blog.pmarca.com: The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity - The Diigo Meta page

• 21 Jan 09
  

  doxyer Liu

  Productivity

  Productivity MarcAndreessen

  • Let's start with a bang: don't keep a schedule
  • As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.
  • 11 more annotations...
  • • This idea comes from a wonderful book called A Perfect Mess, which explains how not keeping a schedule has been key to Arnold Schwarzenegger's success as a movie star, politician, and businessman over the last 20 years.
    • This also gives you the best odds of maximizing flow, which is a whole 'nother topic but highly related.
    • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
    • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
      
      

      And then, the next day, do those things.

    • Structured Procrastination.
      
      

      This is a great one

    • Read his original description, by all means.

    • Generally in the course of a day, there is something you have to do that you are not doing because you are procrastinating.

      
      
      

      While you're procrastinating, just do lots of other stuff instead.

    • The other key two-word tactic: Strategic Incompetence.
      
      

      The best way to to make sure that you are never asked to do something again is to royally screw it up the first time you are asked to do it.

    • Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes.
    • While I find GTD to be highly inspiring, in practice I think it's awfully complex.
    • For me, an organization system that requires significant time to deal with in and of itself is not optimal.
• 06 Jun 08
  

  Sam Kitonyi
  • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
    
    

    And then, the next day, do those things.

    
    
    

    I sit down at my desk before I go to sleep, pull up my Todo List (which I keep in Microsoft Word's outline mode, due to long habit), and pick out the 3 to 5 things I am going to get done tomorrow. I write those things on a fresh 3x5 card, lay the card out with my card keys, and go to bed. Then, the next day, I try like hell to get just those things done. If I do, it was a successful day.

  • Only doing email twice a day will make you far more productive for the rest of the day.

    
    
    

    The problem with email is that getting an email triggers that same endorphin hit I mentioned above -- the one that a mouse gets when he bonks on the button in the cage and gets a food pellet.

    
    
    

    Responding to an email triggers that same hit.

    
    
    

    The pleasure chemical hits your neocortex and you go "ahhh" inside and feel like you've done something.

    
    
    

    So you sit and work with your mail client open and you interrupt your work every time an email comes in and you answer it and you send another email and you feel great in the moment.

    
    
    

    But what you're really doing is fracturing your time, interrupting your flow, and killing your ability to focus on anything long enough to get real high-quality work done.

• 05 Jun 08
  

  Mano Cheema

  Productivity

• 31 May 08
  

  Mahmoud H

  Entrepreneurship

• 05 May 08
  

  Mike Thomsen

  marc andreessen productivity lifehacks organization procrastination how to

• 02 May 08
  

  Roger Chen
  • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
  • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
  • 1 more annotations...
  • • Then, throughout the rest of the day, use the back of the 3x5 card as your Anti-Todo List.
• 12 Apr 08
  

  Chuck Brands

  Amazingly simple

• 23 Mar 08
  

  Brendon Cromwell

  lifehacks organization productivity timemanagement tips

• 22 Mar 08
  

  altec7
• 21 Mar 08
  

  gaurav bhatia

  guide howto lifehacks organization productivity tips

• 04 Mar 08
  

  folasm

  productivity

• 15 Feb 08
  

  netklon

  2read

• 06 Feb 08
  

  juandesant

  essay list productivity techniques

• 02 Feb 08
  

  gtd

• 29 Jan 08
  

  lvittes

  gtd

• 28 Jan 08
  

  johnwin

  gtd lifehacks organization procrastination productivity tips work

• 13 Jan 08
  

  Henk Nouwens

  productiviteit lists tips

• 09 Jan 08
  

  Rick Dobrowolski

  gtd lifehacks productivity

• 05 Jan 08
  

  Stephan lamprecht

  arbeitswelt blogs gtd lifehacks produktivität

• 19 Dec 07
  

  patrin

  organization productivity

• 28 Nov 07
  

  Ton Boelens

  article lifehacks productivity tonsoftime

• 29 Oct 07
  

  Shanta Rohse

  Do you really have the guts to do these?
  
