Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=93&v=REFh5TMOoS0
and watch the presentation A More Human Approach to Productivity.
His book is presented at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW2F4dOCC3U . You can choose this video instead.
Present your thoughts on the productivity project and share with us your personal experiences.
I like the way, how the author of presentation tests advice for being productive. Many books shows “the best way to..”, but not takes into account differences between people. Most important conclusion for me is to test, what works, not for a day or two, but during the longer period. His findings about attention, time and energy are not spectacular and he did not convince me that his approach is something new. However structured system of managing is better than none. I do not use any special techniques to being productive, but after watching those videos I can list what works in my life: not using internet on my phone, having breaks, doing most important thing in the morning or in the beginning of work, catching boredom and frustration while working or learning.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Chris about the phones. The constant use of smartphones limits our productivity because we are constantly staring at the small screen. I decided to limit the use of the phone and I noticed that I was more focused on the task, thanks to which I achieved better results.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting it is what Chris said about meditation, and the more I think about it, I believe that my life is lacking in this aspect. I must try meditation!
Dajana Kubica
I have mixed feelings about author's talk. His lecture is certainly very inspiring, it brings an important topic which everyone can relate to. However, I can't help but think that his suggestions about being productive are overly truistic and inapplicable in today's world. We have to multitask on daily basis, don't have a luxury of enough time to meditate,exercise,get enough sleep,relax,daydream and often can't reduce time we spend on the Internet. I would like to believe that maintaining a balance he proposes could work but unfortunately it is not possible to me.
ReplyDeleteHi Bartosz, I do agree that the presentation has been pretty trivial, however from what you wrote I remembered one of the best quotes I ever read. It will not be a direct quote, however this appeared in the book "Bringing out the best in people" by Aubrey / Daniels which was (suprisingly) very good (for having such a daft name)! It went something like that (in relation to working with the employees you are managing): "many managers think, that they can't really work with their employees because they have so little time and so much to do. To that I answer, this lack of time is precisely why you should work with them." This has hit home with me on so many levels. For instance, if you work better with your team, you are able to accomplish so much more, therefore freeing up your time. Whenever I feel like: I don't really have time for this - this is my cue to start wondering whether this is actually something I need to make room for. From your example, look what you did. You watched a lecture on productivity, and then went on to say that you can't find time to work on your productivity. Well, the sole purpose of working on your productivity is to accomplish more in less time, therefore if you are a person that doesn't have time, you are the perfect person to try out a new approach.
DeleteSuch books are somewhat silly to me. It appears the autors teach how to become rich, but their richness is because they sell such books or achieved it by luck or fraud. I assume maybe even majority of 'gurus' of productivity write such books for money. There usually are no big discoveries. If somebody is lasy, maybe it is. But if somone just live and not only sit on their butt, they know how to spend their time effectively. Guys, every such knowledge is already in you... or at least your subconsciousness. It is logical that phone nowadays tooks time. Youtube tooks time. Facebook tooks time. School tooks time. Work tooks time. You need eat well, sleep well, do not be lazy, find motivation, wake up early morning and have goals. Meditation, as contemplation, and thinking also, are very good and helpful in life. So big deal. No book and 'gurus' needed.
ReplyDeleteChris findings about productivity are not very spectacular or groundbreaking yet so many people are struggling to be productive or even see how much they are wasting their time. Every day I see people staring at facebook, twitter etc., playing silly games on their phones and I’m pretty sure that they don't really think about what they are doing. To even try to really be productive, first you have to be mindful.
ReplyDeleteI use almost every technique that Chris found out in his research. I discovered that I am most productive in the morning so I wake up very early, almost every day I make a list of things I want to do that day and I try to limit use of my phone to minimum when I’m working. I really think that everybody can achieve regular day schedule and find time for many things including healthy diet and workout. Of course it is not possible to do everything so you have to prioritize thing that are most important.
I agree with many things we mentioned. Especially the last one,getting things on your waiting list in the future. I can relate with writing things down on the list helps to get it out of the mind. I create lists to get things done or to remember what I need to achieve or just to remind myself about something.
ReplyDeleteI also liked point with having best productivity hours. I use this technique at work. I don't need to measure when I'm most productive. I start my day early usually 7-8 am. I am most productive in the morning and my productivity decreases throughout the day. I am very lucky that I can do this as some people are night owls and prefer work later hours which is not always possible with some jobs.
I don't think this kind of books is essential to people. We have much of this kind of knowledge and tips inside us, just use your brain and focus on what you need to achieve.
I never focus on expanding my productivity. I know from experience what Chris mentioned, that sleep, sport and properly balanced work are the key to success. It seems to me He didn't say anything surprising in the presentation. The fact that we should use less of a smartphone is obvious, probably each of us has noticed that it is very distracting. In my opinion, good planning of your work and rest is the key to success.
ReplyDeleteMeditations... I have never tried, at the moment it seems to me unnecessary.
However, I do not rule out that this is a great way to relax and organize your thoughts. For sure it is a great relaxation which we often miss in our busy world.
Sport is one of the things that helps me keep my balance, motivation, energy and strength.
