The Productivity Element You’re Probably Ignoring

00:00:00.000 | All right, let's move on.

00:00:03.080 | Now we got a question from Frank.

00:00:06.420 | Frank asks, "What kind of processes you go through

00:00:10.720 | "to figure out what projects to commit to?

00:00:13.020 | "I feel that much of the conversation of productivity

00:00:16.200 | "is around figuring out how to tackle everything

00:00:17.980 | "that is on my plate.

00:00:19.800 | "There is advice on working efficiently through that,

00:00:22.300 | "as well as ways to get some of the stuff off my plate.

00:00:24.460 | "This is all great stuff, but what about making sure

00:00:26.280 | "that the work that I get put on my plate

00:00:27.880 | "is the best choice for my skills and my goals?"

00:00:31.140 | Well, Frank, this is a perfect excuse for me

00:00:34.480 | to remind everyone about the productivity funnel,

00:00:39.400 | a concept from earlier in the podcast

00:00:43.560 | that I think is worth reviewing

00:00:44.840 | 'cause it's very relevant to your question.

00:00:47.660 | So let me see here.

00:00:50.200 | I actually could draw a picture.

00:00:51.540 | In theory, I'm gonna try this.

00:00:53.720 | I'm gonna draw a picture of the funnel.

00:00:56.900 | So here we have, for those who are watching at home,

00:01:00.380 | we now have the screen back up.

00:01:04.280 | So just for those who don't remember,

00:01:06.260 | the productivity funnel has three levels,

00:01:08.760 | which I will expertly draw.

00:01:15.120 | Keeping in mind all three levels

00:01:18.160 | is what's gonna be important for actually

00:01:21.040 | getting a good answer to your question here, Frank.

00:01:24.380 | All right, so if we're gonna label these levels,

00:01:26.000 | what are we gonna get?

00:01:27.080 | At the bottom is where we have,

00:01:32.960 | and people who are watching along at home,

00:01:34.720 | see, I have impeccable handwriting.

00:01:37.440 | I'm still learning this pen.

00:01:38.840 | I don't know, Jessie, what would you think?

00:01:40.720 | That looks like someone having a stroke

00:01:44.040 | because they were drinking too much.

00:01:47.200 | And in the middle of that process,

00:01:48.840 | the drunk person having a stroke was writing the word.

00:01:51.840 | So I'll rewrite it.

00:01:53.920 | So what I was trying to write here

00:01:54.920 | is the word execution.

00:01:56.240 | I'm labeling the bottom level of the three-level funnel.

00:02:01.240 | There we go, that looks better.

00:02:04.160 | - Yeah, that looks good.

00:02:04.980 | - With execution.

00:02:06.240 | Above that, the middle level of the productivity funnel,

00:02:10.920 | we can label organization.

00:02:15.200 | And then the top level,

00:02:20.240 | and this is where it gets relevant, Frank,

00:02:22.760 | let's just summarize, I call this different things,

00:02:25.040 | but for now let's call it selection.

00:02:28.380 | All right, so we have this funnel.

00:02:31.320 | Selection, organization, and execution.

00:02:33.580 | Whoops, I just accidentally moved everything on the screen.

00:02:38.720 | Not to worry.

00:02:40.800 | Boom, now we're back.

00:02:42.640 | All right, and so what happens is you have

00:02:44.920 | a lot of possible things coming into this.

00:02:49.200 | Oh, man.

00:02:51.480 | I'm doing all sorts of interesting things

00:02:52.800 | on my screen down here.

00:02:54.000 | There we go.

00:02:56.220 | Oh my goodness.

00:02:58.520 | There we go.

00:03:00.880 | I'm getting good at this.

00:03:01.840 | It's not riveting radio,

00:03:03.040 | but I'm actually making a lot of progress

00:03:05.160 | on this technology.

00:03:06.000 | So you have a bunch of possible activities

00:03:08.060 | coming to the top of this productivity funnel.

00:03:11.400 | And let me just scroll this up so we can see it.

00:03:13.640 | And then what happens?

00:03:15.920 | Okay, all right, so now I have the whole picture drawn.

00:03:18.100 | Again, for those listening at home,

00:03:19.280 | I'm sure you love the riveting radio here,

00:03:20.960 | but I have a three-level funnel drawn.

00:03:22.760 | At the top, widest part of the funnel is selection.

00:03:27.600 | The middle level of the funnel is organization.

00:03:30.400 | At the bottom is execution.

00:03:32.480 | And there's a bunch of stuff coming

00:03:34.040 | in the top of the funnel.

00:03:35.840 | These are potential activities.

00:03:37.680 | So when it comes to productivity,

00:03:39.080 | there's three parts to it.

00:03:39.920 | Selection is actually trying to figure out

00:03:41.480 | of these things that are incoming,

00:03:43.960 | of these things that are incoming to the funnel,

00:03:46.320 | which of them am I actually going to bring into my system

00:03:49.740 | and actually hope to execute at some point?

