The Productivity Project

Book excerpt: 'A fun, interesting, and useful read!' David Allen, bestselling author of Getting Things Done Nearly all of us want to be more productive, but finding the method that works for you among the hundreds and hundreds of different tips, tricks and hacks can be a daunting prospect. After graduating college, Chris Bailey decided to dedicate a whole year to doing just that - experimenting with as many of the techniques as he could, and finding the things that work. Among the experiments that he undertook are: going several weeks on little to no sleep; cutting out caffeine and sugar; taking a daily siesta; living in total isolation for 10 days; stretching his workweek to 90 hours; and getting up at 5:30 every morning, all the while monitoring the impact of his experiments on the quality and quantity of his work. The results were often surprising! This book is the result of Chris's year-long journey, distilling the lessons he learned into a few core truths about how we get things done (or, indeed, don't). Among the many counterintuitive insights Chris discovered that had the biggest impact on his productivity were striving for imperfection; scheduling less time for important tasks; the 20 second rule to distract yourself from distractions; and the concept of productive procrastination. In this accessible and fun guide, Chris Bailey offers over 30 tried-and-tested best practices that will help everyone to accomplish more - and become more awesome.