Eight-Step Process for Maximising Efficacy
Tim Ferriss’s eight-step morning process to stay out of reactive mode and focus on high-leverage work.
Eight-Step Process for Maximising Efficacy
CREDIT: Routine created by Tim Ferriss
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Transcript
It is an eight step process for maximising efficacy, which is doing the right thing.
Number one: Wake up at least an hour before you have to be at a computer screen. Email is the mind killer, so don't go immediately into reactive mode.
Number two: Make a cup of tea — I like puer tea — and sit down with a pen or pencil and paper. I like to do it analogue.
Number three: Write down three to five things, and no more, that are making you most anxious or uncomfortable. They're often the things that have been punted from one day's to-do list to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on.
And “most important” usually means “most uncomfortable,” or very frequently it does, with some chance of rejection or conflict.
To find the most important, you can often just look for the most uncomfortable, with some chance of rejection or conflict. So write down those three to five things.
Step four: For each item, ask yourself:
- If this were the only thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?
- Also ask, “Would moving this forward make all the other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later?”
That's a nod to Gary Keller, The One Thing. Thank you for that, Gary.
Step number five: Look only at the items you've answered “yes” to for at least one of those. Those are the high-leverage items.
Number six: Block out at least two to three hours to focus on one of them for today — one. Let the rest of the urgent but less important stuff slide; they'll still be there tomorrow.
Step number seven: And I'm repeating to be clear — block out at least two to three hours to focus on one of them for today. This is one block of time, uninterrupted: no distractions, no social media. Cobbling together 10 minutes here and there to add up to 120 minutes does not work.
Step number eight: If you get distracted or start procrastinating — it happens to everybody — don't freak out and downward spiral. Just gently come back to your one to-do.
Congratulations. That's it.
End of transcript