed it, you need to constantly revisit your goals and strategy.
Sometimes it makes sense to do that with people (colleagues, board,
partner, family), but you also need some alone time where you can just
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lay your cards out on the table and think about what’s working and
what’s not.
So what should you “think about” during the time you schedule to think?
Here are some ideas:
● How are my important relationships going?

● Which goals aren’t I making progress on? Why?
● What’s coming up that I need to prepare for?
● What should I do differently?
● What new skill do I need to start learning? Why?
● Am I happy? If not, why not?
● How can I get more done this week?
● Should I take some time off?
● Am I working hard enough?
I’m sure you spend time thinking about these things, but I’d bet it’s done
in chunks of 10 or 20 minutes here and there, not 1 or 2 hours of solid,
sitinaquietplace thinking that happens week in, week out.
As I was preparing to launch PeopleSpark, I scheduled 5 hours each

week just to think. Yes, each week.
During that time I was unavailable and literally unreachable to the

outside world. I turned off my phone, closed my email, set my Mac to
Do Not Disturb and put a note on my door “Do not disturb until 2pm”.
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During my thinking time I focus on not “doing” anything. I don’t try to
make progress on anything tangible. I don’t mark off goals on a ToDo
list. I just sit in silence and think about things that are important or top of
mind.
I learned about this “success habit” from a life coach I had back in 2011
and it’s a common strategy used by everyone from Beyonce to Bill
Clinton, Roger Federer, Richard Branson and Tony Robbins.
How much thinking time do you need each week and which day is the
best for thinking? Those answers will vary based on how you work, but
for me it was Monday morning from 8am until 11am and Friday
afternoons from 4pm to 6pm. I simply created two recurring events in
my calendar each week at those times with the label “Thinking Time”.
It’s such a simple way to do it, but if you stick with it, it will transform
your life. Give it a try and you won’t be disappointed.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Inner Voice
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Words have the power to inspire nations, build relationships, kill people,
create companies and sell products.
They also have the power to slow you down, or even worse — stop you
from even trying to attain or achieve what you want in life.
Part of success is learning to manage your own psychology. I’ve written

about that before, but it’s easy to write about and a lot harder to do in
real life, even if you’ve achieved some level of success in the past.
Understanding the impact of words is critically important for anyone

that wants to be better than average.
The words you use define who you become, where you end up and the
kind of contribution you make to the world.
Even more important, though, is understanding the consequences of the

words you say to yourself — you know, the words you keep thinking
about over and over in your head.
● “I’m not good enough”

● “I don’t really deserve that”
● “What if it makes my friends jealous”
● Etc…
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There are two words that can completely screw with your psychology
and progress more than you can imagine. And they’re words you know
and probably say to yourself at least a few times every day.
When put together into a simple phrase, these two words can trigger
feelings of fear, failure, insecurity and ultimately stop you from having
what you want — even if it’s so close you can almost grab it.
Those two words are:
“What if”
● What if I try and fail?

● What if I can’t do it?
● What if things don’t go as planned?
● What if it’s not really what I wanted?
● What if my husband/wife/partner/kids/parents don’t approve?
● What if my husband/wife/partner leaves me?
● What if I make a fool of myself?
● What if I lose everything?
“What if” is the scariest question for anyone who wants to succeed at
anything — whether it’s building a company, leaving a failing
relationship, moving to another country, quitting a job or any of the
thousands of other decisions we have to make across the course of our
lives.
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The good news, though, is that if you can learn to be comfortable with
the absolute worst outcome, then you start to move forward and at least
try.
What most people don’t tell you is that the chance of the worst outcome
happening is so low, (in most cases) it’s not even worth thinking about.
We’re talking about less than 5%.
All we’re really talking about here is risk and opportunity cost.
Remember — doing nothing is still making a decision. You just chose
not to pursue your goal.
To stop all of your “what ifs” from slowing you down, you can run each
of them through 3 really simple filters. These filters will make you think
hard and give you perspective on not just the risk involved, but also how
you can mitigate that risk so it doesn’t stop you from proceeding.
Let’s do a quick example — you’re weighing up whether to leave your

high paying designer job at Google/Facebook/Twitter/etc to launch your
own design agency:
Q1: What if I try and fail?
● I’ll have to find another job

● I’ll have to fire the people I hired
● I’ll have to tell investors I’ve lost their money
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● I’ll have to tell my partner it didn’t work out
Q2: What is the realistic chance that I’ll fail?
30%
Q3: What can I do to reduce the chance of failure?
● I’ll have to find another job — take 6 months of unpaid leave