00:03:51.840 | So a lot of the things coming in

00:03:53.560 | get blocked right at this point.

00:03:55.920 | We'll talk about more about this in a second, Frank,

00:03:57.680 | because it's at the core of your question.

00:03:59.040 | But just so you know how these pieces fit together,

00:04:01.160 | the things that make it through selection

00:04:02.720 | then have to be organized.

00:04:04.000 | So where are they kept track of?

00:04:05.680 | Where's the information associated

00:04:07.160 | with them getting track of?

00:04:08.480 | Where is the plans that may lay out how they're executed?

00:04:12.040 | When do those plans get made?

00:04:13.280 | How do those plans get consulted?

00:04:15.080 | What role do they have in their life?

00:04:16.600 | All of that happens within organization.

00:04:19.520 | So for example, this is where you'll have capture systems.

00:04:22.400 | This is where you're going to have

00:04:23.680 | your quarterly, weekly planning,

00:04:26.200 | your quarterly, weekly, daily planning,

00:04:27.680 | where you're figuring out big picture plans,

00:04:29.760 | that goes down to a weekly plan.

00:04:30.980 | You figure out what you'll be doing each day.

00:04:32.380 | So there's a lot of work that goes into

00:04:33.820 | organizing what's on your plate.

00:04:35.840 | And then often missed is the bottom,

00:04:37.540 | smallest level of the funnel, which is execution.

00:04:40.960 | We figure out, well, now that I know

00:04:42.480 | what I'm supposed to be doing right now, how do I do it?

00:04:45.320 | Okay, and this is where things like

00:04:48.880 | deep work or the shallow work, minimizing context,

00:04:51.520 | switching rituals, locations, scheduling philosophies,

00:04:53.840 | all the things you do to actually execute your work

00:04:56.360 | at the highest level, that goes there.

00:04:58.400 | This is also where tools that make you more efficient

00:05:00.880 | when you're doing shallow tasks

00:05:02.240 | that would benefit from efficiency,

00:05:03.760 | they would go here as well.

00:05:05.480 | All three of these go into this big picture idea

00:05:08.440 | of productivity.

00:05:09.760 | Now, Frank, based on your question,

00:05:12.320 | you're focusing when you think about productivity

00:05:13.900 | mainly on the middle level organization.

00:05:17.520 | A lot of people make that same distinction.

00:05:19.980 | So the nuts and bolts of how I keep track of and schedule

00:05:22.760 | and organize everything on my plate,

00:05:24.920 | people often think about that's what productivity means,

00:05:27.560 | but that's just the middle part.

00:05:28.920 | You need it, without it, it's chaos.

00:05:32.120 | You're the list reactive method,

00:05:33.520 | just pulling things off of your inbox

00:05:34.980 | and trying to keep your head above water.

00:05:37.040 | But it is not by itself gonna give you

00:05:39.040 | a complete approach to being productive.

00:05:43.360 | That is having a transition from possible inputs to outputs

00:05:47.240 | that matches whatever criteria are important to you.

00:05:50.240 | You're gonna need that activity selection

00:05:51.800 | to come in place first.

00:05:53.360 | So what I'm trying to do here with this funnel, Frank,

00:05:55.140 | is emphasize that figuring out

00:05:57.420 | what to bring onto your plate or not

00:05:59.040 | should be at the core of any thinking about productivity.

00:06:02.640 | And this is deep thinking.

00:06:03.680 | I mean, this is figuring out like,

00:06:04.520 | what do I do for a living?

00:06:05.700 | What is my role?

00:06:06.880 | What are the things I'm gonna focus on on my role?

00:06:08.920 | What are the things that are overwhelming me?

00:06:10.440 | What is the work volume I can actually manage?

00:06:12.680 | And where am I now?

00:06:13.640 | And am I beyond it?

00:06:14.480 | And how do I figure out how not to go beyond it?

00:06:16.440 | This is where you have the hard conversations with your boss.

00:06:19.000 | It's where you do deep to shallow work tracking

00:06:20.600 | and use those metrics to say,

00:06:21.720 | this is too much on my plate.

00:06:23.240 | It's where when you move something

00:06:24.680 | from just individual messages

00:06:26.480 | in which work is implicitly attached,

00:06:28.240 | you move over towards something transparent,

00:06:30.560 | like a task board,

00:06:31.680 | where you can see all of the work that needs to be done

00:06:33.420 | and who's doing what.

00:06:35.160 | So you can point to that and say,

00:06:36.920 | look at how overloaded this is.

00:06:38.640 | This is where you, when you switch from push to pull,

00:06:41.480 | okay, I have another free slot.

00:06:44.760 | Hey, everyone, what should I do next?

00:06:46.160 | As opposed to just send me stuff when you think of it

00:06:48.640 | and I'll take care of it.

00:06:49.800 | All of these things fall under the rubric

00:06:51.640 | of activity selection.

