Sold to
gergana.valcheva@gmail.com
Productivity Game PDF Package
40+ one‐page summaries of the best books on personal productivity
By Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Copyright © 2017 Lozeron Academy Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be used or reproduced in any form or by any
means without the prior written permission of the author.
eBook Edition: October 2017
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section 1: Understanding Success
1. The Compound Effect
2. Grit
3. So Good They Can’t Ignore You
4. The Upside of Stress
5. Productivity Principle: Growth vs. Fixed Mind‐set
6. Ego is the Enemy
7. Extreme Ownership
8. Essentialism
9. Born for This
10. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
11. Anything you Want
12. The Personal MBA
13. To Sell Is Human
14. Made to Stick
15. Perennial Seller
16. #AskGaryVee
17. The Dip
18. Your One Word
19. Give & Take
20. Productivity Principle: The Five‐Minute Favor
21. The Happiness Advantage
22. Presence
23. The Willpower Instinct
24. Are You Fully Charged?
25. 10% Happier
Section 2: Learning & Skill Development
1. The First 20 Hours
2. The 4‐Hour Chef
3. A Mind for Numbers
4. The Rise of Superman
5. Productivity Principle: The 4% Zone
6. Peak
7. 10‐Minute Toughness
8. Spark
Section 3: Getting Stuff Done
1.
2.
Rethinking Positive Thinking
Eat That Frog!
3. The ONE Thing
4. The 4 Disciplines of Execution
5. Smarter Faster Better
6. Productivity Principle: Predict to Perform
7. How to Have a Good Day
8. Productivity Principle: Positive ‘No’
9. SuperBetter
10. Getting Things Done
11. Productivity Principle: Batch Buckets
12. The 4‐Hour Workweek
13. Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time
14. The Checklist Manifesto
15. Productivity Principle: Process vs. Product
16. One Small Step Can Change Your Life
17. Better Than Before
Section 4: Innovating
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Originals
Blue Ocean Strategy
Little Bets
Lean Startup
Sprint
Deep Work
Productivity Principle: Work = Intensity x Time
The Accidental Creative
Introduction
“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.” – Albert Einstein
With a desire to thrive in a highly competitive marketplace, I’ve read dozens of books on personal productivity
and distilled my insights into a series of one-page PDF summaries. Each summary contains a list of proven
principles and methods that you can use to reach your career goals.
This Productivity Game PDF Package is a comprehensive guide on personal productivity that includes more
than 40 one-page PDF book summaries and productivity principles.
The one-page PDFs are organized into four sections:
 Understanding Success
 Learning & Skill Development
 Getting Stuff Done
 Innovating
As you read through the various book summaries and productivity principles, you will gain a clear
understanding of what it takes to thrive in today’s competitive marketplace.
To aid the learning process, I’ve created a YouTube video playlist to match the sequence of book summaries
presented in this package: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL38v62je9cXZuHv6WixrJr2zA2LJU0dYu
(the YouTube playlist contains a video for each book summary, but not for each productivity principle – many
productivity principles are exclusive to this package).
Insights from The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
“The Compound Effect is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices. What’s
most interesting about this process to me is that, even though the results are massive, the steps, in the moment,
don’t feel significant. Whether you’re using this strategy for improving your health, relationships, finances, or
anything else for that matter, the changes are so subtle, they’re almost imperceptible. These small changes offer
little or no immediate result, no big win, no obvious I-told-you-so payoff. So why bother?”
– Darren Hardy
Resist the urge to see immediate results and receive short-term payoffs. Instead, construct a daily habit of constant improvements to
generate the compound effect in your life and produce incredible results.
3 Ways to Stay on the Compound Curve
Choice Awareness:
“Our choices can be our best friend or our worst enemy. They can deliver us to our goals or send us orbiting into a
galaxy far, far away. In essence, you make your choices, and then your choices make you. Every decision, no matter
how slight, alters the trajectory of your life.” – Darren Hardy
Most of us are sleepwalking through our daily choices. We make choices that align with the demands of others
without realizing those choices don’t align with our ultimate goal.
“The first step toward change is awareness. If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming
aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired destination. Become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can
begin to make smarter choices moving forward.” – Darren Hardy
Be conscious of your choices by keeping a pad of paper and pen nearby to write down every choice you make in a particular area of life
that you want to improve.
 At the end of the day, look at the list and ask yourself: Are these choices consistent with my core values? Are they in alignment
with who I want to become?
 Cross out any choice that didn’t move you closer to where you ultimately want to be. Over time, you’ll gain awareness of your
moment-to-moment choices and consistently make choices that move you towards your ultimate goal.
Why Power:
Most of use wouldn't walk a plank between two high rise buildings for $20 dollars. But Darren says: "If your child
was on the opposite building, and that building was on fire, would you walk the length of the plank to save him?
Without question and immediately—you’d do it, twenty dollars or not." – Darren Hardy
Your ‘WHY Power’ is the internal drive you need to get started and take massive action. Your WHY can take two
forms: what you love and what you hate. Your why doesn't have to be noble, it just has to move you.


LOVE: I am doing this to provide a better future for ____________.
HATE: I am doing this to prove ____________ wrong OR I am doing this to defeat ____________
"America had the British. Luke had Darth Vader. Rocky had Apollo Creed. Twenty-something’s have ‘The Man.’" – Darren Hardy
Bookend Routines:
"The key to becoming world-class in your endeavors is to build your performance around world-class routines. It
can be difficult, even futile, to predict or control what will show up in the middle of your workday. But you can
almost always control how your day starts and ends. I have routines for both." – Darren Hardy
The moments after we wake up and the moments before we go to bed are within our control – we must use
these moments to direct our lives.


Morning Routine: Review your vision/mission, set the top priority for the day, read something positive and instructional, and do
work to advance your most important project.
Nighttime Routine: Reflect on the choices you’ve made throughout the day, be grateful for the wins you experienced, and get
curious about how you can improve tomorrow by asking yourself: How could I have made today even better?
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” - Albert Einstein
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Grit by Angela Duckworth
What does it mean to be ‘Gritty’?
“Grit is NOT at all about stubbornly pursuing—at all costs and ad infinitum—every single low-level goal on your list. Sure, you should try
hard—even a little longer than you might think necessary. But don’t beat your head against the wall attempting to follow through on
something that is, merely, a means to a more important end.” – Angela Duckworth








Gritty people are fixed on high-level pursuits but flexible on low-level goals, like the daily to-do list.
Gritty people know the 'Why?' behind everything they do.
Gritty live life as a marathon, not a sprint.
Gritty are stubborn, but not stupid.
Like a toddler learning to walk, gritty people don’t waste time being ashamed or feeling anxious because they are too busy
seeking feedback and improving.
When a gritty person gets a rejection slip, encounters a setback, or reaches a dead end, they are disappointed, even
heartbroken. But not for long.
Gritty people not only put in more hours than the next person, but they also fill their hours with intense undistracted focus.
Gritty people embrace boredom and avoid environments of distraction.
How to Grow Your Grit
"Learning to stick to something is a life skill that we all have to develop." – Angela Duckworth
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport
In 2010, author Cal Newport received a PhD in Computer Science from MIT. Before starting his career, he became obsessed with the
question: “Why do some people end up loving what they do (for a living), while so many others fail at this goal?”
Cal Newport interviewed people who loved their work to find out how they got there. The people who loved what they did for a living had
a craftsman mindset, not a passion mindset.
The Passion Mindset:
The passionate mindset thinks: “What can the world offer me? What job can sustain my pre-existing passion?”
“First, when you focus only on what your work offers you, it makes you hyperaware of what you don’t like about
it, leading to chronic unhappiness. This is especially true for entry-level positions, which, by definition, are not
going to be filled with challenging projects and autonomy—these come later. When you enter the working world
with the passion mindset, the annoying tasks you’re assigned or the frustrations of corporate bureaucracy can
become too much to handle.
Second, and more serious, the deep questions driving the passion mindset—“Who am I?” and “What do I truly
love?”—are essentially impossible to confirm. “Is this who I really am?” and “Do I love this?” rarely reduce to
clear yes-or-no responses. In other words, the passion mindset is almost guaranteed to keep you perpetually unhappy and confused.” – Cal
Newport
The Craftsman Mindset:
The craftsman mindset thinks: “How can I improve and have something uniquely valuable to offer the world?
Am I willing to stick with this, despite how boring and tedious the process may be?”
“It (the craftsman mindset) asks you to leave behind self-centered concerns about whether your job is “just
right,” and instead put your head down and plug away at getting really damn good. No one owes you a great
career, it argues; you need to earn it—and the process won’t be easy.” - Cal Newport
“Regardless of how you feel about your job right now, adopting the craftsman mindset will be the foundation
on which you’ll build a compelling career. This is why I reject the “argument from pre-existing passion,” because
it gets things backward. In reality, as I’ll demonstrate, you adopt the craftsman mindset first and then the
passion follows.” - Cal Newport
Why a ‘Craftsman Mindset’ is prerequisite for passion
People who love what they do for a living consistently experience these three work traits:



Creativity: you have some say over how, when, where you work.
Impact: the quality of your work has a noticeable and positive impact on people you care about (teammate, customer, etc.).
Control: you have an opportunity to improvise your work and implement your ideas.
“The things that make great work great (creativity, impact, and control), are rare and valuable. If you want them in your career, you need
rare and valuable skills to offer in return.” - Cal Newport
The process of developing rare and valuable skills is hard, and this is why having a craftsman mindset is so critical. Unless you find a way to
stick to the process of improvement, despite how much your passion dips, you’ll fail to develop skills that are rare and valuable, and you
won’t have enough leverage to demand these rare and valuable work traits.
How to become rare and valuable
Start volunteering for challenging projects at work, and start initiating challenging projects at home. Select your projects based on the
skills they force you to develop. Here are three questions to find the rare and valuable skills you need to develop:



What particular skill does my team, company, or industry lack at the moment (ex: specific domain knowledge, software program, etc.)?
What technologic expertise is in high demand in my industry (ex: SQL programming, Facebook advertising, etc.)?
What skills do the people at the top of my profession seem to have (ex: clear business writing, public speaking, time management, etc.)?
When you’ve found a skill you want to develop, use the principles of deliberate practice to develop that skill:



Carve out periods of undistracted focus.
Push yourself to the edge of your ability; cycle between comfort and discomfort.
Seek immediate feedback and mentorship.
Always be asking: Am I becoming increasingly rare (how long would it take me to train a college graduate to do what I do) and incredibly
valuable (how badly would people miss my contribution if I quit)?
“If you’re not putting in the effort to become, as Steve Martin put it, “so good they can’t ignore you,” you’re not
likely to end up loving your work—regardless of whether or not you believe it’s your true calling.” – Cal Newport
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal
“It turns out that how you think about stress is one of those core beliefs that can affect your health, happiness,
and success. Your stress mind-set shapes everything from the emotions you feel during a stressful situation to
the way you cope with stressful events. That, in turn, can determine whether you thrive under stress or end up
burned out and depressed. The good news is, even if you are firmly convinced that stress is harmful, you can still
cultivate a mind-set that helps you thrive.” – Kelly McGonigal
The Power of Mind-set
Mind-sets are beliefs that transcend preferences, learned facts, or intellectual opinions. Adopting the right mind-set can dramatically alter
the course of your life.
Greg Walton, a psychologist at Stanford University, published a paper in Science magazine that showed the power of adopting a new
mind-set. Greg had African American freshmen at Stanford University read the following message: ‘Everyone struggles with social
belonging, but this changes over time’. Afterward, they were asked to write an essay on that message and develop a supportive message
for next year’s freshmen.
“Walton tracked its effect on African American students, who have typically struggled the most with the feeling of not belonging. The
results were astonishing. The one time intervention improved the students’ academic performance, physical health, and happiness over the
next three years, compared with students who had not been randomly selected to receive the intervention. By graduation, their GPAs were
significantly higher than the GPAs of African American students who hadn’t participated. In fact, their GPAs were so high that they had
completely closed the typical GPA gap between minority and non-minority students at the school.” – Kelly McGonigal
How to Adopt a New Mind-set
Steps to adopt a new mind-set:
i.
ii.
iii.
Make the mind-set simple and concrete: “Thinking _____ will lead to _____”
Allow yourself a trial period (1-2 weeks) to apply the new mind-set in the real world and determine its worth.
Find an opportunity to share your experience with others.
The benefits of adopting a ‘stress is enhancing’ mind-set:
Changing your interpretation of stress has been shown to release powerful chemicals in your body that boost performance. Based on
saliva samples from a 2013 study at Yale, participants who adopted the mind-set that ‘the feeling of stress enhances performance’ released
more DHEA and oxytocin into their body (natural chemicals that the body produces).




The benefits of DHEA
Accelerates learning
Strengthens focus
Increases pattern recognition
Counter-acts the harmful effects of cortisol and
adrenaline