to see if I can get my agency going and bring on my first 3
paying clients
● I’ll have to fire the people I hired — only hire contractors
initially and do a lot of the handson work myself
● I’ll have to tell investors I’ve lost their money — keep things
lean and use $50,000 of my savings to get started
● I’ll have to tell my partner it didn’t work out — explain the
risk up front and say you’re going to spend 6 months giving it
your best shot
The idea is simple — look at all of the reasons you might fail and come
up with your best plant to mitigate the chance of each one actually
happening.
When you break down your “what ifs” in this way, you’ll start to form
the foundation for a plan. A plan that can help you build a bridge from
where you are now, to where you want to be.
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The next time you feel the “what ifs” creeping in and stopping you from
making a decision that could permanently improve the quality of your
life, just stop.
Write down all of your “what if” questions, realistically assess your
chance of failure (and conversely, success) and spell out each risk along
with a plan to mitigate it.
Then you have a plan. A plan that can unlock the key to your wildest
dreams and take you from where you are now to where you want to be in
the future. Sure, you might fail, but let me ask you this — what’s the
absolute worst “what if” question you can ask yourself?
“What if I tried [your goal here] and succeeded?”
Living with regret is 100x worse than living with feature of failure (or
even real, “holyshititdidn’twork” failure), so whatever you want to
do, at least give it a try.
Don’t be the kind of person to look back on a boring life that you
could’ve made amazing, had you just taken a little more (calculated)
risk.
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CHAPTER SIX
Self Sabotage
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Most people see a big goal and don’t even get started because it scares
the sh*t out of them. Need to lose 60 pounds? Wow, that’s a lot. Want to
build a $10M revenue company? That’s a whole lot of zeros.
Whether it’s constructing a 100storey building, losing weight, building

a company or fixing a relationship, most goals are hard. And the harder
the goal, the bigger the reward.
So how can you actually accomplish those really big, really hard goals
you’ve been putting off for years?
First, you need to ignore the actual goal and break it down into a series
of smaller milestones instead. The idea here is that you can knock out a
milestone pretty easily, therefore building momentum and progress
towards completing the actual bigger goal over time.
For example, if you want to build a company that generates $10M

revenue per year, you don’t start by focusing on that goal. Instead, you
break it down into a series of smaller milestones over time that feel more
achievable:
● Year 1: $100K in revenue

● Year 4: $1M in revenue
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You would then break year 1 down into a series of smaller milestones:
● Hire founding team

● Build MVP of product
● Find 20 beta customers
● Decide on pricing model
● Create logo + brand
● Etc…
Suddenly building a company that generates $10M in revenue doesn’t

seem as scary, because you’ve spread that goal out over 10 separate
milestones. Instead of focusing on the big $10M number, you dedicate
all of your focus for this year on hitting the $100K milestone, which is
only 1% of 10M and psychologically easier to digest.
This is the exact process I used to launch PeopleSpark and previous to

that, 4 other companies. I also used it to lose 30 pounds (and
subsequently gain 40 pounds of muscle), conquer fear of flying, my fear
of heights and my fear of public speaking. So it works. Really well.
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What about another example that most people struggle with? Losing
weight. Let’s say you want to lose 60 pounds in 2016. “60 pounds”
sounds like a lot of weight, but if you break it down into 12 milestones,
it’s only 5 pounds a month. Better still, what about weekly milestones?
60 pounds equates to only 1.15 pounds per week, or a deficit of 500
calories per day. Easy!
The key with large goals is to change your frame of reference and
become shortterm focused, so you make regular, measurable
progress often.
The second key is to be deliberately short sighted in the context of that

particular goal. Don’t look at your end goal ($10M revenue or losing 60
pounds) too often because it will stress you out.
Instead, look at your next upcoming milestone every few days or every
few weeks, depending on how spaced out your milestones are. Add it to
Evernote, Wunderlist, Clear or whichever goals app you use. Seeing a
milestone that says “Lose 1.15 pounds this week” is a lot easier than
seeing “Lose 60 pounds this year”.
Large numbers play tricks with your brain and your progress. Wherever
possible in life, always try to break large numbers down to a size you
feel comfortable with. Whether it’s debt, revenue, weight or whatever.
We aren’t wired very well to deal with large numbers, I’ve found.
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The final thing to remember when it comes to achieving large goals is to
actually jump in and get started. That’s why breaking your goals into
tiny milestones is important. As human beings, we’re wired to avoid
disappointment. If your goals feel unachievable, you’ll start to
selfsabotage.
If a milestone feels within reach, you’re much more likely to get started
and make at least some sort of measurable progress towards it.
Time for a bit of proof. Read the questions below and notice how you
feel about each of them:
● Can you lose 60 pounds this year? How?

● Can you lose 1.15 pounds this week? How?
Or if you’re building a company, try these:
● Can you build your company to $10M revenue? How?

