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Productivity

“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” — Franz Kafka

Welcome to Productivity on Sources of Insight!

Master the mindset, skillset, and toolset of better productivity.  I’ve taught productivity and high performance at Microsoft for more than 20 years.  This is an organized index of productivity articles and resources.

All Productivity Articles

Latest Productivity Articles

The Productivity Guide

The Productivity Guide

Getting Started with Productivity

  • Agile Results QuickStart
  • Getting Started with Agile Results

Frameworks, Mindsets, Methods, and Models

  • 30 Day Improvement Sprints
  • My Three Wins
  • Peaceful Calm – Achieve a Peaceful Calm State of Mind
  • Productivity is a Remarkably Good Thing
  • To Do, Doing, Done

Training

30 Days of Getting Results (Free)

Key Resources

  • Books – Best Productivity Books
  • Checklists – Focus Checklist | The Charge Checklist | Time Management Checklist
  • Quotes – Best Productivity Quotes

Productivity Topics

General

  • 3 Outcomes for Today
  • Agile Results QuickStart
  • Be Effective, then Efficient
  • Get Unstuck
  • Just Start
  • Use Three Stories to Drive Your Day
  • Why Write Things Down?
  • Wrap Your Day Around Your Mission

Action

  • How To Do Tasks More Efficiently
  • Iterate More, Plan Less
  • Prioritize Your Day with MUST, SHOULD, COULD
  • Rituals for Results
  • Scrimmage Your Results Start with Something Simple
  • Starting is the Hardest Part
  • Quick and Thirty Getting Things Done

Focus

  • 101 Proven Practices for Improving Your Focus
  • Focus on the Wildly Important
  • Framing the Problem to Focus and Prioritize
  • How To Instantly Triple Your Focus and Get More Things Done
  • Life Frame: The 7 Life Categories for Work Life Effectiveness
  • Less is More, Slower is Better
  • Monday Vision – Use Three Stories to Drive Your Week
  • Shut Down, Compartmentalize, or Channelize

Goals

  • 10 Reasons that Stop You from Reaching Your Goals
  • Brian Tracy on the Best Times for Writing and Reviewing Your Goals
  • Goal Setting vs. Goal Planning
  • How Brian Tracy Sets Goals
  • How Dreams, Goals, and Habits Fit Together
  • How I Design My Year
  • How John Maxwell Sets Goals
  • How Tony Robbins Sets Goals
  • How Tony Robbins Transformed His Life with Goals
  • Knowledge Workers Must Focus on the Results
  • Productivity Objectives: Effectiveness Wins in the Long Run
  • The Power of Dreams
  • Vowing Doesn’t Work But Concrete Plans Do

Habits

  • 8 Steps for Building a Habit Stacking Routine
  • Innovate in Your Approach
  • Rituals for Results
  • The Power of Habit Stacking
  • Why Use Routines?

High Performance

  • 3 Keys to Peak Performance: Commitment, Completion, and Closure
  • 5 Choices of Extraordinary Productivity
  • 25 Keys to Getting Better Results
  • Add Creative Hours to Your Week
  • Add Power Hours to Your Week
  • Feedback: The Ultimate Key To High Performance
  • Find Your Arena for Your Best Results
  • Find Your Unique 20 Percent Spike
  • High-Performance Mode vs. Grind-It-Out Mode
  • How To Scale Yourself as a One-Man Band
  • Master Faster
  • Motivation, Skills, and Feedback
  • Multiply Your Productivity by 10,000 Times
  • SWAT Mode for Extreme Productivity
  • The 20 Percent Spike
  • The Power of Certainty
  • What is the Secret to Insane Productivity

Information Management

  • 10 Ways to Improve How You Manage Information
  • Dump Your Brain to Free Your Mind
  • How To Read 10,000 Words a Minute
  • Sweep It: How To Clean Up the Mess that Adds Up

Motivation / Energy

  • 4 Sources of Strength
  • Add Power Hours to Your Week
  • Catalysts and Drains: Get a Handle on Your Energy
  • Feel Strong All Week Long
  • How To Avoid Mental Burnout
  • Manage Energy, Not Time
  • Master Motivation: The Keys to Motivating Yourself and Finding Your Drive
  • Peaceful Calm – Achieve a Peaceful Calm State of Mind
  • Reduce Friction and Create Glide Paths for Your Day
  • Start Your Day Like Tony Robbins
  • The Seven Major Catalysts that Inspire Progress
  • Use Metaphors to Find Your Motivation
  • Why Do We Procrastinate?

Planning

  • Design Your Week with Skill
  • Monthly Planning with Agile Results
  • Vowing Doesn’t Work But Concrete Plans Do

Prioritizing

  • Prioritize Your Day with MUST, SHOULD, COULD
  • What’s Worth Doing Today?
  • Worst Things First

Productivity Personas

  • Productivity Personas
  • Productivity Personas – Are You a Starter or a Finisher?
  • Simplifiers vs. Optimizers
  • Supertaskers: How Some People Task-Switch Faster and How You Can Too
  • The Procrastinators, The Disengaged, The Distractors, and The Purposeful

Strengths

  • 4 Sources of Strength
  • Add Power Hours to Your Week
  • Design Your Week with Skill
  • Feel Strong All Week Long
  • How To Find Your Strengths
  • Outsource Your 80 Percent
  • The 20 Percent Spike

Task Management

  • 3 Steps to Crush Your Overwhelming List of Things To Do
  • How To Do Tasks More Efficiently
  • Let Things Slough Off
  • Prioritize Your Day with MUST, SHOULD, COULD
  • Shut Down, Compartmentalize, or Channelize
  • Start with Something Simple
  • Supertaskers: How Some People Task-Switch Faster and How You Can Too
  • To Do, Doing, Done
  • To-Do Lists are Great
  • Triage Your Action Items
  • Worst Things First

Time Management

  • 3 Keys to Effective Time Management
  • 7 Strategies for Better Time Management
  • Carve Out Time for What’s Important
  • Design Your Week with Skill
  • How To Use Timeboxing for Getting Results
  • Manage Energy, Not Time
  • The Starting Point of Time Management is Goals, Priorities, and Value
  • There is No Shortage of Time
  • Time is the Limiting Factor
  • Timebox Your Day for Better Results
  • Timeboxing, Rhythm, and Incremental Value

Work-Life Balance

  • Life Frame: The 7 Life Categories for Work Life Effectiveness
  • Setup Boundaries and Buffers
  • The Ultimate Work-Life Balance System is You

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