The benefits of Oxytocin
Increases courage and confidence
Increases empathy and compassion (enhanced ability
to understand what others are thinking and feeling)
Widens blood vessels and increases blood flow to the
brain
“The best way to manage stress isn’t to reduce or avoid it, but rather to rethink and even embrace it. New
science shows that changing your mind about stress can make you healthier and happier.” – Kelly McGonigal
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Productivity Principle: Growth vs. Fixed Mind-set
Inspired by the book Little Bets by Peter Sims
When experiencing failure…
Fixed mind-set people believe: “I am who I am, no amount of effort will change that.”
Growth mind-set people believe: “With enough focused effort I can learn anything. My ability and intelligence can grow.”
We adopt a fixed mind-set when we identify with the praise that people give us (ex: “you’re so smart!”).
A Fixed Mind-set has 3 major downsides:
“Those favouring a fixed mind-set believe that abilities and intelligence are set in stone, that we have an innate set of
talents, which creates an urgency to repeatedly prove those abilities. They perceive failures or setbacks as threatening
their sense of worth or their identity.”– Peter Sims.
When everything threatens to disprove our ability, we experience chronic stress.
Psychologist Carol Dweck gave a group of fixed mind-set students and growth mind-set students the
choice between an easy task and a challenging task. She discovered that 90% of growth mind-set
students chose the difficult task and a majority of fixed mind-set students picked the easy task.
When we adopt a fixed mindset, “we block ourselves psychologically and choke off a host of
opportunities to learn. In placing so much emphasis on minimizing errors or the risk of any kind of failure,
we shut off chances to identify the insights that drive creative progress.” – Peter Sims
Those who believe that ability and intelligence can improve with effort (growth mind-set) are less likely to
experience these three side-effects because failure doesn’t mean they are doomed. It just means they need to
improve.
1.
Re-label:
2.
Recall:
How to adopt a Growth Mind-set:
Science has proven that our intelligence and our ability are NOT fixed. With enough focused effort, we
can dramatically change our brain. But it all starts by adopting growth mind-set.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
What is Ego?
“It’s that petulant child inside every person, the one that chooses getting his or her way over anything or anyone
else. The need to be better than, more than, recognized for, far past any reasonable utility—that’s ego. It’s the
sense of superiority and certainty that exceeds the bounds of confidence and talent.” – Ryan Holiday
The 3 Stages of Life Where Ego is the Enemy
Aspiring
Succeeding
Failing
“Those who know do not speak. Those
who speak do not know.” - Lao Tzu
Ego is the enemy because it prefers talking
over doing.
“As success arrives, like it does for a team
that has just won a championship, ego
begins to toy with our minds and weaken
the will that made us win in the first
place.” – Ryan Holiday
“It’s a temptation that exists for
everyone—for talk and hype to replace
action.
Ego is the enemy because it convinces us
of our ‘greatness’ and erodes our will to
work for continued success.
“If success is ego intoxication, then failure
can be a devastating ego blow—turning
slips into falls and little troubles into great
unravelings. We have many names for
these problems: Sabotage. Unfairness.
Adversity. Trials. Tragedy.” – Ryan Holiday
Our inbox, our iPhones, the comments
section on the bottom of the article you
just read. Blank spaces, begging to be
filled in with thoughts, with photos, with
stories. With what we’re going to do, with
what things should or could be like, what
we hope will happen.” — Ryan Holiday
“We stop learning, we stop listening, and
we lose our grasp on what matters. We
become victims of ourselves and the
competition. Sobriety, open-mindedness,
organization, and purpose—these are the
great stabilizers. They balance out the ego
and pride that comes with achievement
and recognition.” – Ryan Holiday
Ego is the enemy because it avoids
responsibility and casts blame when
experiencing failure. Ego erodes
relationships and erases progress by trying
to save face.
“The way through, the way to rise again,
requires a reorientation and increased selfawareness. We don’t need pity—our own
or anyone else’s—we need purpose, poise,
and patience.” – Ryan Holiday
How to Prevent Ego from Ruining Your Life
FIND A PLUS: Who is better than me?
When you achieve noteworthy success, you need a dose of humility:
 Find people who have achieved greater success.
 Remind yourself of the ultimate goal in life: your greater purpose.
 Reflect on the immensity of the world around you (remember how small you are).
There is always someone better than you in some way. Never forget that, and never stop learning.
FIND A MINUS: Who can I teach?
When you encounter failure, the ego wants to have a pity party and seek revenge, both of which slow your progress.
Instead, identity how you can use the failure to teach others:
 Capture the lesson in a book or journal that you’ll share with your kids one day.
 Conduct a ‘lessons learned’ team meeting, and share three things you could have done differently.
 Write a blog post of your failure and share it on social media or online forum.
When you force yourself to teach others about your failure, you’re forced to adopt an objective view of failure.
FIND AN EQUAL: Who do I want to be like?
When you aspire to do great things, you need to avoid being caught up in what everyone else does. Only be
concerned with what a few people you respect and aspire to be like think.
 Find someone who challenges and inspires you.
 Spend your time around people with similar goals (your inner circle; your mastermind).
 Pay attention to the criticism within your circle, but ignore the criticism from outside of your circle.
The ego prefers to talk about what it’s going to do, rather than actually do it. The pressure to keep up with people in
your circle forces you to talk less and do more. Develop a strong peer group that keeps you accountable.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink
& Leif Babin
“There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders that lead successful, highperformance teams exhibit Extreme Ownership. Anything else is simply ineffective. Anything else is bad
leadership.” - Leif Babin
Jocko and Leif create high performing Navy Seal teams and corporate business teams by teaching ‘decentralized command’ – allowing a
smaller team (4-6) to make decisions within a larger team without being told explicitly what to do. To allow independent decision making,
leaders must issue a Commander’s Intent:
“My leaders learned they must rely on their subordinate leaders to take charge of their smaller teams within the team and allow them to
execute based on a good understanding of the broader mission (known as Commander’s Intent), and standard operating procedures. That
was effective Decentralized Command.” – Jocko Willink
If Jocko instructed a group of Navy Seals snipers to go to the rooftop of a building, they might get to the rooftop and discover there is little
cover. At that point, they might set up on the rooftop anyways (because they were ordered to) and risk being killed, or simply disobey
orders. However, if Jocko issues a Commander’s Intent: “We need covering fire on this street to help these ground troops advance to
position bravo. Find the best position to apply this cover. I would suggest starting with that rooftop.” At this point, the Navy Seals would
get to the rooftop, notice that it has poor cover, and quickly decide to go to the 3 rd floor to provide covering fire.
“Those leaders must understand the overall mission, and the ultimate goal of that mission—the Commander’s Intent. Junior leaders must be
empowered to make decisions on key tasks necessary to accomplish that mission in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Teams
(of 4-6) within (larger) teams are organized for maximum effectiveness for a particular mission, with leaders who have clearly delineated
responsibilities. Every tactical-level team leader must understand not just what to do but why they are doing it. If frontline leaders do not
understand why, they must ask their boss to clarify the why. Decentralized Command does not mean junior leaders or team members
operate on their own program; that results in chaos. Instead, junior leaders must fully understand what is within their decision-making
authority—the “left and right limits” of their responsibility.” - Jocko Willink
 Issue intents, not commands. The next time you need help, explain the mission’s intent and the desired outcome. Provide suggestions,
but let them decide ‘how’ they will meet the intent within clear “left and right limits” of the mission’s intent. If something changes, they
can make decisions without having to rely on you.
Letting other people make decisions in situations you’re ultimately responsible for seems to contradict the concept of ‘Extreme
Ownership’. How can you have extreme ownership if you are not in direct control?
“Every leader must walk a fine line. That’s what makes leadership so challenging. Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the
dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another. The simple recognition of this is one of the most
powerful tools a leader has. With this in mind, a leader can more easily balance the opposing forces and lead with maximum effectiveness.” Jocko Willink
Taking extreme ownership but giving away control is just one of the many contradictions leaders must live moment to moment:
The Dichotomy of Great Leadership
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
quiet not silent;
humble not passive;
a leader and follower;
confident not cocky;
aggressive not overbearing;
courageous not foolhardy;
competitive not a gracious loser;
attentive to details not obsessed by them;
calm not robotic, logical not devoid of emotions
Insights from Essentialism by Greg McKeown
“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying ‘yes’ too quickly and not saying no soon enough.”
- Josh Billings
Warren Buffett became the most successful investor of all time by being hyper selective. He owes 90% of his wealth to just 10
investments. For every 100 opportunities that comes his way, he says no to 99 of them.
Peter Drucker, the greatest management consultant in the last 100 years, once said, “People are effective because they say ‘no,’ because
they say, ‘this isn’t for me.’ ’’
We are all presented with ‘good opportunities’ during our lifetime, but which of those opportunities are truly essential to our lives?
“A non-essentialist thinks almost everything is essential. An essentialist thinks almost everything is non-essential.” - Greg McKeown
“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.” - John Maxwell
Discern the essential from the non-essential (4 habits):
Evaluate the trade-offs
To be one of the best airlines, CEO Herb Kelleher made deliberate trade-offs that allowed him to strategically say ‘yes’ to
things that would differentiate Southwest from other airlines and secure its position on top.
“We just say yes because it is an easy reward, we run the risk of having to later say no to a more meaningful one.” - Greg
McKeown
Each choice has a trade-off. When we say yes to one thing, we are saying no to another. The next time you want to say yes to
an opportunity just remember what other opportunities you are saying no to.
“We can try to avoid the reality of trade-offs, but we can’t escape them. Trade-offs are not something to be ignored or decried.
They are something to be embraced and made deliberately, strategically, and thoughtfully.” - Greg McKeown
Set boundaries
“Nonessentialists tend to think of boundaries as constraints or limits, things that get in the way of their hyperproductive life.
To a Nonessentialist, setting boundaries is evidence of weakness. Essentialists, on the other hand, see boundaries as
empowering. They recognize that boundaries protect their time from being hijacked and often free them from the burden of
having to say no to things that further others’ objectives instead of their own.” - Greg McKeown
Create black and white rules, like “I don’t take calls between 7-10am, sorry,” or “I don’t check email after 6pm. If it’s
something urgent, you’ll need to call me.” People will initially challenge your boundaries, but overtime, people will respect
your boundaries. With the right boundaries in place, you can prevent the non-essential from creeping into your life.
Dare to say ‘No’
“We feel guilty. We don’t want to let someone down. We are worried about damaging the relationship. But these emotions
muddle our clarity. They distract us from the reality of the fact that either we can say no and regret it for a few minutes, or we
can say yes and regret it for days, weeks, months, or even years…Since becoming an Essentialist I have found it almost
universally true that people respect and admire those with the courage of conviction to say no.” - Greg McKeown
Develop the courage to say ‘no’ by remembering what you are saying ‘yes’ to:

“No, I don’t want to take on another project because I want to ensure my current project is a huge success.”