00:06:52.640 | And it is the part of the funnel

00:06:54.560 | that gets the least amount of attention.

00:06:58.000 | Organization is like the meaty, sexy stuff, right?

00:07:00.400 | Oh my God, I have my notion thing set up

00:07:03.080 | and I'm using Trello in the sophisticated way.

00:07:05.240 | And I have these different planners.

00:07:06.520 | That's like the meaty productivity prawn stuff.

00:07:09.480 | Execution, that bottom part of the funnel,

00:07:11.560 | that's the real fun stuff.

00:07:14.040 | That's the, you know, I built my deep work shed

00:07:17.120 | and I go through the hike through the woods.

00:07:18.760 | That's really fulfilling and fun.

00:07:20.200 | It's the try to in the moment

00:07:21.640 | getting the most out of your work.

00:07:23.200 | But activity selection gets ignored.

00:07:25.000 | Even though it's the very top of the funnel.

00:07:28.120 | So it impacts everything that comes below.

00:07:30.260 | It's what gets ignored.

00:07:33.160 | And a lot of the issues we have right now,

00:07:34.920 | I think in knowledge work, the burnout issues,

00:07:37.080 | the overload issues all comes from

00:07:39.680 | ignoring activity selection.

00:07:41.800 | And instead just letting stuff fly at us,

00:07:43.800 | randomly doing our best to keep our head above water

00:07:46.800 | and occasionally calling uncle

00:07:48.840 | when it becomes too hard to stay afloat.

00:07:51.580 | So Frank, I want you to emphasize activity selection.

00:07:55.780 | I want to encourage you to keep in mind that this is hard.

00:07:59.680 | I want to underscore the notion

00:08:01.520 | that there's many different things that go into

00:08:03.800 | trying to figure out that activity selection

00:08:05.760 | piece of your funnel.

00:08:06.600 | It's not just a simple strategy

00:08:07.800 | you can put into place tomorrow,

00:08:09.200 | but I'm glad you're thinking about it.

00:08:10.600 | And it's what you really need to be focusing on.

00:08:13.760 | I'm getting better at this, Jesse, I would say.

00:08:18.360 | I still have quite a few bumps in my pen handling,

00:08:22.560 | but I like this tablet.

00:08:24.040 | And also I'm a fantastic artist.

00:08:26.240 | I think people who are listening

00:08:27.800 | and not watching the YouTube video,

00:08:29.120 | so they can't confirm this.

00:08:30.040 | Let me just say what I drew,

00:08:32.680 | the productivity funnel was beautiful,

00:08:35.200 | perfectly proportional, well-shaded.

00:08:37.920 | My handwriting is fantastic.

00:08:41.080 | And for those who can see this on the video,

00:08:43.760 | don't tell them, that's not nearly true.

00:08:46.440 | - Related to golf, it's like,

00:08:48.680 | but you're also like using other people's clubs.

00:08:50.480 | So like once you get your Apple Pen,

00:08:52.200 | you'll be, you know, cruising.

00:08:53.960 | - That's true.

00:08:54.800 | So I teach with the same software.

00:08:56.320 | So when I teach in the classroom,

00:08:58.320 | I was a blackboard teacher

00:09:01.840 | because I do theory and mathematics

00:09:03.440 | and I don't want to show PowerPoint slides.

00:09:05.240 | There's a natural pacing to writing,

00:09:07.380 | but my handwriting is very bad.

00:09:08.920 | And a lot of the chalkboards at Georgetown are no good.

00:09:10.760 | They're pitted, so you erase them once

00:09:12.120 | and the whole thing is white.

00:09:13.480 | And so I figured out it was really the pandemic

00:09:16.160 | that forced me to switch over to this technology.

00:09:19.360 | During the pandemic,

00:09:20.320 | I began when we were doing Zoom teaching

00:09:23.600 | using my iPad as a whiteboard.

00:09:26.480 | And then I would share the screen on Zoom.

00:09:27.960 | And so then when we got back into the classroom last year,

00:09:31.400 | I realized, oh, I could project my iPad

00:09:34.240 | on the big screen at the front of the room.

00:09:36.480 | And so now I'm writing on my iPad,

00:09:38.280 | but it's projected up on the big screen.

00:09:39.720 | So it's equivalent to me writing on a big whiteboard,

00:09:41.700 | except for it's on my iPad and I can save all the notes

00:09:44.640 | and send them to the students.

00:09:45.920 | And I can scroll and go back to things I wrote before.

00:09:48.860 | So we're using the exact same setup here for the show.

00:09:53.640 | So you think I'd be quicker at it,

00:09:54.600 | but I am using Jesse's pen.

00:09:55.800 | - Yeah, which isn't as good as your pen.

00:09:57.920 | - That's true.

00:09:58.760 | - I have a good pen.

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The Productivity Element You’re Probably Ignoring | Deep Questions with Cal Newport

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