● Can you build your company to $100K revenue this year?
How?
See what I mean? I bet it was easier to answer “how?” for the questions
with smaller numbers. Same outcome, different approach.
Don’t work against your brain. Embrace our limitations as humans and
work with smaller, more manageable milestones and numbers. You’ll
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have a much better chance of achieving the goals that scare the sh*t out
of you.
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Maintain Your Culture As You Grow
Are you the CEO of a fastgrowing company? Don’t lose touch with your
employees as you grow. Engage your team, build better relationships and get ahead
of issues before they arise.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
Energy Cycles
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We all feel ups and downs throughout the day, but like most people, you
probably pay little attention to what you work on and when you do the
work. For example, you might do your meetings in the first half of the
day and then do your emails, etc at the end of the day — because that’s
what everyone else does.
Understanding your energy cycles and the impact they have on your
mood and clarity of thought can actually help you be more productive
and work fewer hours each day.
But what are energy cycles and how can you measure them?
Measuring your energy cycles
Put simply, your energy cycles are the points throughout the day when
you feel “up” (happy, positive, motivated) and when you feel “down”
(unhappy, negative, less motivated).
The best way to determine your energy cycles is to chart them for a few
days, which is really easy to do. Here’s how:
1. Set a reminder in your calendar every hour (such as 9am,

10am, 11am…. 4pm, 5pm) to write down how you feel on a
scale of 1 (down) to 10 (up)
2. Do this every day for 3 days
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3. After 3 days, create a basic chart in Excel to show your trends
over the last few days
Here’s my energy chart from the last 3 days. Each color represents a
single day of tracking my energy levels on a scale of 1–10:
In the chart above you can clearly see that my energy levels are highest
between 9am and 11am, as well as 4pm and 5pm. They are the lowest
between 12pm and 3pm.
What you can then do is “map out” the times throughout the day when
you’re “up” and when you’re “down”, as I’ve done below:
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The trick now is to schedule the right kinds of activities throughout the
day.
Scheduling activities based on your energy levels
If you work in an office then you probably have two kinds of activities:
1. Those that involve people (meetings, phone calls,

presentations)
2. Those that don’t (email, planning, writing)
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The good news is that it’s really easy to schedule activities to maximize
your energy cycles. Quite simply, you schedule the “people tasks” when
you’re “up” and the “nonpeople tasks” when you’re “down”.
The logic behind this is simple — when you’re “up” you’ll be in a

better mood, will feel like talking and the energy will be apparent in
everything you do. Those are the times when you want people to see you
and be around you.
On the other hand, when you’re “down” your mood takes a hit. You feel
less motivated and as a result should try to avoid “people tasks”. When
you’re “down” it’s best to focus on tasks that involve just you. These are
typically responding to emails, planning your day and doing any writing
that needs to be done, such as putting together presentations.
Boosting your “up” time
What if you track your energy cycles for a few days and your results
show that you have a lot of “down” time? How can you improve your
results so you have more “up” time and therefore improve your mood
and motivation?
The best trick is to exercise at a time just before your energy levels start
to drop. Referring back to my chart, the ideal time for me to exercise is
either 10:30am or 5:30pm:
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Exercise releases a chemical in the brain called dopamine — it’s
commonly called “the pleasure hormone”. That dopamine will not only
curb any further drop in your energy levels, but it will shoot them right
back up to where they need to be (a 7 or more) for you to get back to
being “up”.
What kind of exercise should you do and how long should you exercise
for? The answer depends on when you work out and where. Generally at
least 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise (walking, riding a bike,
lifting weights) will do the trick and get enough dopamine released to
get you back on track.
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Restructuring your calendar
The final step to bring everything together and take advantage of your
energy levels is to look at how your days are laid out in your calendar.
In a perfect world you’d move your “people tasks” to the times of the
day when you’re “up” and your “nonpeople tasks” to the times when
you’re “down”, but that’s not always possible. If you work for someone
else, then move as many of the recurring events around as you can.
If you have regular big meetings scheduled right in the middle of some
“down” time, then ask your boss or the other attendees if you can move
them a few hours back or forward. It can’t hurt to ask, right?
Once you’ve restructured your calendar it’s time to think about applying
the principles of energy levels to the other areas of your life outside of
work.
What about time outside of work?
Now that you’ve optimized your calendar to take advantage of your

energy cycles at work, why not do the same at home?
The best way to start is to track your energy cycles beyond work hours,
from when you wake up until when you go to sleep for 3 days. As you
did at work, determine when you’re “up” and when you’re “down” and
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try to do the “people tasks” (sounds a little harsh, but this would be the
time you spend with your family, friends, etc) when your energy levels
are high and the “nonpeople tasks” (cooking, gardening, reading, etc)
when your energy levels and mood are low.
Reassess every 90 days
Finally, reassess your energy cycles every 90 days or so. Depending on

your job, home situation, etc, they can and will change. Just repeat the
same 3day tracking process explained above and if you see they’ve
changed you’ll need to adjust your calendar to reflect the new “up” and
“down” periods throughout the day.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
Wellness
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There’s a huge connection between physical wellness and mental clarity.
When you’re in shape you have more energy. You can get more done.
You think better, sleep better and just make better decisions, period.
Your productivity will skyrocket, too.
When it comes to physical wellness, as the statistics show, most people

will fail. And they’ll fail for two primary reasons:
1. The system is designed around failure