“No, I don’t want to go out for drinks because I want to spend time with my family.”
Schedule time to journal
Rushing around all day trying to get things done causes us to lose perspective. The more stress we accumulate during the
day, the more we mistake non-essential things as urgent and important. To prevent the non-essential from creeping into our
lives, we need to schedule a time where we can disconnect and renew our outlook on life. A reliable way to regain
perspective is journaling.
Journaling allows us to get the petty stuff down on paper so we can start focusing on the bigger picture. By spending a few
minutes journal each day, we increase our introspection and start to question why we do what we do. “Being a journalist of
your own life will force you to stop hyper-focusing on all the minor details and see the bigger picture.” - Greg McKeown
“Our highest priority is to protect our ability to prioritize.” - Greg McKeown
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Born for This by Chris Guillebeau
“Work isn’t everything in life, but we spend a great deal of
our lives at work. Some people, it seems, really do have it all.
These people take to their working roles as if it’s the
absolute best possible fit for them—it’s as though they were
born to fulfill a certain role. If you’ve ever worked on
something you took great pleasure in, yet you also got paid
for it, you know what this is about. And if you haven’t
experienced this career bliss yourself, you may have
observed it in others.” – Chris Guillebeau
“People who are most successful have found the perfect
combination of joy, money, and flow. They’ve won the
career lottery—and they don’t have to choose between
their money and their life. Above all else, finding the work
you were meant to do should be your number one career
goal.” - Chris Guillebeau
How to Win the Career Lottery
Work on Your Side Hustle
“Think you’re too busy for another project? Whether busy or not, ask yourself, “Do I have the right
balance of joy, money, and flow in my life?” If you want an outcome different from the one your current
path is leading to, somehow you’ll have to find the time. Being too busy may be the new social currency,
but the real winners find time to do what matters to them.” - Chris Guillebeau.
Start your search for the career lottery ticket by using your spare time to focus on side projects. Select
side projects that allow you to expand your skillset and your social network. Use your spare time to
develop your ‘soft’ skills: writing (blogging), public speaking (Toastmasters) , conflict management, and
follow-up (volunteer for leadership positions).
Actively Listen
While working on your side hustle and developing soft skills, you’ll come across specific problems
people need help solving.
 Identify these problems by searching for common questions in your email inbox, social media feed,
and during daily interactions.
 Ask yourself: “How might I address these questions using my unique skill set?”
 The best questions to solve are questions related to specific problems people struggle with on a daily
basis.
“Here’s the core principle: when you’re not sure what your “thing” is—when you don’t know quite where
to look to find that job or career that brings you joy, flow, and a good income—the people you talk to
every day can help you find it. “ - Chris Guillebeau
If you can’t find a question worth devoting your time to answering, start interviewing and surveying people.
 Set up 15 minutes Skype calls with 100 people and find out what they’re struggling with that relates to your current skill set.
Resign Every Year
Sometimes quitting is the smartest thing you can do.
“Once a year, on the date of your choosing, commit to yourself that you will quit your job unless staying
put is the best possible choice for you at this time. If it is, that’s great—you can proceed with confidence,
knowing that you’re on the right track. If not, immediately begin looking for something different.” - Chris
Guillebeau
Don’t let sunken costs keep you in a dead-end job! If you were waiting in line at a store for 20 minutes
and another register opens up, would you switch lines to check out faster? Most people know the right
thing to do in a grocery store, but not in our careers. Once a year, ask yourself: “Is this the best
opportunity for me to at time moment?” If so, stay committed no matter how hard it is. If not, take the
leap.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from How to Fail at Almost Everything
and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
“The best way to increase your odds of success—in a way that might look like luck to others—is to
systematically become good, but not amazing, at the types of skills that work well together and are highly
useful for just about any job.” – Scott Adams
3 Universal Systems/Skills that increase your odds of professional success:
Clear Writing
The goal of all business writing is to write clearly. That means removing unnecessary words and passive
language.
“As it turns out, business writing is all about getting to the point and leaving out all of the noise. You think you
already do that in your writing, but you probably don’t.
Consider the previous sentence. I intentionally embedded some noise. Did you catch it? The sentence that starts
with “You think you already do that” includes the unnecessary word “already.” Remove it and you get exactly
the same meaning: “You think you do that.” The “already” part is assumed and unnecessary. That sort of
realization is the foundation of business writing.” – Scott Adams
Your sentences should follow the structure of ‘Actor-Action-Object’.
“Your brain processes “The boy hit the ball” more easily than “The ball was hit by the boy.” In editors’ jargon, the first sentence is direct
writing and the second is passive. It’s a tiny difference, but over the course of an entire document, passive writing adds up and causes reader
fatigue.” – Scott Adams
Making Conversation
The goal of conversation is to get people to like you. A proven conversation technique is smiling, using open
body language, introducing yourself, and searching for a common interest by asking questions.
“The technique is laughably simple and 100 percent effective. It’s all you need to be in the top 10 percent of all
conversationalists.” – Scott Adams
Here are five go-to questions:

Where do you live?

Do you have a family?

What do you do for a living?

Do you have any hobbies/sports?

Do you have any travel plans?
“The secret to making the list of questions work without seeming awkward is in understanding that the person you meet will feel every bit
as awkward as you. That person wants to talk about something interesting and to sound knowledgeable. Your job is to make that easy.
Nothing is easier than talking about one’s self.” – Scott Adams
Persuasion
“No matter your calling in life, you’ll spend a great deal of time trying to persuade people to do one thing or
another.” – Scott Adams
Scott is a trained hypnotist, and he knows a thing or two about persuasion. Here are two of his favorite
persuasive words/phrases:
“…Because”: People are more cooperative when you ask for a favor using a sentence that includes the word
because, even if the reason you offer makes little or no sense. – Scott Adams
“Would You Mind…?”: It’s hard to be a jerk and say no to any request that starts with “Would you mind.” The question comes across as
honest, while also showing concern for the other person. It’s a powerful combination. – Scott Adams
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Anything You Want by Derek Sivers
"Making a company is a great way to improve the world while improving yourself. When you make a company,
you make a utopia. It’s where you design your perfect world." – Derek Sivers
How to Start a Business
Solve your own problem
In 1997, Derek wanted to sell his CD without having to land a huge record deal. PayPal hadn’t been invented yet, so he
had to set up his own online credit card merchant store with a ‘BUY NOW’ button in order to sell his CD. He formed
partnerships with existing merchants and taught himself how to program. After months of work, he had a ‘BUY NOW’
button on his site and people could buy his CD.
Share your solution
“When I told my musician friends about my BUY NOW button, one friend asked, ‘Could you sell my CD, too?’ I thought
about it for a minute and said, ‘Sure. No problem.’ I just did it as a favour.” – Derek Sivers
People have the same problems you do. Find people with the problem you’ve just solved for yourself and show them
your solution. If providing this solution to others starts taking up too much of your time and it brings in more money
than your day job, then turn it into a full-time business.
If it’s not a hit, switch
Our solutions might not be the best solution for others. Derek urges us to keep improving and inventing ideas until we
get a hit: “Don’t waste your time persistently doing what’s not working.” When you discover a hit, the product or
service will promote itself.
How to Grow a Business
Focus on a utopian customer experience (from the customers point of view)
Derek wrote down his utopian-dream-come-true experience for his customer: “In a perfect world, my distributor
would: Pay me every week. Show me the full name and address of everyone who bought my CD. (Because those are my
fans, not the distributor’s.) Never kick me out for not selling enough. (Even if I sell only one CD every five years, it’ll be
there for someone to buy.)” – Derek Sivers
Inject moments of unexpected generosity
At CD Baby this meant answering the phone after two rings between 7am - 10pm, no matter what. When shop floor
employees would take the time to talk about a customer’s CD for 30 minutes, the customer would rave about their
experience at CD Baby. “It’s counterintuitive, but the way to grow your business is to focus entirely on your existing
customers. Just thrill them, and they’ll tell everyone.” – Derek Sivers
Delegate or Die...
When asked a question regarding an operational decision, complete the following steps:
1.
Gather everyone together
2.
Explain your philosophy (why you would do what you would do)
3.
Ensure that everyone understands (simulate an example and ask questions)
4. Get one person to write down the philosophy in the company manual
5.
Let everyone know that they can make the decision next time without having to ask you for permission
When to Sell a Business

If selling your business is what’s best for the customer
“I asked Seth Godin’s advice. All he said was, “If you care, sell.” (I think his point was that my lack of enthusiastic
vision was doing a disservice to my clients. It’d be better for everyone if I put the company in more motivated
hands that could help them all grow.)? – Derek Sivers

If staying in the business is stunting your personal growth
“I got excited about all the cool new projects I could do instead (of working on my company). I realized that the
bigger learning and growing challenge for me was letting go, not staying on.” – Derek Sivers
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
Do I need an MBA to be a successful businessperson?
“Here’s the answer: five simple words that will save you years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars: Skip business school. Educate
yourself.” – Josh Kaufman
3 Disturbing Truths about MBA School



MBA School debt takes the average MBA student 12 years to pay off.
MBA Schools teach out-dated business practices that are worthless by the time you graduate.
Getting an MBA degree doesn’t guarantee you a high-paying job or make you a skilled manager. One Stanford University study
analyzed MBA graduates for 40 years and found that having an MBA had zero correlation to career success and salary increases.
After learning these disturbing facts about MBA School, author Josh Kaufman decided to skip MBA School and teach himself the
fundamentals of business. After reading 100’s of business books, he realized that business was far less complicated than he initially
thought. In fact, every successful business could be explained using the following 5 part system:
5 Part Framework to Evaluate Any Business
Value Creation: Is the business creating something people actually want to buy?
In the book ‘Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t,’ Kevin Maney identifies two primary
characteristics of products and services that people are willing to pay for: convenience and high-fidelity.

