Secrets Ultra-Productive People Don’t Want You To Know About Getting More Done
Secret #3 — Time travel
I left England with two things in mind:
- Cut my expenses
- Make a helluva lot of progress in what’s left of the year
This meant getting more done.
The first thing I asked myself when I landed in Ghana was, “How can I turn my 24 hours into 48?”
TLDR: You can’t.
But I’ve been studying productivity for the past two months and have implemented all the techniques I’m going to share with you.
Brace yourself…
Secret #1 — Just chip away at everything that’s not David
The David is a remnant of the Renaissance era sculpted by Michelangelo from 1501 to 1504.
People were completely dazzled by its quality at the time of completion.
Michelangelo was frequently asked, “How did you make it?”
He was reported to have replied, “It’s easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.”
Profound.
Here’s how you apply it…
Think of who you wanna become as the David, and who you are now as one massive slab of stone.
How do you make the David (who you wanna become)?
Well, you cut out all the activities that don’t resemble who you wanna become.
If your David has an impeccable physique, stop eating sweets and junk food.
If he’s got a loving family, stop womanizing.
You get the gist.
Secret #2 — Get your MITs done
Every journey needs a destination…
Including your productivity.
You can’t be in a rush to nowhere — you’ll burn out.
Ultra-productive people have a North Star which guides their life.
This is a fixed destination they devote themselves to achieving as the world around them evolves.
But it doesn’t end there.
Ultra-productive people devote uninterrupted time to reaching their North Star on a daily basis.
It’s called, “Getting the Most Important Tasks (MITs) done.”
If you’re still unsure what I’m on about, ask yourself this every morning —
“What can I do today to make the biggest impact in achieving my goal?”
Do that task.
Secret #3 — Time travel
Your future self can’t be trusted.
They know you better than you do.
You’ve got to intervene before they mess you about.
They know your preferences will change over time.
Today you may feel like you should be drinking more water, but tomorrow you might wanna sip Prosecco.
The easiest way to avoid this is to travel to the future and acknowledge you might change your mind.
Basically what I’m saying is…
Don’t buy Coke if you know you should be drinking water.
Don’t keep your phone next to you if you know it’s time for deep work.
Don’t keep your phone by the bed if you know you’ve got to get up as soon as your alarm goes off.
Do what you can to make sure your future self can only make the best decisions.
Secret #4 — To-do lists suck
Bruh.
Quit with the to-do lists already — they suck.
Most people don’t do all the tasks on their to-do list so it ends up being a reminder of everything they’ve failed to accomplish in a day.
A better solution is to schedule blocks of activities into Google Calendar and make a got-done list every evening to reflect on your wins.
Secret #5 — Keep a second brain in arm’s reach
People overrate their memory.
I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.
Your short-term memory is limited.
It has limited capacity, duration, and encoding.
Why risk losing an idea that can transform your life?
Keep a second brain with you and write everything down.
It doesn’t even have to be on paper — I use notion.
Secret #6 — Always act, never react
Your outputs are based on what you yield to more often.
Most people yield to notifications (e.g., emails, social media, etc).
Ultra-productive people yield to their MITs.
They aren’t triggered by every ding or vibration they receive cos they’ve carefully allocated time to tend to those things when they’re ready.
Don’t let life pull you about.
Create time to do it when you’re ready.
Secret #7 — Run from meetings
“The only way you’re going to get me for a meeting is if you’re writing me a cheque.” — Mark Cuban
Sounds selfish but it’s not — it’s productive.
If someone’s going to write you a cheque it means a decision is going to be made, and there’s something to act upon.
Meetings are a serial time killer.
You haven’t got time to explore, discuss, or brainstorm.
You already have your North Star you’re moving towards!
Secret #8 — Listen to Pareto
An Italian bloke called Vilfredo Pareto was carrying out his duty as an economist back in 1906 when he noticed a pattern —
20% of the population in Italy owned 80% of the property.
He then proposed the ratio could be found in many places in the physical world and theorized it might indicate a natural law.
This became known as “Pareto’s principle.”
Ultra-productive people are incredibly aware of the activities that drive the greatest results.
They focus on those and ignore the rest.
Secret #9 — It’s not about you
Unproductive people think it’s all about them.
They say shit like, “How can I do X?”
Reframe the question a little if you wanna be ultra-productive.
“How can X get done?”
See how a sea of options just opened up to you there?
Take yourself out of the equation.
You don’t have to do everything — and you can’t.
Secret #10 — Days need themes
Unproductive people have workdays and rest days.
They’re two-dimensional.
Productive people exist in three dimensions or more.
For example, think of an avid gym goers routine:
Monday — push day Tuesday — pull day Wednesday — leg day Thursday — push day Friday — pull day Saturday — leg day Sunday — rest day.
Every day needs a theme to define what’s most important.
“No one can book time with me on my writing days. I’d rather die than miss a writing day.” — Tim Denning
Tim Denning edits on Mondays and writes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. His days have a theme — see the full post.
Batching your work like this helps to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
TLDR: Give your days a theme.
Secret #11 — Consistency for the win
You need a morning and evening routine.
Nothing extravagant.
It just has to be something you can do every day to help prepare you for the day in the morning and get you ready for bed at night — that’s all.
Here’s my ones. They’re pretty simple…
Mornings: 5.30am Wake up, get up. 5.31am — 5.36am Visualize my ideal day and the worst-case scenario 5.42am — 7.34am Walk to the gym, train for 1 hour, walk back 7.38am — 7.43am Cold shower 7.50am —7.55am Breakfast 8am Start work
Evenings: 7pm — 9pm Freetime 9.02pm — 10.32pm Reading 10.34pm — 10.40pm Skincare routine 10.42pm Sleep.
If you’re wondering why I’m so precise with time…
It’s cos I’m a weirdo.
Secret #12 — Energy >> everything
Energy to a human is like gas to a car.
If you don’t have energy the body won’t start.
The secret to getting more done is ensuring your energy tank contains enough to get you over the line for the day.
That means you’re:
- Getting enough sleep
- Eating nutritious meals
- Taking enough breaks
You wouldn’t risk not fueling before a long trip — don’t do it to your body either.
Secret #13 — “No”
“If the answer isn’t “hell, YEAH! Then it’s a no!” — James Altucher
Warren Buffet comments on saying “No” is a stamp of approval for Mr. Altucher. He said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”
That’s coming from one of the richest people in the world for the past decade — I think he knows a thing or two about getting shit done.
Final thoughts
The best way to put it is like this —
Ultra-productive people have a clearly defined audacious objective they wish to accomplish and carefully remove everything that gets in the way of achieving it.
This happens in steps rather than in one go, but it starts with a destination.
Thanks for reading!
Get your hands on a FREE copy of “Don’t Just Set Goals. Build Systems” if you’re tired of setting goals and not achieving them.