2. They’ll focus on the wrong things
The weight loss industry is worth an absolute boatload of money and it’s
in their best interest to keep you overweight. Otherwise you’ll stop
buying their gimmicks, pills and powders. They peddle overnight
solutions to weight loss, when deep down we all know they don’t work.
But we keep buying them because the promise of being in shape is a
powerful motivator.
Success starts with your own selfperception. And if you don’t like
yourself, that will negatively affect everything you do, making even a
moderate level of success much more elusive.
So why would you listen to an entrepreneur about losing weight? Well,

weight loss isn’t about the mechanics as much as it is the mindset. And
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being an entrepreneur means you need to be pretty good at dealing with
tough situations, building yourself up and believing when no one else
does.
Plus, I was overweight until 2008. I was working long hours building
my third company and I lived on Red Bull, pizza and McDonalds. But
one day I snapped (figuratively, not literally) and decided to do
something about my physical condition, by focusing on my mindset first
and body second.
Over the following 18 months (September 2008 — March 2010) I

completely transformed myself physically. I lost 31 pounds and then put
on 37 pounds of muscle using lots of trialanderror, Youtube videos and
advice from sites like BodyBuilding.com.
The transformation improved my effectiveness as an entrepreneur by at

least 10x. I was sharper on my feet, made better decisions, could do
more in less time and started to bounce off the walls with unlimited
energy.
Not only did I experience a transformation, so did my business. Sure it

was still a lot of work to grow the business, but it didn’t feel as hard as it
did when I was carrying the weight. I had better clarity of thought and
my stress levels were kept down by the hormone regulation that resulted
from regular exercise.
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I’m building my 5th company and I know that if I wasn’t in great shape
it would be so much harder to do the “startup grind” — the long hours,
etc.
Truth be told, it wasn’t all that difficult to lose weight once I figured out
what it was really about, which is 80% mental, 20% physical. I break it
down into 5 key areas of focus. They are:
1. Why?
2. Foundation
3. Routine
4. Food
5. Mental Toughness
Let’s look at each key area of focus in more detail.
Why?
Before you do anything, you need to figure out why you want to lose
weight (or put on muscle). You need a compelling “why”. This is the
psychological part of weight loss you’ll never hear about in an
infomercial, but it’s the driving force behind the stunning physical
transformations you see on shows like The Biggest Loser. Without your
“why”, you’ll yoyo diet and put all of the weight back on within a few
months. Guaranteed.
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Your “why” is something that should make you cry if you can’t have it
some time in the future. It should be EMOTIONAL. It should be
something you feel. It needs to be bigger than “Look good at the beach”.
The thought of not having it should steer you away from temptation
(because you will slip up, many, many times) and shock you into action
when you feel lazy.
It should also be measurable and time bound. So what’s a good “why”?

Here are a few you might want to use:
● Get back to my college weight of [weight] so I can FEEL

strong, confident and fit again by December 31st 2016
● Be a ROLE MODEL for my kids and make them PROUD of
me by losing 45 pounds in 2016 and keeping it off for life
● Lose 45 pounds by December 31st 2016, so I can TEACH
others how to do what I’ve done
● ENJOY watching my kids grow up and have enough ENERGY
to chase them around the house by losing 45 pounds in 2016
● Get in shape by losing 45 pounds to FINISH the 2016 New
York marathon
● COMPETE in an allnatural body building contest in 2017 with
body fat of < 7%
Before I got started losing weight back in 2008, I found a photo of me

from 4 years earlier. I was about 30 pounds lighter and was in good
shape. So my “why” revolved around that photo — “Lose 30 pounds
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and then gain 20 pounds of muscle by the end of 2010 so I look
BETTER, have EVEN MORE ENERGY and FEEL AS GOOD as I did
in that photo”. I kept that photo in my wallet and looked at it every day
for motivation. And it worked. Really well.
Foundation
It’s a lot easier to lose fat first and then gain muscle. Yes you can do
both at the same time, but it’s hard. You want to give yourself the best
chance of success, so focus first on losing the fat and then building the
muscle.
I like to call it your foundation — if you build a great (low body fat)
foundation, it’s easier to stack muscle (lean or bulk) on top of it down
the track. If you’re overweight right now, you’ll have quite a bit of
subcontinous fat covering your muscles anyway, so why not get rid of it
first?
In my experience, the best way to lose fat is not to do cardio. Slow

cardio (walks, treadmill, bike, etc) burns up fat but also muscle. Cardio
is great for your heart, especially HIIT, but isn’t necessary to lose fat.
There’s a bunch of research online about cardio vs lifting weights for

losing fat, but I prefer to use diet and weight training (moderate weight,
high rep — if you’re female, you won’t put on bulk) to lose fat. Control
your calories via food (a 500 calorie deficit per day based on your BMR)
and keep your metabolism burning using weights.
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When you think about where most people come undone, it’s normally
not in the gym. It’s relatively easy to workout 3–4 times per week for
most people. It’s the food temptation that’s the hardest. I’ll talk more
about that below.
To build your foundation, you first want to get your BMI (Body Mass
Index) into the normal range, at around 20. You can calculate yours
here. Once you’ve done that, you’ve got a foundation on which you can
start to build some good, lean muscle quite quickly.
Routine
Treat your workouts like business meetings or appointments. Schedule

them in your calendar as recurring events every week. You’d never miss
a meeting with your boss or a date night with your partner. Treat your
workouts with the same level of urgency and respect.
Try to space your workouts over the week and keep at least 1 day
between them. Try to combine one push and one pull muscle group in
each workout session, such as:
● Chest and back