Convenience means quick, reliable, easy, and flexible.

High-fidelity means high aesthetic appeal, high emotional impact, and a high degree social status.
"If you’re craving pizza, a table at the original Pizzeria Uno in Chicago is high-fidelity; Domino’s home delivery is
convenient. Accordingly, Pizzeria Uno benefits more from making the dining experience remarkable, while
Domino’s benefits more from delivering decent pizza as quickly as possible." – Josh Kaufman
Marketing: Is the business attracting and holding people’s attention?
When Apple announced the first iPod, they told the world that the new device would be “1000 songs in your
pocket.” This headline was remarkable at the time, and it violated people’s expectations. The goal of every
marketing team should be attracting attention through remarkable and unexpected messages.
"In the classic marketing book Purple Cow, Seth Godin uses a wonderful metaphor to illustrate this principle. A
field full of brown cows is boring. A purple cow violates the viewer’s expectations, which naturally attracts
Attention and interest. If you design your offer to be Remarkable— unique enough to pique your prospect’s
curiosity— it’ll be significantly easier to attract attention." – Josh Kaufman
Sales: Do people believe and trust the business enough to make a transaction?
If a stranger were to walk up to you at the bus stop and offer you $20 in exchange for $10, would you make the
transaction? Probably not, because you don't believe or trust the offer is legitimate. However, if your friend
standing next to you could vouch for this stranger, you'd probably make the transaction.
Sales is all about making a customer believe and trust the business can deliver on it’s promise. The quickest way
to build belief and trust is social proof. Examples of social proof include one hundred 5-star Amazon reviews, or
getting a recommendation from a key influencer like Oprah. Thousands of people trust Oprah, and that trust is
transferred to any product she recommends, leading to thousands of sales.
Value delivery: Is the business exceeding customer expectations?
Customer expectations have to be high enough for the customer to make an initial purchase. After the purchase
is made, however, if the performance of the offering surpasses customer expectations the customer will be
more likely to buy again and recommend the business to friends.
Zappos, the online shoe company, provide their customers with free expedited shipping, despite not advertising
free expedited shipping; the surprise that comes from exceeding customer expectations is far more
valuable. The best way a business can reliably exceed customer expectations is building efficient systems of
delivery, and providing excellent customer service.
Finance: Is the business making more money than it is spending?
The final part is straightforward: ensure more money is coming in than going out.
"It’s really not any more complicated than that. Yes, there can be fancy models and jargon, but ultimately you’re
simply using numbers to decide whether or not your business is operating the way you intended, and whether or
not the results are enough...to justify all of the time and effort that goes into running the operation." – Josh
Kaufman
Nathan Lozeron, @nlozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink
“We’re ALL in sales” – Daniel Pink
If we look at our outgoing emails and text messages from the previous week, we’ll see that several of our messages were sales attempts.
We may have sold a friend on the idea of sharing a Facebook post. We may have sold our kids on the benefits of cleaning their rooms. Or
we may have sold a work colleague on the importance of attending our project meeting.
Anytime we persuade someone to act; we’re selling.
Most of our professional success will depend on receiving help from people. Therefore, knowing how to sell people and persuade them to
act is critical to our long‐term success. But selling is hard. If we don’t take the time to develop the right sales skills, people will resist our
sales pitches.
“Selling, I’ve grown to understand, is more urgent, more important, and, in its own sweet way, more beautiful than we realize. The ability to
move others to exchange what they have for what we have is crucial to our survival and our happiness." – Daniel Pink
Two Essential Sales Skills
Attunement
We can think of attunement as the adjustment of a radio dial in the mind. Just as a radio needs to be
adjusted to attune to the frequency of a radio station, we need to adjust our thinking to attune to the
thoughts of the people we’re trying to persuade.
The first step to attunement is lowering our perceived power
If we approach a sale with the feeling that we have more resources and know more than the person
we’re trying to persuade, we’ll fail to attune to their perspective. A 2006 Northwestern University study
revealed that when people are primed to feel powerful through a series of power inducing exercises, they
were three times less likely to consider another person's point of view. Therefore, the first step of attunement requires lowering our
perceived power.
“Think of this first principle of attunement as persuasion jujitsu: using an apparent weakness as an actual strength. Start your
encounters with the assumption that you’re in a position of lower power. That will help you see the other side’s perspective
more accurately, which, in turn, will help you move them.” – Daniel Pink
Clarity
Consider a mess in your house you should clean up, but you don’t feel like cleaning it up right now.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning ‘not the least bit ready’ and 10 meaning ‘totally ready,’ how ready are
you to start cleaning?
Now answer this question: Why didn’t you pick a lower number?
"This technique, which originated in therapy and counseling but has since spread to other realms, seeks to
spark behavior change not by coercing people, promising them rewards, or threatening them with
punishments, but by tapping their inner drives... Most people who resist doing or believing something don’t have a binary, off‐on, yes‐no
position.” – Daniel Pink
By comparing our current state of readiness with a lower state of readiness, we clarified our motive for acting (cleaning the house). Our
job as salespeople is to clarify personal, positive, and intrinsic motives for action by making comparisons. If we use the right comparisons,
we will spark a desire for action within the person we are persuading, which will make them more receptive to what we’re selling.
"We often understand something better when we see it in comparison with something else than when we see it in isolation....That’s why the
most essential question you can ask (when clarifying a problem) is this: Compared to what?” – Daniel Pink
Start your sales by comparing someone’s current experience with a potential experience, or what they have, with what they could lose.
ALWAYS answer these two questions when selling:
"1. If the person you’re selling to agrees to buy, will his or her life improve?
“2. When your interaction is over, will the world be a better place than when you began? If the answer to either of these questions
is no, you’re doing something wrong." – Daniel Pink
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
"When an expert asks, ‘Will people understand my idea?,’ her answer will be Yes, because she herself understands." ‐ Chip & Dan Heath
Once we know something, it’s hard to imagine what it was like to not know it. Psychologists call this the curse of knowledge. This ‘curse’ impedes
our ability to share ideas effectively because it makes us believe other people share our interests and other people care about our ideas as much as
we do.
To deliver messages people find interesting and memorable (despite not having our knowledge and experience), you need to modify your
ideas to include the following traits:
Simple: What one thing do I want my audience to remember?
In the 1992 US Presidential election, Bill Clinton was notorious for going off point. Clinton loved policy, and he wanted to
address every issue that the country was facing at the time. But Clinton’s inability to prioritize policy issues made voters
wary.
James Carville, Clinton’s advisor, got Clinton to stay on point by writing three phrases on a whiteboard for all the campaign workers to see.
One of the phrases was: “It’s the economy, stupid.” The United States economy was in the middle of a recession and needed to be the
central talking point of every interview. The message was simple and memorable.
What’s the main message you want your audience to walk away with? If you want your audience to remember anything you say, deliver
fewer ideas. Two or three ideas are OK, but one idea is best.
Unexpected: How can I make my message surprising and insightful?
When a manager at Nordstrom’s (a retail store in the United States) wants to explain the importance of customer service,
she tells the story of the Nordstrom’s employee who gift‐wrapped items bought at Macy’s or the story of the
Nordstrom’s employee who started a customer’s car in the middle of a snow storm.
"Tell them something that is uncommon sense."‐ Chip & Dan Heath
Concrete: How can I make my message easy to understand?
When managers at Trader Joe’s (a grocery store in the United States) explains their target customer, they don’t say
‘upscale budget‐conscious customer,’ they say, ‘unemployed college professor.’
Use concrete language everyone understands. Leave out the jargon. Stop trying to sound smart.
"The beauty of concrete language—language that is specific and sensory—is that everyone understands your message in a similar way.” –
Chip & Dan Heath
Credible: How can I make my message believable?
When the directors of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (LLDE) company tried to convince a workshop of people that their
core value was ‘diversity,’ the audience seemed skeptical. One of the audience members said, “everyone claims that they
value diversity, but you’re a dance company. You’re probably filled with a bunch of twenty‐five‐year‐old dancers, all of
them tall and thin. Some of them are probably people of color, but is that diversity?”
Peter DiMuro, the artistic director of the LLDE, responded with an extreme example, “as a matter of fact,” he said, “the longest‐term member
of our company is a seventy‐three‐year‐old man named Thomas Dwyer…” This detail—seventy‐three‐year‐old Thomas Dwyer—silenced the
skepticism in the room." ‐ Chip & Dan Heath
Make your message credible by telling extreme anecdotes with vivid detail.
Emotion: How can I make my audience care?
In 2004, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that people were more likely to donate money when they heard
a message about a starving seven‐year‐old girl in Africa than a message about 3 million starving children in Africa.
When you tell a personal story about yourself, someone you know, or someone you read about, your audience can put
themselves in their shoes and feels that person’s struggle and success.
“If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” ‐ Mother Teresa
Story: How can I keep my audience engaged?
"Telling stories with visible goals and barriers shifts the audience into a problem‐solving mode.... (we) empathize with the
main characters and start cheering them on when they confront their problems: “Look out behind you!” “Tell him off
now!” “Don’t open that door!” ‐ Chip & Dan Heath
The most engaging stories are mysteries that keep your audience wondering:


“What’s going to happen next?”
“How is this going to end?”
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday
“In every industry— from books to movies to restaurants to plays and software— certain creations can be described as “perennial.” By that
I mean that, regardless of how well they may have done at their release or the scale of audience they have reached, these products have
found continued success and more customers over time. They are the kind of art or products that we return to more than once, that we
recommend to others, even if they’re no longer trendy or brand‐new.” – Ryan Holiday
How can we make a product that remains valuable?
The movie ‘Star Wars: A New Hope,’ and the book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ are perennial sellers. Like all perennial sellers
they live on by word‐of‐mouth. I learned about Star Wars from a friend in grade school, who heard about Star Wars from his dad…20 years
after its release date.
Ryan Holiday has uncovered methods of making and marketing products to maximize word of mouth. By using his methods, our work
(blog posts, videos, books, etc.) can remain valuable long after its release date. By learning the tools to make a perennial seller we can do
the hard work now and reap the benefits for years to come.
Here are three methods we can use to maximize word of mouth and develop a perennial seller.
Make it Timeless
Focus on a topic or problem that never gets old.
Author Dale Carnegie released the book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' in 1936. People still
recommend ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ it to their friends in 2017. Why?
Dale Carnegie’s book solves a timeless problem: social anxiety. People struggle with social anxiety today as they
did in 1936. People will continue to struggle with social anxiety for the foreseeable future.
If you want to make a perennial seller ask yourself: why will people still be talking about this ten years from now? (tip: focus on
reoccurring human problems and not the latest technology)
“Focus on the things that don’t change.” – Jeff Bezos
Make it Specific
People share products they love.
When people enthusiastically share a product with their friends, the products audience will grow organically over time
(like compound interest).
If you want to make a perennial seller, you need to ask yourself: Who specifically will love this?
"It's better to make a product that one hundred people love than a product one million people just like." – Paul Graham (Y Combinator founder)
People love products that fit their needs, wants, and interests. Therefore, you must narrow your focus and direct your energy on making a
product for a specific person (or niche group of people). All perennial products can be described in one sentence: This is a __, that does__ for __.
When you help a specific person solve a specific problem, that person (and people like them) are more likely to fall in love with your product and
share it with everyone they know.
“Many creators want to be for everyone . . . and as a result end up being for no one. Picking a lane isn’t limiting. It’s
the first act of empowerment we take as a creator.” – Ryan Holiday
Make it Accessible
It's better to be underpaid than to be unheard of.
“Think about all the stuff out there that you haven’t checked out— even though most of it is really cheap. That’s
the kind of abundance we enjoy as consumers. There is so much out there that you couldn’t possibly consume it all
in your lifetime. So we ignore a lot of it, especially the stuff that looks expensive. Which is why as creators we have
to get more comfortable with giving people a taste of our work— or, in some cases, giving some people the entire
meal for free. That’s how we build an audience and gather momentum.” – Ryan Holiday
Don’t be afraid to mark down your product at first (make it free!). The low cost will make it accessible to more people. When a low‐cost item is of
high utility and quality, people will share it with everyone they know.
“As a general rule, however, the more accessible you can make your product, the easier it will be to market. You can
always raise the price later, after you’ve built an audience.”‐ Ryan Holiday
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from #AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk’s formula for entrepreneurial success = Self-Awareness x Hustle
3 Ways Self-Awareness Leads to Success
Know what drives you
“When you have a big picture, a north star, a truly long-term vision, something interesting happens: You stop stressing
the dumb little shit day in and day out because you’re playing the big game. So the short-term angst, which is really just a
by-product of the friction caused by growth, becomes a little more manageable.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
What long-term vision can drive you through the day-to-day discomfort of being an entrepreneur? It doesn’t matter if
your vision is to own a jet or stay home and cook for your kids each day. If your vision helps you overcome short-term
discomfort, it’s a good vision.
Know your strengths & leverage them
“Focus on your strengths. What else are you really good at? Design? Growth hacking? Nail these skills down, and then drill
deep with them. If cash is your company’s oxygen, your strongest skills are its DNA. Develop and cultivate them because
they will be the hallmark of your company.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Am I leveraging my strengths and have they been validated by others?
Know your weaknesses & outsource them
It’s easy to know you need to outsource when you need A-level work and you’re an F. It’s a lot harder to see when you’re a
B. Here’s the clue: If you try, try, and try but don’t get any better, hire someone who’s an A. There’s no point in wasting
energy on that struggle when it could be better used to enhance things you’re already good at. – Gary Vaynerchuk
There are many things you need to do to be successful that don’t fall into the ‘strengths’ category. If you find yourself
struggling to improve at executing a certain task, swallow your pride and hire someone else to do it.
3 Ways to Hone Your Hustle and Achieve Success
Make Each Minute Count
“It’s squeezing every last bit of juice out of your day. It’s putting all your effort into achieving the goal at hand. It’s making
every minute count. Every. Single. Minute.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Am I using each minute to provide value and enrich people’s lives?
Learn to love it all (the successes AND the challenges)
“I love the HR nightmares of a 500-plus organization, the headaches, the grind, the calls with an upset customer, all of it.
It’s easy to stay motivated when you know your day is filled with things that are getting you closer to your goals.” – Gary
Vaynerchuk
Am I letting unexpected challenges drain my energy OR am I learning to love it all?
Use gratitude to fuel your hustle
“I’m grateful every single day. I feel so lucky to have been born in the mid-1970s, during such a special moment in Soviet
history, instead of the mid-nineteenth century or the 1940s, and to have been given the opportunity to come to this
country. I’m grateful for my parents, my wife, and my kids. I made this bed; how can I complain? Gratitude is amazing
fuel.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Am I using ‘gratitude for the opportunities’ as a fuel to propel me forward?
“Look at your level of hustle and evaluate it. Ask yourself, Am I working as hard as I could? Am I doing great
work? If you work for yourself and the answer is no, think long and hard about the business you have started or
the consulting work you’re doing.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Dip by Seth Godin
“If You’re Not Going to Get to #1, You Might as Well Quit Now” - Seth Godin
There is a high opportunity cost of not investing your time and effort in becoming the best .
“We reward the product or the song or the organization or the employee that is number one. The rewards are heavily skewed, so much so
that it’s typical for #1 to get ten times the benefit of #10, and a hundred times the benefit of #100. WHY? People don’t have a lot of time and
don’t want to take a lot of risks. If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer of the navel, you’re not going to mess around by going to a lot of
doctors. You’re going to head straight for the “top guy,” the person who’s ranked the best in the world. Why screw around if you get only
one chance?” - Seth Godin
Being the BEST in the WORLD is more accessible than you think.
“Best as in: best for them (a customer or an employer), right now, based on what they believe and what they know. And in the world as in:
their world, the world they have access to. So if I’m looking for a freelance copy editor, I want the best copy editor in English, who’s
available, who can find a way to work with me at a price I can afford. That’s my best in the world. (And) the world is getting smaller because
the categories are getting more specialized. I can now find the best gluten-free bialys available by overnight shipping. I can find the best
clothing-optional resort in North America with six clicks of a mouse.” - Seth Godin
Now let's say you quit most things and focus your time on becoming the best in a niche field or micro-market. At first it’s exciting: you’re
getting lots of positive feedback and seeing results. But eventually your “beginner” technique stops generating results and you’re forced
to endure the long slog of learning “expert” techniques. Your results DIP and the excitement wears off. At this point you want to quit and
try something else.
“Quitting when you hit the Dip is a bad idea. If the journey you started was worth doing, then quitting when you hit the Dip just wastes the
time you’ve already invested...The people who set out to make it through the Dip—the people who invest the time and the energy and the
effort to power through the Dip—those are the ones who become the best in the world.” - Seth Godin
3 Ways to Get Through a Dip
ecide when you’ll quit, in advance
“Quitting when you’re panicked is dangerous and expensive. The best quitters are the ones who decide in advance when
they’re going to quit.” – Seth Godin
Before entering a Dip, ask yourself: “How much time and money am I willing to sacrifice? How much short-term
discomfort am I willing to endure?” Based on these limits, are you likely to get through the Dip? If yes, proceed and only
quit if you’re pre-defined quitting limits have been exceeded OR something fundamental has changed.
nfluence a market
The odds of successfully influencing an individual (changing the mind of a manager or client) are quite low. After a few
failed attempts at influencing an individual, persistence turns into pestering and the individual will resist all future
influencing efforts.
However, the odds of successfully influencing a market are quite high. Although some people will ignore you (or even
reject you), there are still people in the market who haven’t heard of you. You can you use your failed attempts to
improve your solution and influence another area of the market.
lace your focus on (small) progress
“To succeed, to get to that light at the end of the tunnel, you’ve got to make some sort of forward progress, no matter
how small…but it needs to be more than a mantra, more than just “surviving is succeeding.” The challenge, then, is to
surface new milestones in areas where you have previously expected to find none.” – Seth Godin.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Your One Word by Evan Carmichael
"There is one word that defines who you are, connects all the things in your life that make you come alive, and
will help you escape the chains of mediocrity." – Evan Carmichael
Your One Word is what you stand for. It’s a core value that you use to make important decisions.
Discovering your One Word is essential if you want to build a great company or product.
Why?
Your One Word is a steady source of motivation
Anytime you try doing something great, you'll encounter a dip. It’s a time when you feel like giving up because you're not
getting the results you expected, and you’re no longer getting encouragement from others. What pulls you through
these dips is remembering why you do what you do, the reason for your struggle. Your One Word is that reason. And
because it's so short, it's easy to remember when times get tough.
Your One Word makes it easy for people to talk about you
“It's a noisy world. We're not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. And so, we have to be
really clear on what we want them to know about us." – Steve Jobs
While Steve Job's was running Apple, his focus on "elegance" was apparent. It made it easy for people to tell the
difference between an Apple computer and every other computer on the market.
When you build your business around One Word that is NOT ‘money’ or ‘profit’, you develop a competitive advantage by
establishing an emotional connection with a select group of people who identify with your One Word.
"When you stand for something important, something people feel connected to, something people are proud to be a part of, and you make
it easy for them to share because they only have to remember One Word, then referrals start to flow." – Evan Carmichael
How do I find my One Word?
Generate a list of answers to the following questions:
Constants
Favorite Things
What are my favorite books and what
do they have in common?
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
What interest(s) have been a
constant theme in my life?
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
What are my favorite movies and what
do they have in common?
________________________________
________________________________
________________________________
What do I never seem to never get
bored of?
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
Personality Traits
Of the people I enjoy being around, what
personality traits do they have in common?
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
Your One Word:
______________
Of the people I dread being around, what
traits do they share, and what is the
opposite of that?
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
What words do each of the three areas have in common?
When you've narrowed it down to One Word, remind yourself of your One Word throughout the day, and observe what effect it has.
Does it inspire you to take action? Does it allow you to make decisions easily? If not, keep searching for the One Word that does.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Give & Take by Adam Grant
There are three reciprocating styles you can adopt when interacting with other people:



Taker (give only when you expect to receive more in return)
Matcher (give only as much as you expect to receive)
Giver (give more than you expect to receive)
What’s the big deal?
"The vast majority of people develop a primary reciprocity style, which captures how they approach most of the people most of the time.
And this primary style can play as much of a role in our success as hard work, talent, and luck." - Adam Grant
What can I do about it?
According to a study of 160 Engineers: “the engineers with the lowest productivity are mostly givers. But when we look at the engineers with
the highest productivity, the evidence shows that they’re givers too. The California engineers with the best objective scores for quantity and
quality of results are those who consistently give more to their colleagues than they get. The worst performers and the best performers are
givers; takers and matchers are more likely to land in the middle." – Adam Grant
Study after study reveals that Givers finish on top because Givers have stronger networks (people trust and are eager help them), and they
inspire highly collaborative teams (team’s success = individual success).

To increase your odds of long-term career success, you must approach most personal interactions with a Givers mindset: be
willing to give more than you expect to receive.
However, you’ll fall to the bottom of the success ladder if you fail to never say ‘no’. Givers who never say ‘no’ are taken advantage of and
eventually burnout. Therefore, a successful Giver routinely asks himself/herself three core questions before giving freely.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Productivity Principle: The Five-Minute Favor
Inspired by the book Give & Take by Adam Grant
“You should be willing to do something that will take you five minutes or less for anybody.” - Adam Rifkin
In 2011, Fortune named Adam Rifkin the world’s greatest networker. Rifkin is a shy Silicon Valley entrepreneur with more connections to
Fortune’s top ‘movers and shakers’ (CEOs, rising stars, and influential figures) than anyone else on earth. Rifkin’s networking success is due
to a simple daily habit: offering a five-minute favor to anyone, without expecting anything in return.
“It takes him no time to raise funding for his start-ups. He has such a great reputation; people know he’s a good guy. That’s a dividend that
gets paid because of who he is.” – Raymond Rouf, fellow Silicon Valley entrepreneur
The three benefits of consistently giving five-minute favors
Create more opportunities for giving
Adam Rifkin will sacrifice five minutes of his free time to help you any way he can. Rifkin only asks that you pay the favor
forward. If Rifkin introduces you to someone in his network and that introduction leads to a job offer, you may get an
email from Rifkin a year later asking you to help someone else looking for a job. When Rifkin can help one person, he
increases the chances of helping the next person.
“Rifkin doesn’t think about what any of the people he helps will contribute back to him. Whereas takers accumulate large networks to look
important and gain access to powerful people, and matchers do it to get favors, Rifkin does it to create more opportunities for giving.” –
Adam Grant
Develop weak ties quickly
In 1973, Stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter surveyed professionals who recently changed jobs and discovered that
‘weak ties’ (people they knew casually) were nearly twice as likely to help them find a job as strong ties (close friends and
colleagues). According to Rifkin, a five minute favor is the most efficient way to establish a new ‘weak tie.’ By selflessly
offering five minutes of your time to help someone you open the door for future opportunity. With a five-minute sacrifice
you can create a new connection that could change your life.
“Strong ties provide bonds, but weak ties serve as bridges: they provide more efficient access to new information. Our strong ties tend to
travel in the same social circles and know about the same opportunities as we do. Weak ties are more likely to open up access to a different
network, facilitating the discovery of original leads.” - Adam Grant
Inspire others to give
In a 2008 psychology study titled ‘Suckers or Saviors?’ researchers assigned four strangers to a group but made sure they
could not communicate with one another. Each stranger was made two offers: take $3 or take $2 and allow the rest of the
group to receive $2 ($8 being shared evenly among the four strangers). The researchers made this offer for six consecutive
rounds.
If you were a stranger and chose to sacrifice $1 on each of the six rounds, you could be leaving with just $12, instead of $18. There is no
guarantee that the other strangers in your group would return the favor. However, the study revealed that those who consistently gave
for six rounds took home an average of 26% more money than people in groups without a consistent giver.
“When the groups included one consistent giver, the other members contributed more. The presence of a single giver was enough to
establish a norm of giving…Even though they earned less from each contribution, because they inspired others to give, they made a larger
total sum available to all participants. The givers raised the bar and expanded the pie for the whole group. In this experiment, the consistent
givers were doing the equivalent of a five-minute favor when they contributed their money every round. They were making small sacrifices
to benefit each member of the group, and it inspired the group members to do the same.” – Adam Grant
Three ways to start giving five-minute favors
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
“We become more successful when we are happier and more positive.” – Shawn Achor
Why it’s important to be happy before and during work:



