--- ## Highlights something to be said for the mindset behind the practice, because it helps you slow down and work calmly and deliberately throughout the day. (Location 197) Meditation had such a profound effect on my productivity because it allowed me to slow down enough so that I could work deliberately and not on autopilot. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when they invest effort in improving their productivity is that they continue to work automatically, in response to the work that comes their way. (Location 199) The most productive people work at a pace somewhere between the monk and the stock trader—fast enough to get everything done, and slowly enough so they can identify what’s important and then work deliberately and with intention. (Location 218) every lesson I learned fell into better management of one of three categories: my time, my attention, and my energy. (Location 233) if you can’t manage all three—time, attention, energy—well, it is next to impossible to work deliberately and with intention throughout the day. (Location 253) perhaps the biggest lesson I learned from this experiment was just how important it is to deeply care about your productivity goals, about why you want to become more productive. (Location 323) The reason I have continued to research and explore productivity over the last decade is that productivity is connected with so many things I value at a deep level: efficiency, meaning, control, discipline, growth, freedom, learning, staying organized. These values are what motivate me to spend so much of my leisure time reading and seeking out online science lectures. (Location 334) best way to measure productivity is to ask yourself a very simple question at the end of every day: Did I get done what I intended to? (Location 421) If you intend to relax for a day, and you have the most relaxing day you’ve had all year, you were perfectly productive. (Location 425) The second was observing how each new experiment or productivity technique affected my ability to manage the three ingredients of productivity: • Time: I observed how intelligently I used my time, how much I got done throughout the day, how many words and pages I wrote/read, and how often I procrastinated. • Attention: I noted what I focused on, how well I focused, and how easily I was distracted. • Energy: I scrutinized how much drive, motivation, and overall energy I had, tracking how my energy levels fluctuated over the course of an experiment. (Location 429) When meditating for thirty-five hours a week, I had about twenty hours outside of the experiment to get real work done, which meant that if I didn’t determine what my smartest tasks were, I wouldn’t have accomplished what I intended to that week. (Location 458) The rule is simple: at the beginning of each day, before you start working, decide what three things you want to accomplish by the end of the day. Do the same at the start of every week. (Location 534) here are three things I defined this morning that I’m aiming to accomplish today: 1.  Finish the Rule of 3 chapter of book 2.  Clear out my email inbox—and only check email twice throughout the day 3.  Organize everything I need to get a U.S. tax number (Location 565) At the start of every day and week, I also define three personal things I want to accomplish. I don’t always come up with three (and the same is true for my work items), but I find that the ritual lets me feel much more in control of my week ahead and also get excited about the things I have coming up. (Location 573) Today: 1.  Have fun at tea tasting with Ardyn (my girlfriend) 2.  Read twenty-five pages for fun 3.  Finalize Christmas shopping list And for this week: 1.  Plan for and buy all Christmas presents 2.  Completely disconnect from work for birthday plans 3.  Pack; travel home for Christmas (Location 576) Think about when, where, and how you’re going to accomplish each item throughout the day. Studies show this makes acting out the goal easier and more automatic, and that it’s especially helpful for carrying out unpleasant tasks. (Location 626) select other small tasks you intend to accomplish over the course of the day. (Location 628) Set two alarms during your workday. When they go off ask yourself: Do you remember what your three daily goals are? Do you remember your three weekly goals? If you do, are you on track to achieve them? (Location 635) Research shows that your brain’s prefrontal cortex—the part of your brain responsible for creative thinking—is the most active immediately after you wake up. That means that even if you’re low on energy after you wake up, if you do a lot of creative work, you may want to consider working in the morning (Location 696) if you have the most energy at noon, why would you break for lunch then, instead of waiting until you actually need to refuel? (Location 702) I found that the value of my time has orbited around four things: • How much money I earn • How valuable my time is to me • How valuable money is to me • How overwhelmed I feel (Location 2012) At first, I hired Luise simply to arrange calls and load up blog posts and email newsletters. But I soon also began to delegate other low-return tasks to her, like managing my calendar, booking appointments, researching and booking trips, and even doing website maintenance, or hiring and managing other contractors to do that maintenance. (Location 2043) On a given week, my Waiting For list contains everything from packages I’m waiting for from Amazon, to important email responses I’m expecting, to money I’m owed, to important calls and letters I’m waiting for. I put pretty much everything on my list. (Location 2264) Every Maintenance Day, I scan through my lists of projects to define their next steps, and pull to-dos from them to add to my task list and the intentions I set for the week. (Location 2282) To reclaim more attentional space, I made a list of everything I was worrying about—most of which I was blowing out of proportion, of course—and scheduled an hour every day to think through everything on the list. If I caught myself worrying about something throughout the day, I reminded myself that I had scheduled time to worry later, and if I started worrying about a new thing during the day, I captured it on the list so I could worry about it later, as well. (Location 2293)