Woolgathering #138: The 4 Big Ideas That Changed the Way I Think About Personal Productivity
Also: The ultimate GTD trigger list, selling virtual paintings, and the science of wisdom
I have spent a great deal of time over the past decade poring over the personal productivity canon.
Drucker, Covey, Allen, Tracy, Ferriss, McKeown, and on and on.
I read the books, the articles about the books, the podcasts interviewing the authors who wrote the books. I’ve written over 600 articles in the past 5 years, and the majority of them have to do with topics relating to personal productivity and growth.
I still do it, to this day. Why? Because I’m a masochist who gets off on finding ways to punish himself by squeezing out just a few more ounces of work per hour? No. Because I’m a hard-driving, Type A, corner-office, take-no-prisoners hustling entrepreneur — hell-bent on taking over the business world? Again, no.
I love reading and writing about personal productivity because at its best, the genre (if you can call it that) conveys a kind of elegance that’s hard to find elsewhere. It’s almost like the best parts of martial arts, French cooking, ballet choreography, jazz composition, mathematical proof, philosophical argument, and an elegantly crafted piece of code — all rolled into one.
Personal productivity writing is not only inspiring to read, but it’s also immediately helpful. A good piece of personal productivity writing can literally make your life significantly better — if you put its advice into action.
So this week, I wrote about the 4 ideas from the personal productivity work I’ve read that have proven to stick with me above all else.
I’ve written over 600 articles. You don’t have time for that kind of reading.
Pick up the collection of what I consider my best work from the first 4 years of writing: Be, Think, Do. And while you’re at it, tell a friend!
Feed Your Mind
How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million | Reuters
You may have heard of blockchain and cryptocurrencies—which are disruptive elements in the broader economy and business landscape. But there continue to be further innovations in how those two technologies are used. This is a great example. Digital works of art, and digital video collectible items are being bought and sold for millions of dollars.
The Ultimate GTD Trigger List
If you practice GTD, or any other system where you do a regular review of your projects, this is a useful list. It provides some common things to think about when you're running through what you need to do. It’s already helped me as of my last weekly review. Check it out.
Can There Be a ‘Science of Wisdom’?
A compelling question, and one that the Toronto Wisdom Task Force set out to answer. Their objective:
“to explore the possibility of a scientific consensus on the psychological characteristics of wisdom and best practices for its measurement. We hoped to take down wisdom from its mystical pedestal and find a more pragmatic, concrete footing that would work not just for sages and fictional characters, but also for regular humans.”
Their findings are pretty interesting, in my humble opinion. They address things like the ecological fallacy, psychological essentialism, and the bias that keeps psychologists from the objectivity they so desire.
Last Chance…
The core group that agreed to beta test my productivity system has been getting into some great discussions, and providing excellent feedback. There have even been requests to join up weeks after.
So, I set up a week’s worth of daily emails to walk you through using the system, just like I did for the initial group. If you’re interested in learning it (for free of course), check it out:
A Question
What changes your priorities?
When it comes to what’s personally important to you—not what your boss or a client tells you—when and how does that change? It’s a more difficult question to answer than it seems. It’s even more difficult if you’re not clear what your priorities are. But thinking about it will give you great insight into how you work best, and how to motivate yourself.
And if you want to get technical, the word ‘priority’ shouldn’t be pluralized. Its origins come from the Latin word ‘prior’ meaning the thing that comes first. I guess you could have more than one priority if two things are tied. But the more things there are that are tied for first place, the less it means to be in first place.
A Quote
“Everything you possess of skill, and wealth, and handicraft,
wasn't it first merely a thought and a quest?”
- Rumi
Love this:
"I still do it, to this day. Why? Because I’m a masochist who gets off on finding ways to punish himself by squeezing out just a few more ounces of work per hour? No. Because I’m a hard-driving, Type A, corner-office, take-no-prisoners hustling entrepreneur — hell-bent on taking over the business world? Again, no."
Haha, it's great seeing your personality come through these posts!
Also, this Nyan Cat crypto-art meme sold for $600k:
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/ethereum-nft-meme-art-nyan-cat-sells-for-300-eth-2021-2?r=US&IR=T
What a world.