  

  productivity marc_andreessen delicious_import

• 16 Sep 07
  

  Don

  General

• 06 Sep 07
  

  advice article articles blog blogs business del.icio.us gtd imported lifehacks organization productivity tips work

• 

  Fabiano Caruso

  del.icio.us gtd howto lifehacks productivity

• 26 Aug 07
  

  Ethan Jewett

  productivity gtd organization procrastination work performance

• 11 Aug 07
  

  Kate Connors

  article toread tips productivity

• 09 Aug 07
  

  Brooke Thomas

  advice articles blogs productivity gtd lifehacks organization tips procrastination work

• 08 Aug 07
  

  eyal matsliah

  career productivity

  • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
    
    

    The more into lists you are, the more important this is.

    
    
    

    Into the Todo List goes all the stuff you "must" do -- commitments, obligations, things that have to be done. A single list, possibly subcategorized by timeframe (today, this week, next week, next month).

    
    
    

    Into the Watch List goes all the stuff going on in your life that you have to follow up on, wait for someone else to get back to you on, remind yourself of in the future, or otherwise remember.

    
    
    

    Into the Later List goes everything else -- everything you might want to do or will do when you have time or wish you could do.

    
    
    

    If it doesn't go on one of those three lists, it goes away.

  • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
    
    

    And then, the next day, do those things.

  • 15 more annotations...
  • • Then, throughout the rest of the day, use the back of the 3x5 card as your Anti-Todo List.
    • Each time you do something, you get to write it down
    • And then at the end of the day, before you prepare tomorrow's 3x5 card, take a look at today's card and its Anti-Todo list and marvel at all the things you actually got done that day.
    • Structured Procrastination.
    • The gist of Structured Procrastination is that you should never fight the tendency to procrastinate -- instead, you should use it to your advantage in order to get other things done.
    • While you're procrastinating, just do lots of other stuff instead.
    • Do email exactly twice a day -- say, once first thing in the morning, and once at the end of the workday.
    • When you do process email, do it like this:
      
      

      First, always finish each of your two daily email sessions with a completely empty inbox.

    • Second, when doing email, either answer or file every single message until you get to that empty inbox state of grace.
    • Third, emails relating to topics that are current working projects or pressing issues go into temporary subfolders of a folder called Action.
    • Fourth, aside from those temporary Action subfolders, only keep three standing email folders: Pending, Review, and Vault.
    • Don't answer the phone.
      
      

      Let it go to voicemail, and then every few hours, screen your voicemails and batch the return calls.

    • no matter what time you get up, start the day with a real, sit-down breakfast.
    • Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes.
    • Do something you love.
• 03 Aug 07
  

  Maggie Tsai

  productivity

• 

  Wade Ren

  productivity

  • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
    
    

    The more into lists you are, the more important this is.

    
    
    

    Into the Todo List goes all the stuff you "must" do -- commitments, obligations, things that have to be done. A single list, possibly subcategorized by timeframe (today, this week, next week, next month).

    
    
    

    Into the Watch List goes all the stuff going on in your life that you have to follow up on, wait for someone else to get back to you on, remind yourself of in the future, or otherwise remember.

    
    
    

    Into the Later List goes everything else -- everything you might want to do or will do when you have time or wish you could do.

    
    
    

    If it doesn't go on one of those three lists, it goes away.

  • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
    
    

    And then, the next day, do those things.

    
    
    

    I sit down at my desk before I go to sleep, pull up my Todo List (which I keep in Microsoft Word's outline mode, due to long habit), and pick out the 3 to 5 things I am going to get done tomorrow. I write those things on a fresh 3x5 card, lay the card out with my card keys, and go to bed. Then, the next day, I try like hell to get just those things done. If I do, it was a successful day.

    
    
    

    People who have tried lots of productivity porn techniques will tell you that this is one of the most successful techniques they have ever tried.

    
    
    

    Once you get into the habit, you start to realize how many days you used to have when you wouldn't get 3 to 5 important/significant/meaningful things done during a day.