● Shoulders and arms
● Legs
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If you’ve never lifted weights before, please please please please please
find someone who has, so they can build a good program for you and
show you proper technique. Don’t just turn up at the gym and jump on
the machines — you’ll make zero progress and give up.
Find a friend and ask them to come to the gym with you for a few
weeks. Better yet (and if you can afford it) hire a personal trainer.
They’ll not only show you what to do and how, but they’ll hold you
accountable too.
As a final option, find a program on BodyBuilding.com and watch the

instructional videos on your phone at the gym before you start an
exercise. Always focus on form first and weight second. If you lift heavy
because everyone else is, you’ll injure yourself and you’ll be out of the
game.
To build your foundation, you want to focus on keeping your

metabolism high when you’re NOT in the gym, which means moderate
weight for 10–15 reps over 4 sets per exercise. Bonus points if you add
supersets or pyramiding. I added super sets to my routine 2 years ago
and I’d estimate it increased my progress by at least 30%.
Before you workout, have some sort of preworkout snack. Coffee is a

popular preworkout, but I like a banana and a few scoops of Optimum
Nutrition’s preworkout powder. You need energy stores to lift weights
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and sugar (such as fructose from fruit) converts into useable energy fast.
Don’t eat a huge meal before going to the gym.
When you’ve finished your workout, make sure you eat protein and
fastdigesting carbs within an hour. I like to have a protein shake and
some fruit, like 2 bananas or a tin of pineapple slices.
After a workout your body goes into a catabolic state where it starts to
break down muscle for fuel, so having a highcarb meal prevents that
and keeps you in an anabolic state (muscle building) as your body starts
to repair the (good) damage you made to your muscles (micro tears)
during your workout.
Once you’ve built your foundation (lost excess fat) and want to put on
some muscle, you can lower your reps (from 10 to 6–8) and increase
your weight.
When you want to continually gain muscle over time, I’ve found it helps
to do 1 of the 3 things during every workout for at least one exercise:
● Lift heavier weight (without sacrificing form)

● Reduce rest time between reps
● Reduce rest time between sets
Food
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First, if you’re focused on losing fat, aim for a deficit of around 500
calories per day or 3,500 per week. There are 3,500 calories in one
pound of fat, meaning you’ll lose (at least) 1 pound of weight per
week — probably more initially as you lose water weight and flush out
other waste.
You need to know your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) as a starting point,
which is how many calories you need to consume each day based on
your current activity levels. You can calculate that here. Once you know
your BMR, subtract 500 calories. That’s your daily calorie target.
Download MyFitnessPal and track EVERYTHING YOU EAT OR

DRINK. The psychological impact of tracking goes a long way to keep
you on track. If you screw up at one meal, you can make it up at the next
meal by eating fewer calories, etc.
Protein is extremely important because it’s the building block for

creating new muscle. Generally you want to take in 1 gram of protein
per pound of body weight, per day. If you weigh 200 pounds, you
consume 200 grams of protein per day — typically 23 protein shakes
and 3 meals per day.
To keep sane and stop your metabolism from slowing down, you should
also have one day per week where you eat whatever you want. This is
called an “off day”. If you’ve been craving chocolate, fries, etc, you eat
them on your off day. Keep in mind, however, that you shouldn’t eat
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20,000 calories during your off day. Eat what you want, but don’t over
do it.
If you feel like eating crap during the week and the craving is really,
really bad, keep an “Off Day List” which contains all of the foods you’re
craving. The simple act of writing down the food you crave and knowing
you’re only 1/2/4 days from being able to eat it will help.
When you have a craving for a food you only eat on your off days, go
back and read your “why” statement. Read it 20 times. Then go on
Youtube and watch a few “before and after” weight loss (or muscle
gain) transformation stories. That should be enough to curb your
cravings 95% of the time.
You’ll also want to regularly check your pH levels using pee sticks. You
can buy them from any drug store. New research is showing a strong
relationship between the acidity in your body and the amount of fat you
hold on to, regardless of how much exercise you do and what you eat.
If your pH level is low (5.5 or less on a scale of 0–10), your body is

highly acidic and will hold on to fat to protect organs from damage. The
lower your pH level, the higher your chance of cell damage and
mutation which can lead to cancer if enough acid forms in your system
over time.
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If your pH level is neutral or slightly higher (6.5 to 8), your body is more
alkaline, contains less acid and therefore your body won’t hold onto fat,
as there’s no damage to protect your organs from.
What’s the easiest way to get your pH level up so you’re more alkaline
than acidic? Drink at least one (ideally two) fresh green juices every day.
Buy a Nutribullet and throw in a handful of spinach, a handful of kale,
half a cucumber, an Apple, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a cup of
water. Blend it up and drink it. Simple.
Mental Toughness
What causes 99% of people to stay overweight? It’s a lack of mental