I didn't find any thought in this talk, that I wouldn't know about. Things that Chris mentioned are really obvious and everybody should know about them. Also I really don't like when there are tons of possibilities to measure results by figures and in this talk we saw only one percentage, when there should be atleast one chart for each thing that Chris mentioned. Somehow this kind of experiment done on myself could lead me to interesting conclusions, but it's impossible to find few months for that kind of testing during actual phase of my life, but maybe I will be able to give it a try after finishing my master's degree.
ReplyDeleteI think most of what Chris mentioned is common knowledge at this point. I honestly think that watching too many videos about productivity is counter productive itself considering how repetitive they are. The hard part is to simply implement all this habits into our daily life. So if someone want to boost their productivity then 'just do it'. You know how to do it. Don't waste time on another book.
ReplyDeleteExactly. There is nothing less productive then watching a video about how to become more productive.
DeleteThe presentation of Chris is very interesting but that's all he's talking about, it was not new to me...
ReplyDeleteI agree with this when he spoke about smartphone. Using smartphones definitely reduces our productivity. Nowadays, we are constantly under stress and what Chris said: sleep, physical activity and well-balanced work are very important to success.
To sum up: a nice presentation, he listens curiously, but in my opinion he did not say a thread that would make an impression on me
The book gives you the answers to why you procrastinate and how to fix it. I think thanks to this book you can tremendously change the way how you approach at work. The techniques are effective and simple. The credibility of the author adds the examples of his personal experiments. That is what really sets this book in first place in comparision to another books about similar subject.
ReplyDeleteI liked the talk, and I agree with the author. I found rule of 3 very interesting, the idea of meditating and focusing on your breath and whole concept of mindfulness. It's nice that author also tested those methods on himself. It's good that he pointed out the need of healthy eating, efficient sleeping and increasing the heart rate few times a day. I found those tips very interesting and maybe I'll be able to implement them in practice.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy the speech a lot. I've found out Chris's advices quite helpful and interesting, not like they were something revealing, but having them combined makes it a great source of productivity tips. The 3 main factors which define the productivity are time, energy and attention. Unlike everyone else is thinking the more time we spend on a task doesn't mean we are more productive, so we need to have all those 3 elements balanced. One more thing that also brought my attention are procrastination triggers. We should keep an eye on them while doing our daily tasks so that we can avoid decrease of our productivity. At the end I've even started thinking about reading the book. I definitely need to work on my personal productivity so I will use those tips for sure.
ReplyDeleteMateusz Jędrzejewski
Mateusz, I respect your opinion, but I cannot agree with you. As some other people wrote, in the video we couldn't find anything revealing. Chris pointed that we should focus on time, energy and attention. I think that you can create similar presentation about being responsible or a good guy :) Lately, it is popular to speak truisms like what we need to implement to our life to be happy and fulfilled. Vast majority of people is trying to be productive every day at maximum and I think they are creating and updating their own recipe for happiness ever without "words of wisdom" :)
DeleteThe notions brought forward by Chris have not been very revealing for me. You can find multiple videos on Youtube regarding scheduling, utilizing the example of big rocks, pebbles and sand (aka his rule of three). The weird part was the 35h a week of meditation. I immediately thought to myself, holy crap, that guy must be half way through to ascension right now! I mean, just think about it. The week has a total of 168 hours. Say you sleep 7h a day, that gives us 49h. Another 35h for meditation, totalling 84h (50% of the whole week!!!). You probably work for another 40h, if we add it up, we're left with 44h. Commute, roughly 1.5h per working day, another 7.5h so that trims it down to 36.5 or 5h15m a day. And I am not even putting in the stuff that you actually need to do, like maybe some house chores, he says you should fuel yourself, so you should probably eat, another 4.2 - 7h a week (depending whether you eat dinner within your work time), probably do some grocery shopping, maybe cook? If you cook, you need to clean after yourself, so that burns through those hours quickly...
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I might be just nitpicking and I get it. But, come on, 35h? I would probably explode if I spent so much time within myself.
What did stand out for me, and I would say is a key to whatever you do, is his "working with intention." Whatever we do, it is truly much more effective if we really mean to do it. Like the great motivator Ice Cube once said: "You can do it, put your back into it."
I really like the Thomas’s presentation about "The Productivity Project" book. This knowledge helps us to make our work more productive. I think that point no 5 is very important in work. Every day we have a lot of things to do. It is hard to remember all those information without planning all tasks. We have to schedule our work and “waiting for” lists could really help us to be more productive.
ReplyDeleteAs a few people mentioned before, I found Thomas's presentation a bit trivial. I guess most of us here got full time job, school on the weekends, passions, friends, and family. Our presence here witness that we've learned most of the mentioned methods on our own. As human beings we naturally looking for a magic pill that bring any desirable outcome. But the sad truth is that only hard work, dedication, and discipline will provide us tools to right menage our time. I can't say that I disagree with any of Thomas's statements but for me most important thing is to find something in your life that you're most hungry about and then every activity you're suppose to do during the day will be with that thought at the back of your head that you're doing it for some reason. According to my personal experience that was turning point in long and really unequal fight with putting everyday tasks in only 24 hours in a day. "Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full."
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