  • 4 more annotations...
  • • Then, throughout the rest of the day, use the back of the 3x5 card as your Anti-Todo List.
      
      

      This isn't a real list. And the name is tongue firmly in cheek.

      
      
      

      What you do is this: every time you do something -- anything -- useful during the day, write it down in your Anti-Todo List on the card.

      
      
      

      Each time you do something, you get to write it down and you get that little rush of endorphins that the mouse gets every time he presses the button in his cage and gets a food pellet.

      
      
      

      And then at the end of the day, before you prepare tomorrow's 3x5 card, take a look at today's card and its Anti-Todo list and marvel at all the things you actually got done that day.

    • Structured Procrastination.

    • The gist of Structured Procrastination is that you should never fight the tendency to procrastinate -- instead, you should use it to your advantage in order to get other things done.

      
      
      

      Generally in the course of a day, there is something you have to do that you are not doing because you are procrastinating.

    • start the day with a real, sit-down breakfast.

      
      
      

      This serves two purposes.

      
      
      

      First, it fuels you up. Study after study have shown that breakfast is, yes, the most important meal of the day. It's critical to properly fuel the body for the day's activities and it's also critical to staying lean or losing weight. (People who don't have breakfast tend to eat more, and worse, at lunch.)

      
      
      

      Second, it gives you a chance to calmly, peacefully collect your thoughts and prepare mentally and emotionally for the day ahead.

• 27 Jul 07
  

  sanchomdv
• 25 Jul 07
  

  Steve Hargadon

  andreessen productivity

• 16 Jul 07
  

  the_librarian

  article del.icio.us imported productivity zeitmanagement

• 25 Jun 07
  

  dope priest

  lifehacks howto reference @later

  • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
    
    

    The more into lists you are, the more important this is.

    
    
    

    Into the Todo List goes all the stuff you "must" do -- commitments, obligations, things that have to be done. A single list, possibly subcategorized by timeframe (today, this week, next week, next month).

    
    
    

    Into the Watch List goes all the stuff going on in your life that you have to follow up on, wait for someone else to get back to you on, remind yourself of in the future, or otherwise remember.

    
    
    

    Into the Later List goes everything else -- everything you might want to do or will do when you have time or wish you could do.

    
    
    

    If it doesn't go on one of those three lists, it goes away.

• 

  Pascal Veilleux

  productivitePersonnelle

• 

  Christophe Lauer

  Personal Productivity

• 24 Jun 07
  

  MLT

  tips

  • While you're procrastinating, just do lots of other stuff instead.

    
    
    

    As John says, "The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done."

  • • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
      
      

      The more into lists you are, the more important this is.

      
      
      

      Into the Todo List goes all the stuff you "must" do -- commitments, obligations, things that have to be done. A single list, possibly subcategorized by timeframe (today, this week, next week, next month).

      
      
      

      Into the Watch List goes all the stuff going on in your life that you have to follow up on, wait for someone else to get back to you on, remind yourself of in the future, or otherwise remember.

      
      
      

      Into the Later List goes everything else -- everything you might want to do or will do when you have time or wish you could do.

      
      
      

      If it doesn't go on one of those three lists, it goes away.

      
      
      

    • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
      
      

      And then, the next day, do those things.

      
      
      

      I sit down at my desk before I go to sleep, pull up my Todo List (which I keep in Microsoft Word's outline mode, due to long habit), and pick out the 3 to 5 things I am going to get done tomorrow. I write those things on a fresh 3x5 card, lay the card out with my card keys, and go to bed. Then, the next day, I try like hell to get just those things done. If I do, it was a successful day.

