# 200 — Favorite Productivity Hacks

## Metadata
- Author: [[Focused]]
- Full Title: 200 — Favorite Productivity Hacks
- Category: #podcasts
- URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/4ae179ae-61d7-4612-8873-b2b340ea059e
## Highlights
- Episode AI notes
1. Prioritizing important but not urgent tasks on the calendar can lead to significant progress, like writing a book in 10 months.
2. Focusing on three Most Important Tasks (MITs) each day helps avoid overwhelm and increase productivity.
3. Technology can suggest tasks, but it's important to differentiate between urgent and important tasks to prevent stress.
4. Prioritizing rest and sleep is crucial for productivity and overall well-being.
5. Ignoring the importance of rest can lead to decreased productivity and potential burnout.
6. Lack of sleep impacts cognitive functions similar to being intoxicated, highlighting the critical role of rest in maintaining safety and productivity. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/7f764dbf-0174-48fc-b72a-2f79f4947ffa))
- Focus on Most Important Tasks and Time Management Strategy
Summary:
To be more effective, start by prioritizing important but not urgent tasks on your calendar.
By committing time regularly to these tasks, significant progress can be made, like writing a book in 10 months. Another strategy is to focus on three Most Important Tasks (MITs) each day, avoiding the temptation of overwhelming to-do lists.
Technology can suggest tasks, but it's crucial to differentiate between what's urgent and what's important to prevent stress.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
That's the way to get started with it. And then once you start to get some wins with that, the next level is, okay, so now not the thing that I know I need to do because it's urgent, but those things that are important, but not Urgent, that I can never seem to find time for. Put those on the calendar. And then you show up and you write for an hour every day and 10 months later, you've written your book or whatever. You know, so this is a really effective strategy. And I feel like once people start using it, it's just going to exponentially grow. And that's kind of the point. All right, my next one, I'm going to say pick three MITs and I'll explain that in a second here, but MITs are the essentially most important tasks. And I use this terminology, pick three MITs, because I think the temptation for a lot of people is to pick a bunch more, especially if you use a digital task manager, because you can put In the metadata and the promise of the digital task manager is that this thing is now going to show me based on what I have put in there, project, context, due date, start date, whatever. These are the things that you have to do right now. And we've talked about this, about the difference between the brain and the list. So task managers are great at giving you a list of things that you should consider doing. But the temptation is that we fall into this list of 12 things that I should consider doing today. Oh, the task manager is telling me I need to do all of these things. And so you add all 12 of those things to your to do list today. And you don't get all 12 of those things done. And now you feel stressed. ([Time 0:16:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a7510e3c-bcf6-4e1e-95e8-4df0eea4c989))
- Value of Prioritizing Rest for Productivity
Summary:
Prioritizing rest and sleep is crucial for productivity and overall well-being.
It is not about one specific thing but a combination of factors that contribute to success. Taking rest seriously enables individuals to optimize their performance in various aspects of life.
Even without a medical condition, everyone can benefit from adequate rest.
Ignoring the importance of rest can lead to decreased productivity and potential burnout.
Authors often share stories of initially undervaluing rest and then realizing its significance in enhancing productivity. Lack of sleep impacts cognitive functions similar to being intoxicated, emphasizing the critical role of rest in maintaining safety and productivity.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
And there's not one specific thing here that has just kind of made this easy. I do think it's a combination of all these things. But by taking it seriously, what it has done has allowed me to do all of the things that I do. I mean, even with the Apple Epsy, the way I got into making stuff online was getting up early and writing for an hour before I went into the day job with the family business. And I feel like you don't need to have a medical condition in order to benefit from this. All of the books out there that talk about sleep, they all start with some story by the author who thought, you know, I was a superhero. I don't need that much sleep. I can get by in five hours. Then they crash and burn and then they have to take it seriously. And then they realize, oh my gosh, I'm way more productive now. So I would just encourage everyone to not undervalue rest. You need this more than you think you do. And if you start taking it seriously, my guess is that you will not just feel better, but you will also get a lot more done. Yeah.
Speaker 2
I mean, the science is if you don't get enough sleep, it's like being drunk. I mean, you really, it's not safe. ([Time 0:38:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7b7be40c-0b9f-42b0-a6a7-adbe5dc626f0))