Productivity imProving Practice

By Duncan Anderson. To see all blogs click here.

Summary: 

• Productivity can be improved with practice.

• The best way to spend your excess mental energy is to invest it in productivity practice. 

Overview: 

• You can cultivate maths ability, physical strength, video game ability, empathy ability, creativity ability… and productivity ability. 

• Investing excess energy in productivity practice 1. Increases productive output in the short term + 2. Decreases the effort needed for productive output in the long term (when energy is waning)

• Improving how much you can get done per hour = 1. Good for the world + 2. Good for you + 3. Good for Edrolo (the company you work at)

• Improving productive output done well = energising

  • Get more done AND get more energy from work. 

• Improving units of output = 1. Increasing output maximum * 2. Increasing the duration you can get output done. 1

• Cultivation practice 1: Higher Max

• Cultivation practice 2: Slower Decay

• Typically for 1 hour a day I push myself to set a new ‘high water mark for Max output’ and push myself to ‘decrease my productive decay’. I've found that doing this well is energising. For details on how I try to do this please read on! 

Jingle: don’t spend your mental energy on depreciating assets, earn interest with an energy investment

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Details

• Effect on the world = 1. Units of output * 2. How you spend the units

  • To maximise improvement  to the world you need to

    • Maximise “1. Units of output”

    • Choose “2. How you spend the units” so they contribute towards effective improvement

  • This blog is only concerned with “1. Units of output”

  • 2. How you spend the unit = 2.1 what you are focused on (pointing in the right direction) + 2.2 are you efficiently going in that direction (eg see ‘Make your environment work for you, not against you’ (productive vs unproductive task switching))

• Get more done in the same time with better energy. 

  • Getting things done well gives me energy. But doing things badly takes energy from me. How to balance this dichotomy? 

  • My energy over a day:

• Normally my energy depletes over the day. 

• In the morning I have excess energy 

• How can I use this excess energy in the morning in a good… productive... way? 

  • One thing I do when I have excess morning energy is I use it to grow my ‘1. Max Productivity Level’ and ‘2. Reduce my productivity decay level.’ 

  • This allows me to 1. Grow productivity and 2. Concentrate on the problem at hand better. WIN WIN baby! 

  • Don’t ask yourself for extra energy in the afternoon. That be draining y’all! 

• Running analogy

  • If you have never been running before you are not going to be very good at it. 

  • If you want to run 10 km it might take you 1.5 hours. 

  • However if you train for a marathon you might move from taking 1.5 hours to 45 mins.

  • Through marathon training you’ll seriously increase your ‘max speed’ and ‘length you can maintain that max speed’. 

  • Also, you can learn to ‘love’ running from ‘hating it’. And the amount of energy needed to go 10km can go down significantly. 

  • Wait wait wait… hold up. Are you saying that with running training you can: 

    • 1. Run at a higher top speed

    • 2. Run at the top speed for longer

    • 3. Enjoy running way more

    • AND, 4. Use less energy to go the same difference?

    • YES! 

  • I think you can accomplish the exact same thing with your mind:

    • 1. You can have a higher max output level

    • 2. You can sustain higher output for much longer

    • 3. You can enjoy the process of growing your mind

    • 4. You can get more done with less energy input

  • One key difference between your mind and your body… as far as I’m aware there are very few physical constraints with your mind (eg is there a max speed for your mind? IMO no) whereas there are limits to your physiology. So this fun game of improving mental productivity is one that never stops giving. 

• What my output looks like with zero external energy input

  • I start at 80% of max output with ‘zero external energy input’

  • Output then decays and I’ll normally have a break or switch tasks when I feel myself get to 70%. 

    • See ‘work with your environment, not against it’

    • I find a 2 min break or switching to a different task can reset me back to 80%. 

• To lift my ‘Max Output’ and decrease my ‘natural level of decay’ I’ll typically push myself to grow in both respects for 1 hour a day. Ie use excess energy to grow myself. 

• Jingle: You should go to the gym for your body once a day. You should go to the gym for your mind once a day. 

• Typically I’ll spend ~1 hour a day in the morning using excess energy to try and set a new ‘output max’ and ‘temper myself against output decay’. 

  • I’ll typically go for a new max of 105% and hold myself to less decay such as the following. 