      
      
      

  • 2 more annotations...
  • • every time you do something -- anything -- useful during the day, write it down in your Anti-Todo List on the card.
    • Structured Procrastination
• 23 Jun 07
  

  Bertrand Duperrin

  productivity organization procrastination

• 22 Jun 07
  

  Barry Martin

  productivity organization lifehacks

• 21 Jun 07
  

  M G
• 20 Jun 07
  

  TinoRO

  imported delicious life lifehacks organizacion procrastination reference tips todo

• 16 Jun 07
  

  Christophe Ducamp

  Un Guide de Productivité Personnelle - Marc Andreessen

  productivity gtd lifehacks organization tips toread work procrastination business email communication fun importdelicious

• 12 Jun 07
  

  Matthew Murphy

  gtd productivity

  • As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.
  • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
  • 8 more annotations...
  • • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
    • Structured Procrastination.
    • Do email exactly twice a day -- say, once first thing in the morning, and once at the end of the workday.
    • Don't answer the phone.
    • Hide in an IPod.
    • Second, it gives you a chance to calmly, peacefully collect your thoughts and prepare mentally and emotionally for the day ahead.
    • Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes.
    • Do something you love.
• 

  bccreative

  copied Bookmarks productivity gtd lifehacks organization self-improvement delicious

• 10 Jun 07
  

  Alex Ko

  gtd performance self-improvement

• 

  Owen Mathews

  article resource howto

• 

  PG Holmlov

  Human Work

  • Let's start with a bang: don't keep a schedule.
    
    He's crazy, you say!
    
    I'm totally serious. If you pull it off -- and in many structured jobs, you simply can't -- this simple tip alone can make a huge difference in productivity.
    
    By not keeping a schedule, I mean: refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day.
    
    As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.
    
    Want to spend all day writing a research report? Do it!
    
    Want to spend all day coding? Do it!
    
    Want to spend all day at the cafe down the street reading a book on personal productivity? Do it!
    
    When someone emails or calls to say, "Let's meet on Tuesday at 3", the appropriate response is: "I'm not keeping a schedule for 2007, so I can't commit to that, but give me a call on Tuesday at 2:45 and if I'm available, I'll meet with you."
    
    Or, if it's important, say, "You know what, let's meet right now."
    
    Clearly this only works if you can get away with it. If you have a structured job, a structured job environment, or you're a CEO, it will be hard to pull off.
    
    But if you can do it, it's really liberating, and will lead to far higher productivity than almost any other tactic you can try.
  • Let's start with a bang: don't keep a schedule.
    
    He's crazy, you say!
    
    I'm totally serious. If you pull it off -- and in many structured jobs, you simply can't -- this simple tip alone can make a huge difference in productivity.
    
    By not keeping a schedule, I mean: refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day.
    
    As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.
    
    Want to spend all day writing a research report? Do it!
    
    Want to spend all day coding? Do it!
    
    Want to spend all day at the cafe down the street reading a book on personal productivity? Do it!
    
    When someone emails or calls to say, "Let's meet on Tuesday at 3", the appropriate response is: "I'm not keeping a schedule for 2007, so I can't commit to that, but give me a call on Tuesday at 2:45 and if I'm available, I'll meet with you."
    
    Or, if it's important, say, "You know what, let's meet right now."
    
    Clearly this only works if you can get away with it. If you have a structured job, a structured job environment, or you're a CEO, it will be hard to pull off.
    
    But if you can do it, it's really liberating, and will lead to far higher productivity than almost any other tactic you can try.
• 