toughness. When it comes to losing weight, gaining muscle and
generally staying healthy, it’s all about habit and routine. You need to
get very, very good at doing the same thing over and over and over and
over again. That’s the secret to success at anything.
Here are some tips that have helped me stay on track over the years.
If you don’t feel like working out:
● Build a gym at your house or put a gym in your office (my gym
is 5 feet behind me as I type this from my office. When I need a
break I spin my chair around and hit the weights).
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● Don’t think about the actual workout — just get in your car
and start driving to the gym. When you get there, read your
“why” statement on your phone and put on some music to get
you in the mood.
● Take your shirt off and look at yourself in the mirror. Visualize
the body you want and then get in the car and go straight to the
gym.
● Change your workout. You should change it every 6–8 weeks
anyway. Mix it up if you get bored. Swap exercises, switch
between free weights and barbells, machines and body weight
exercises, etc.
● Ask your partner for a reward that will be waiting for you as
soon as you get back from the gym. You know what I mean.
If you don’t feel like eating well:
● Eat what you crave, but log the calories in MyFitnessPal and
make sure you keep under your calorie count for the day. If it’s
chocolate, eat a few squares, not an entire bar. Get just enough
to satisfy you then stop.
● Go out and eat at a restaurant. Mexican food in particular
(beans, rice, chicken and vegetables) has a great macronutrient
profile (high protein, moderate carbs) if you avoid the cheese
and fried items.
● Eat something high in protein first, like a protein shake or tuna.
Protein fills you up and will curb your appetite. You might still
eat the bad stuff but you’ll eat less of it.
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● If all else fails, just give in. Have an “off meal” and on your
“off day”, just have 2 bad meals instead of 3. As long as you’re
making progress every day, don’t beat yourself up for falling
off the wagon every now and then. It happens to everyone.
● Finally, realize that if you eat poorly now, the “good food” like
chicken, tuna, rice, sweet potato, spinach, kale, quinoa, chia,
etc will taste horrible because your body is used to (and craves)
the taste of salt, fat and all the other processed crap. Over a few
weeks your taste buds will adapt and you will start to crave the
good food. Sounds crazy but it’s completely true.
Transforming your body will transform every other area of your life too.
Your mood will improve, you’ll have more energy and as a result you’ll
demand more from life. You’ll stop settling and will have a new
selfconfidence which will make you a better partner, friend, parent,
boss, etc.
Do the work and be a role model for everyone around you. Find your
“why”, create a workout program and make it part of your routine. Eat
well 80% of the time and don’t be too hard on yourself when you mess
up.
After a few weeks you’ll see progress. After a few months you’ll wonder
how you lived without the gym and your newfound energy. You’ll need
new clothes and you’ll start to receive compliments from people you
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haven’t seen in a while. Those positive feelings will push you to work
even harder, leading to more positive feelings and more progress.
I know these statements seem a bit pieinthesky now, but give it a few
months. Stick with it. You’ll see what I mean.
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CHAPTER NINE
Stress
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Doing anything important over time has a lot to do with your habits, the
team around you, etc.
It has more to do, however, with what you tell yourself every day during
those “internal conversations” that play out in your head.
Psychology is the most underappreciated, yet most important part of

success and productivity. It rarely gets any attention because it’s not
“sexy”. But man is it important.
Everyone talks about greatness being akin to rollercoaster rides. There

are high highs and low lows. The highs are easy to deal with — you
celebrate, share the victories with your friends and partner and maybe
even down a few beers that night.
What’s harder to deal with are the (seemingly constant) lows — when
things don’t work out as you expect them to.
The only way through all the shit is to make sure you talk to yourself
every day — but in the right way. Not out loud, of course, but in your
head.
There are also certain ways you can look at problems to quickly figure
out if they’re potential “killers” or if they’re just bumps along the way.
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You always need to find constant inspiration and rationale to move
forward. That’s what I’m hoping to give you in this chapter.
Here are some “no bullshit” ways to manage your psychology.

Everything here comes from my direct experience over the last decade.
1. Use best/worst/probable analysis when weighing decisions
Most things we fear never materialize, but we spend so much time