• 100% is my previous high water mark. Ie the best output max I’ve had to date. 

• By pushing myself into new territory (ie 105%) I’ve found I effectively increase my high watermark. So

  • Max: 100% => 105% => 110% etc. 

  • But also below 100% my “Natural Output Level At Zero Excess Energy” (or NOLAZEE) is “80%”. By lifting my max output level I find that my NOLAZEE also increase. Ie NOLAZEE: 80 => 85% => 90%. 

    • THIS IS FARKING COOL! 

    • So I get more done with the same energy. I’m just ‘fitter’. 

    • … but wait for this… realising that I get more done with the same energy… gives me more energy. 

    • So being fitter makes me fitter. 

• I feel this point bears reiterating. 

  • NOLAZEE = 80% of max output. 

  • But through the ‘Productivity imProving Practice’ described above the output I get done at 80% of max level constantly goes up. 

  • So output goes up but energy needed doesn’t go up! Free money baby! 

• Example using hard numbers. 

  • Let’s say that your current max (100%) units of output an hour is 50 units. 

  • This means that NOLAZEE (80%) is 40 units of output. Ie I can get 40 units of output without pushing myself to get more done. 

  • I use excess energy to set a new ‘high water mark’ / max / 100%. This move my max units of output o 52.5. So it’s more units per hour, ie speed! 

  • What this means is that my new NOLAZEE is 52.5 * 0.8 = 42 units. 

  • So over time what I can get done with zero excess energy (NOLAZEE) improves from 40 => 42. This is akin to being able to go for a run and running faster without spending more energy. 

• Output outcome

  • By growing your max output and decreasing your output decay profile you get more done. 

• Energy outcome

  • First order outcome: For 1 hour in the morning each day doing these growth activities gives me energy. 

    • It’s fun. 

    • I don’t want to do it all day every day. 

    • I typically don’t want to grow my productivity in the afternoon. That is draining! 

  • Second order outcome: realising that I have a higher output for the rest of the day because the 1 hour of growth gives me energy 

  • Conclusion: Done well all hours have improved energy from this ‘Productivity imProving Practice’! You get to have your cake and eat it too… 

    • BTW I’m proud of this mixing of metaphors here. 

    • I’ve linked growing your mind to growing your body through exercise. 

    • But then I’ve said that growing your mind is ‘like eating cake’. 

    • So improving your mind is getting to eat cake (unhealthy food) but have it be healthy for you :) Yay! Twisted logic puzzle fun! 

• Why not push yourself for increasing productivity every hour of every day? 

  • Doing this ‘Productivity imProving Practice’ for 1 hour a day I’ve found gives me energy. As above, doing it all day I’ve found at some point becomes draining and so is actually counterproductive to 1. Your output and 2. Your enjoyment! 

  • On top of this there is normally 0-3x tasks on a day that require 100% output because of time pressure. So I want to have a bunch of ‘reserves’ in the tank which I can call upon to lift productivity outside of ‘planned upgrades’ if I need to get something done. I don’t care if I finish the day with energy in reserve (actually can find this to be a very good thing), I do care however if I need to ‘lift productivity’ but can’t as I’m already too fried from pushing things unnecessarily. 

  • “Hope for the best plan for the worst.”

    • Ideally I’ve always got energy in reserve to call on if I need to lift output. 

    • IMO the goal isn’t to spend all the energy you have each day. The goal is to enjoy each day as much as possible. This means net net you are actually looking for work to give you energy, not be the place you spend energy. 

    • I used to try and ‘leave it all on the field every day’. Now I only want to have ‘it all left on the field’ if external circumstances have called for it. I try very hard not to push myself there internally! 

  • “To make money you have to spend money.”

    • I have to ‘spend’ energy on ‘improving productivity’ but done well I get far more energy back from the energy investment than I put in. Ie it’s positive sum baby! 

    • Want to have lots of energy in your life? Don't hoard it, get good at giving it to other things and people in a way where it comes back in far greater quantities than you put in! 

• I don’t just want to try and make the world better; I want to make myself better. I don’t just want to give energy to others; I want to get energy from others and work in a positive sum fashion (ie more given back than put in). The best things are selfless and selfish people! 

If you can take away only one thing from this blog what would I suggest it be? 

• Growing your output ability can and should be energising.