  indigo11

  articles blog gtd personal tips productivity

• 

  Todd Finley

  Andreeson Marc

  Pro GTD GettingThingsDone Flow Productivity lifehacks organization tips Time

• 09 Jun 07
  

  Jingyi

  advice productivity

• 

  Euan Semple

  productivity

• 08 Jun 07
  

  Gordon Haff

  productivity organization

• 07 Jun 07
  

  Eric Bodwell

  tagthese

• 

  Zeljko Dakic
• 

  Rick L

  @ToRead productivity lifehacks GTD

• 

  Brad Davis Seal

  productivity lifehacks organization

• 

  hldnmyown unfortunately
• 

  Claudia Scholz

  gtd

• 

  arndis

  productivity

• 06 Jun 07
  

  Blair Adams

  productivity gtd lifehacks tips procrastination organization

• 

  bpfoot

  General

• 

  Andrew Upton

  productivity gtd lifehacks procrastination organization

• 

  adiwidjaja

  productivity gtd inspiration

• 

  pianoer

  gtd personal productivity thinking

  • Let's start with a bang: don't keep a schedule.
  • This idea comes from a wonderful book called A Perfect Mess, which explains how not keeping a schedule has been key to Arnold Schwarzenegger's success as a movie star, politician, and businessman over the last 20 years.
  • 18 more annotations...
  • • Want to meet with Arnold? Sure, drop on by. He'll see you if he can. But you might want to call first. Sorry, he doesn't schedule appointments in advance.
    • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
    • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
    • Then, throughout the rest of the day, use the back of the 3x5 card as your Anti-Todo List.
    • Structured Procrastination.
    • The other key two-word tactic: Strategic Incompetence.
    • Do email exactly twice a day
    • When you do process email, do it like this:
      
      

      First, always finish each of your two daily email sessions with a completely empty inbox.

    • Second, when doing email, either answer or file every single message until you get to that empty inbox state of grace.
    • Third, emails relating to topics that are current working projects or pressing issues go into temporary subfolders of a folder called Action.
    • Don't answer the phone.
    • Hide in an IPod.
    • I'm not going to talk a lot about getting up early or going to bed late or anything else related to the course of a typical day, because everyone's different.
    • But the thing that matters almost more than anything in determining whether I'll have a happy, satisfying day is this: no matter what time you get up, start the day with a real, sit-down breakfast.

    • This serves two purposes.

      
      
      

      First, it fuels you up. Study after study have shown that breakfast is, yes, the most important meal of the day. It's critical to properly fuel the body for the day's activities and it's also critical to staying lean or losing weight. (People who don't have breakfast tend to eat more, and worse, at lunch.)

      
      
      

      Second, it gives you a chance to calmly, peacefully collect your thoughts and prepare mentally and emotionally for the day ahead.

      
      
      

      This works whether you do it with kids and/or a partner, or you're solo.

      
      
      

      Personally I think it's worth whatever effort is involved to go to bed early enough to wake up early enough to have a good solid 45 minutes or an hour for breakfast each morning, if you can pull it off.

    • Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes.
    • Do something you love.
    • Fourth, aside from those temporary Action subfolders, only keep three standing email folders: Pending, Review, and Vault.
• 

  gcanfield

  articles

  • refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day.
    
    As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.
  • As a result, you can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.
  • 9 more annotations...
  • • work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.
    • work on whatever is most important or most interesting,
    • on whatever is most important or most interesting,
    • ays work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time.
    • use the back of the 3x5 card as your Anti-Todo List.
    • refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day.
    • Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List.
    • Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day.
    • every time you do something -- anything -- useful during the day, write it down in your Anti-Todo List on the card.
• 05 Jun 07
  

  Gord Broom

  provocative list of tactics. hard to pull off in reality until self-employed.

  gtd productivity lifehacks

• 

  Peter Shanks

  my 2 faves: 'don't keep a schedule' and 'structured procastination' (although I call this 'creative avoidance') - the email tip's pretty good too

  productivity gtd lifehacks procrastination lists 43folders tumblr

• 

  adamjasiura

  Productivity Lifehacks

• 

  Mike Guerena

  lifehacks productivity

• 

  rchk !

  productivity tip procrastination work organization import-1

• 

  Jacques Nyemb

  productivity GTD lifehacks tips procrastination work toread

• 

  Daniel Santos

  blog productivity lifehacks tips procrastination work

• 

  Brad Coy

  gtd

• 

  Andrew White

  productivity gtd

• 

  Frank Colcord

  GTD

Page Comments

• 
  Matthew Murphy on 2007-06-12
  Wow! What a great article! Personally, I think that ths guy is nuts and I truly wish I was at a point in my life where I had the flexibility to follow his "methods." There are some killer prod pr0n tips here, and a lot of good refernces.
  

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