stressing over the “what ifs”. An alternate approach is to look at
decisions and problems rationally by creating a best/worst/probable case
analysis.
It’s easy to do — create a spreadsheet with the following columns:
● Outcome
● Chance (%)
● Stop
● Start
● Keep Doing
… then fill in the spreadsheet with 3 outcomes:
1. Best outcome
2. Worst outcome
3. Probable outcome
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Chance (%) is the chance of that outcome happening. It’s a percentage
from 1 to 100. In the “stop” column, list the things you’d stop doing if
that outcome came to fruition. In the “start” column, list things you’d
start doing if that outcome came to fruition. In the “Keep Doing”
column, list things you’d keep doing if that outcome came to fruition.
Pretty simple stuff, but writing down each possible outcome and looking
at things objectively and rationally can help get the negative, fearful
thoughts out of your head extremely quickly, especially when you
realize the chance of the worst outcome actually happening is probably
tiny.
2. Focus like crazy to make meaningful progress
Progress beats the crap out of fear. Every. Single. Time.
If you feel like shit, commit to spending the next 24 or 48 hours working
your ass off to make meaningful progress on something that’s important
to you — and it does NOT have to be about your business or work.
You could run 10 miles each day, spend more time with your partner,
design a new product or write a 10,000 word blog post. Writing works
best for me (check out my essays on Medium). Whatever it is, make sure
the effort is rewarded with a legitimate feeling of progress in some area
of your professional or personal life.
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Feeling like things aren’t moving as quickly as they should be is the
productive person’s curse. You always want things to move faster and
it’s easy to get frustrated when they don’t.
3. Know when to step away
Some days you’ll just feel down. It happens to everyone. On those days,
don’t go into the office. Cancel your meetings. Spend time alone and do
whatever takes your mind off things. Read, write, exercise, play video
games. It doesn’t matter.
One big key to maturing as someone who is obsessed with success is to

know when you’re just not up to working as you normally would. It
might be one day every month or one day every year. But tune in to your
thoughts and feelings and don’t fight them. When you’re forcing
yourself to work, it’s time to do the opposite.
4. Talk to someone and get advice
As a gogetter it’s normal to think you’re the only person who doesn’t
know how to solve a problem. But most problems have already been
solved by someone else. Instead of beating yourself up for not knowing
the answer, talk to someone — ideally a mentor or coach, but if you
don’t have one, post on Quora or Clarity.fm.
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Don’t ever be embarrassed to share your problems and ask for help. The
top 1% of all people are the most vulnerable and the most opening to
learning and listening to others.
5. Ignore your competition
Run a business? Then this tip is for you. Has your closest competitor just
raised $100M. Or gone public? Or won a big customer. Or hired a smart
executive? Who cares?
Spending too much time thinking about your competitors will run you
into the ground. Instead, dial up the time you spend with your customers.
If you’re not spending any time with them, now’s a great time to start.
Just email a few and ask them to catch up for a chat. Ask about their
business, how they use your product and what you can do to make it
better.The main thing you’ll get out of this is real, authentic feedback
from paying customers who LOVE what you do. And that positivity will
rub off on you and how you feel. Trust me.
6. Watch Tony Robbins videos on Youtube
He’s the master of human psychology, plain and simple. Just go to

Youtube, search for “Tony Robbins” and choose a few videos. After an
hour you’ll feel like a different person and will get more clarity and a
better perspective on what’s important and your current situation.
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7. Compare your life today versus 5 years ago
Another easy one. Write down 5–10 things you have today that you
didn’t have 5 years ago. This will bring about feelings of gratitude,
which will help release dopamine — the “happy chemical” in your
brain.
When you write this list, don’t list “stuff”. Write down things about your
business/job, your family (wife/husband, kids), places you wanted to
visit that you’ve been to, people you’ve helped, books and people that
have changed your life, etc.
8. Realize it takes 7–10 years to make anything truly great
If you’re a few years in, you’re just getting started. 98% of successful
people took at LEAST 7–10 years to make their first mark on the world.
Building anything great is a marathon not a sprint. Step back and put this
into perspective whenever short term problems are clouding your
longterm view.
9. Go to your vice regularly
What’s the one thing you do that excites the hell out of you? It should
take 100% of your focus and make you feel amazing when you’re done.
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It could be exercise, sex, drawing, painting, public speaking, helping
someone, volunteering, video games or cooking.
Whatever it is, do it regularly to top up your dopamine levels. If you

don’t have a (healthy, safe) vice, spend some time to find one. Try a lot
of new things and keep the ones that make you come alive.
What’s the worst thing that can happen?
Suppose you fail. What’s really the worst thing that can happen? You
have to start again? So what. Your lifestyle takes a bit of a hit? So what.
Your pride gets crushed? So what. You have to tell investors you’ve lost
their money, if your company fails? That’s hard to do, but they’ve baked
your small chance of success into their models.
The odds of everything falling apart are so small that most times it’s not
even worth considering — and that’s from someone who has been so
close to the wheels falling off dozens of times in the last decade.
You might come close, but the wheels rarely, if ever, fall off.
The next time you feel down/upset/angry/frustrated/like shit, step back,

be aware of how you feel and do whatever it takes to manage your own
psychology — because in the end that’s really all that matters.
Page 73 of 81
CHAPTER TEN
Subconscious Mind
Page 74 of 81
WRAPPING UP
Conclusion
Page 75 of 81
Well there you have it everything I’ve learned over 5 companies and
15 years about being powerfully productive in all areas of life, whether
it’s business, money, marriage, fitness or anything else.
If you found this book useful, I’m always writing new essays on
Medium and posting videos to Youtube. I also regularly tweet about
success, productivity and other selfimprovement topics so make sure
you follow me on Twitter. Or Facebook. My new web site is now live at
MitchellHarper.me as well, so take a look.
If you’re a CEO, leader or manager you might be interested to learn

more about my company, PeopleSpark. We’ve built a beautifully simple
performance management platform that’s a realtime alternative to the
dreaded and ineffective quarterly and annual performance reviews.
PeopleSpark will help you build better relationships with your

employees by giving you realtime feedback on what they’re working
on, what’s going well, what’s slowing them down and where you can
help.
Go ahead and give it a try absolutely free for 30 days. I guarantee it will
not only transform the effectiveness of your team but also your
effectiveness as a leader.
Page 76 of 81
Thanks For Reading!
If you found this book useful, it would mean a lot to me if you shared it
with your friends or anyone who might like it:
Page 77 of 81
About The Author

