Productivity isnt just about getting things done.
At its core, its about being resourceful with your time.
Productivity is about getting important things done.
This is part of Lifehackers book review series.
Duhigg is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist at the New York Times and author of the bestsellerThe Power of Habit.
We eveninterviewed Duhigg for our How We Work seriesandexcerpted part of his new book here.
Who This Book Is For
Most of us have beenstuck in the Cult of Busy.
We all have a lot on our plates.
If any of that sounds vaguely familiar, youll get something out of the book.
In short, the book is for anyone who wants to manage time better or optimize their work.
Darlene found the attending physician and said they needed to start the child on intravenous antibiotics.
All they had to go on was Darlenes intuition.
In basic terms, an internal locus of control is the belief that your actions affect your destiny.
To build your own internal locus of control, focus on choices.
Instead what you say is, I saw how hard you worked and you earned that leadership.
Duhigg writes:
In general, the route to establishing psychological safety begins with the teams leader.
So if you are leading a team…think about what message your choices send.
Are you encouraging equality in speaking, or rewarding the loudest people?
To cultivate this safety, team leaders have to give members control.
They must ask for their opinion and put stock in their judgment.
Thats a cognitive tunnel.
Thats you being reactive rather than thinking or being thoughtful.
The solution is to developmental models: envision the outcome of possible events.
When you put yourself in these hypothetical situations, you give yourself the capacity to make choices.
In simple terms, you pull yourself out of autopilot.
The Chapter Goal Setting Explains How to Link Long-Term Goals With Daily Tasks.
Cognitive closure feels productive, so we often make hasty decisions for the satisfaction of getting something done.
We can rush our goal and lose sight of the bigger picture.
That youre not just doing the easy things because it feels so good to check them off?
The key is to combine stretch goalsour bigger, maybe more long-term goalswith traditional SMART goals.
SMART goals are goals that areSpecific,Measurable,Achievable,Relevant,Time-Boxed.
Productive people keep their stretch goal in mind when making monthly, weekly, or daily goals.
The book is chock-full of useful information, though, so youd barely scratch the surface.
One Trick Youll Take Away
Duhiggstwo-step process for motivationis hard to beat.
Personally, though, his tip for combining stretch goals with SMART goals helped the most.
When you make a SMART goal, write your stretch goal at the top of the list.
I do this every morning when I write my daily task list.
It keeps my long-term goal front of mind.
Obviously, were no strangers to that topic.
Onecriticism of productivityis that it turns you into a robot.
You become so concerned with optimization and efficiency that you forget to just live and enjoy life.
This misses the mark, though.
Duhigg knows his stuffthe book is packed with an intimidating amount of knowledge and research.
However, this research only complements and supports his larger, more relatable lessons.
Duhigg takes our most subtle habits and breaks them down in a way thats obvious and digestible.
And I certainly didnt understand how it worked.
Now that I understand it, I can combat itor better yet, make it work in my favor.
