Top 10 Productivity Tips? NOT - DBR 066

This episode is about what it is I'm trying to do with attention compass. And why I hate current productivity “help”.

 

I developed this AC stuff. I didn't discover it. I didn't invent it. These are the principles, and they produce specific results. I make no bones about the fact that a lot of people went before me did a lot of really good thinking about productivity.

 

AC is derived from Stephen Covey, from David Allen and from a lot of different folks who thought a lot about this and who are well regarded in what's going on.

 

This ain't magic. I'm not some genius, brilliant dude. I just got tired of being told mindset things. “You're just thinking about it the wrong way”, and “change the way you think about it”

I love Covey. I love the seven habits, but you gotta take what he  says and then figure out how to implement against that. It's not magic, it's not secret sauce. That's one of the great things about David Allen - he's not playing around. He says, “Look, you got a piece of paper in your hand, do this with it.”

 

The principles are important. I'm an academic and a scientist, and so I want them to be true, but at the same time, it's got to be actionable advice.

 

The headline here is stop wasting time and causing yourself a whole bunch of anxiety by listening to people who are giving you less than helpful input.

 

If you want different results, then you have to DO differently, behave differently.

 

Some stuff I tried that didn’t work – day-timer and GTD. These were my first attempt at having my stuff where I needed my stuff to be, but continued to thrash so I kept trying.

 

I still want to keep up and I get intrigued. Here’s what I see when I look out into Productivity Advice land.

 

The pinnacle of productivity advice c. 2025

• "Top 10 productivity tips" - anonymous.
• work from rest, not for rest
• take regular breaks daily
• tackle the biggest tasks first
• designate time daily for emails.
• keep the main thing, the main thing
• keep your energy level high.
• Prepare the night before
• win the first hour, win the day
• protect your margins.
• engage in activity stacking
• Problem: Everybody's heard that, and apparently most people are still  not able to do it.

Three problems with the productivity industry

• One - people say all the same things over and over
• Two - it's not actionable, it's not doable
• Three - most of the advice is about mindset