Mitchell Harper has launched 5 successful companies, generating over $200M in

sales and raising $125M in venture capital. He has been featured in the New York
Times, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Inc, FastCompany, Mashable,
TechCrunch and Bloomberg.
He is a voracious learner and has always had an obsession with productivity, high
performance and what makes people great. He is currently the CEO of
PeopleSpark software that helps companies track and improve their culture,
productivity and communication.
Page 78 of 81
About PeopleSpark
Employees. Engaged.
What’s the secret to creating an amazing company culture like Facebook,

Southwest Airlines, Google and Virgin? Listening to your employees more than
once a quarter or once a year.
PeopleSpark is software that tells you how your employees are feeling, what’s
going well and what’s slowing them down so you can share praise and catch
issues before they become a big deal.
Page 79 of 81
Credits
All icon from this book were made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
and are licensed under CC BY 3.0
Page 80 of 81

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Mitchell Harper has launched 5 successful companies, generating over $200M in

What’s the secret to creating an amazing company culture like Facebook,

Learn more and try it free

Being productive doesn’t mean using a particular goal setting system or

Let’s get started…

What do I mean by productive? I mean getting more leverage from the

#1 — Goals categorized by area of focus

Every year starting on December 1st, I spend about a month

Ted is a personal mentor of mine and is part of Revolution Growth,

#2–12 month timeline

#3 — Draft look back statement

You can’t predict the future. Or can you?

It’s December 31 2014. Knowing you’ve achieved all of your goals,

Why do this? It comes back to your subconscious mind. The power of

This has been proven over and over again by science.

A high performance tire is round, so if you look at the example wheel of

In the example wheel of life, those areas of focus are:

I don’t think it’s a great system if you’re planning incremental gains in

It took us 6 years to get ​Bigcommerce​ to any level of scale. And it will

Don’t believe the get­rich­quick gurus or the lose­20­pounds­tomorrow

The people that create greatness instill in themselves a daily ritual of

Urgent means anything that has a perceived (note the emphasis)

“If I invest time to do this, which goal will it get me closer to

● Finish plan for next quarter

● Reply to 154 emails in my inbox

If you want to skyrocket your progress, do nothing but more important

But what won’t you find on 98% of calendars?

Time blocked out to just think. Blocks of 1, 2 or even 3 hours at a time

● How are my important relationships going?

As I was preparing to launch ​PeopleSpark​, I scheduled 5 hours each

During that time I was unavailable and literally unreachable to the

Part of success is learning to manage your own psychology. I’ve written

Understanding the impact of words is critically important for anyone

Even more important, though, is understanding the consequences of the

● “I’m not good enough”

Those two words are:

● What if I try and fail?

Let’s do a quick example — you’re weighing up whether to leave your

Q1: What if I try and fail?

● I’ll have to find another job

Q2: What is the realistic chance that I’ll fail?

Q3: What can I do to reduce the chance of failure?

● I’ll have to find another job — take 6 months of unpaid leave

“What if I tried [your goal here] and succeeded?”

Whether it’s constructing a 100­storey building, losing weight, building

For example, if you want to build a company that generates $10M

● Year 1: $100K in revenue

● Hire founding team

Suddenly building a company that generates $10M in revenue doesn’t

This is the exact process I used to launch ​PeopleSpark​ and previous to

The second key is to be deliberately short sighted in the context of that

● Can you lose 60 pounds this year? How?

Or if you’re building a company, try these:

● Can you build your company to $10M revenue? How?

Learn more and try it free

Measuring your energy cycles

1. Set a reminder in your calendar every hour (such as 9am,

Scheduling activities based on your energy levels

1. Those that involve people (meetings, phone calls,

The logic behind this is simple — when you’re “up” you’ll be in a

Boosting your “up” time

ŝ¶'Íªª

It took us 6 years to get Bigcommerce to any level of scale. And it will

Don’t believe the getrichquick gurus or the lose20poundstomorrow

As I was preparing to launch PeopleSpark, I scheduled 5 hours each

Whether it’s constructing a 100storey building, losing weight, building

This is the exact process I used to launch PeopleSpark and previous to

As a final option, find a program on BodyBuilding.com and watch the

Before you workout, have some sort of preworkout snack. Coffee is a

Psychology is the most underappreciated, yet most important part of

If you’re a CEO, leader or manager you might be interested to learn