The Productivity Project

The more disconnected you are from your future self, the more likely you are to do things like:

Give your future self more work than you would give your present self

Agree to unproductive or pointless meetings far off in the future

Keep ten uninspiring documentaries around on your PVR that you’ll “get around to watching”

Continually transfer aversive tasks to tomorrow’s to-do list

Save less money for retirement

But our prefrontal cortex wins out a lot of the time, too. It is the reason we set aside money for retirement, hit the gym after work to get into shape, overcome the six triggers of procrastination, and read about productivity. It’s the part of your brain that is constantly fighting for you to achieve your long-term goals, instead of the goals that are only pleasurable in the short term. And it is nearly impossible to become more productive without a strong prefrontal cortex.

the best attitude to have with productivity is an odd one: to never be satisfied—but to continually find ways to cultivate happiness.

American Time Use Survey, the average employed person aged twenty-five to fifty-four with kids spends:

• 8.7 hours a day working

• 7.7 hours a day sleeping

• 1.1 hours a day on household chores

• 1.0 hours a day eating and drinking

• 1.3 hours a day caring for others

• 1.7 hours a day on “Other”

• 2.5 hours a day on leisure activities

In this new environment, the most productive people not only manage their time well—they also manage their attention and energy well

Productivity is often a process of understanding your constraints.

The power of incremental improvements lies in the fact that although they’re not significant by themselves, week after week, month after month, they add up to produce results in the long term that will blow you away. Small changes lead to big results, especially when food is involved.

Single tasking is one of the best ways to tame a wandering mind, because it helps you build up your “attention muscle” and carve out more attentional space around the task you are tackling in the moment. It is also a powerful tool for improving your memory. Just as working out in the gym builds the muscles in your body, continually drawing your attention back to your chosen task has been shown to build your attention muscle.

Dealing with distractions before they happen, like by shutting off alerts on your phone for new messages, helps you avoid attention-hijacking interruptions. It can take as many as twenty-five minutes to refocus on the task at hand after being interrupted.

Letting your mind wander without distraction, such as when you’re in the shower, is beneficial for brainstorming, problem solving, and becoming more creative.