Doctors primed with positive emotions perform an accurate diagnosis 19% faster (Estrada 1997).
Optimistic sales people outperform their counterparts by 56% (Seligman, 2006).
A 2005 meta-study looked at over 200 studies on 275,000 people worldwide and found that happiness led to success in nearly
every domain, including work, health, friendship, sociability, and creativity (Lyubomirsky, 2005).
“Happiness gives us a real chemical edge on the competition. How? Positive emotions flood our brains with dopamine and serotonin,
chemicals that not only make us feel good, but dial up the learning centers of our brains to higher levels. They help us organize new
information, keep that information in the brain longer, and retrieve it faster later on. And they enable us to make and sustain more neural
connections, which allows us to think more quickly and creatively, become more skilled at complex analysis and problem solving, and see
and invent new ways of doing things.” – Shawn Achor (all bold italic quotes shown below are by Shawn Achor)
5 Ways to Build Your 'Happiness Advantage' This Week
elp someone by using a signature strength
“Each time we use a skill, whatever it is, we experience a burst of positivity. If you find yourself in need of a
happiness booster, revisit a talent you haven’t used in a while.”
My signature strength is learning. I exercise my signature strength by reading books, learning new ideas, and
sharing those ideas with others. Finding one great idea provides a happiness boost that lasts the entire day. Your
signature strength might be giving advice on a specific topic.
 Determine what you’re particularly good at and enjoy doing. Each night, before you go to bed, think about
how you’re going to use your signature strength to make a small difference in someone’s life.
rrange something to look forward to
“One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their
endorphin levels by 27 percent. Often, the most enjoyable part of an activity is the anticipation. If you can’t take
the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar—even if it’s a
month or a year down the road. Then whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.”
Schedule 3 exciting experiences this week. These experience might include:
 Watching a movie you've been dying to see, playing a round of golf with a friend, or watching a local concert
or comedy show.
ractice gratitude
“When researchers pick random volunteers and train them to be more grateful over a period of a few weeks, they
become happier and more optimistic, feel more socially connected, enjoy better quality sleep, and even experience
fewer headaches than control groups. Countless other studies have shown that consistently grateful people are
more energetic, emotionally intelligent, forgiving, and less likely to be depressed, anxious, or lonely.”
 Keep a journal near your bed. Before going to sleep at night OR before getting out of bed in the morning,
write down 3 things you’re grateful for.
erform deliberate acts of kindness
“Sonja Lyubomirsky, a leading researcher and author of The How of Happiness, has found that individuals told to
complete five acts of kindness over the course of a day report feeling much happier than control groups and that
the feeling lasts for many subsequent days, far after the exercise is over.”
Make a conscious decision to help 3 people today:
 Buy someone a cup of coffee, offer your time to simply listen to someone’s struggles, or send a message of
encouragement to a friend or family member.
earn for social support
“In the midst of challenges and stress, some people choose to hunker down and retreat within themselves. But the
most successful people invest in their friends, peers, and family members to propel themselves forward. This
principle teaches us how to invest more in one of the greatest predictors of success and excellence—our social
support network.”
As an introvert, I could go weeks without talking to friends. This behavior is destructive to my happiness and my
work performance. I've learned to make plans with friends at the start of each week to ensure my social support
bucket stays full. I often schedule:
 Coffee dates, dinners, and game nights (card games, board games, etc.)
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Presence by Amy Cuddy
“When our body language is confident and open, other people respond in kind, unconsciously reinforcing not
only their perception of us but also our perception of ourselves.” – Amy Cuddy
Your body position, at every moment of the day, influences your mind to feel empowered and disempowered.
The Effects of Feeling Empowered
(open & wide body position)
1. Creative and resourceful
2. Decisive and resilient
3. Focused
4. Confident
5. Compassionate
The Effects of Feeling of Disempowered
(closed & slouched body position)
1. Forgetful and narrowly focused
2. Fearful and anxious
3. Distracted and impulsive
4. Unconfident
5. Self-absorbed
5 Body Positions to Boost Feeling of Empowerment:
“We convince by our presence, and to convince others we need to convince ourselves…When our body language
is confident and open, other people respond in kind, unconsciously reinforcing not only their perception of us
but also our perception of ourselves.” – Amy Cuddy
Chest and Shoulder Stretch
Stand-up, put your hands on your lower back, and push your chest towards the sky. This will open
your chest and shoulders. Hold this position for 20 seconds.
Victory Pose
Stand-up, raise your hands above your head, and pretend you just won the 100m dash at the
Olympics. Author Amy Cuddy does this in the restroom prior to giving a speech.
Lean Back Chair Pose
Put your back against the chair and open up your chest. Put your hands behind your head or on the
chair next to you. Hold this pose during meetings to boost confidence. I call this the “CEO pose”.
Standing Hand Gestures
When possible, stand-up and use hand gestures when talking to people. I’ve recently purchased a
wireless headset for making calls so I can walk around my office and conduct phone conversations
like a wall street trader .
Walking or Exercising
Move your body in a dynamic way: go for a walk (bonus points if you strut while walking) or hit the
gym.
“Focus less on the impression you’re making on others and more on the impression you’re making on yourself.” Amy Cuddy
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal
“People who use their willpower seem to run out of it. In study after study:
 Controlling emotions didn’t just lead to emotional outbursts; it made people more willing to spend money on
something they didn’t need.
 Resisting tempting sweets didn’t just trigger cravings for chocolate; it prompted procrastination.
It was as if every act of willpower was drawing from the same source of strength, leaving people weaker with each
successful act of self-control.” – Kelly McGonigal
Neuroscientists have found that self-control resides in an area of the brain called the pre-frontal cortex. Each time you use
the pre-frontal cortex to make decisions, think through problems, or resist temptations, you deplete your limited willpower
reserves.
In the modern age, you face an onslaught of self-control challenges. If you aren’t careful, you will quickly use up your
limited self-control reserves, which leads to excessive procrastination on our biggest projects. Therefore, you need to have
a large willpower reserve to avoid becoming defenseless against temptation and distraction later in the day. In addition to
the two strategies detailed in my animated summary video (increasing heart rate variability by slowing your breathing to
five breaths per minute and forgiving yourself for past willpower failures), here are four daily habits to strengthen your
willpower:
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Are You Fully Charged? by Tom Rath
“We identified and catalogued more than 2,600 ideas for improving daily experience. As we narrowed down the
concepts to the most proven and practical strategies, underlying patterns continued to surface. Three key
conditions differentiate days when you have a full charge from typical days” – Tom Rath



Meaning: making the connection between what you do and how it benefits another person
Interactions: creating far more positive than negative moments
Physical Health: making choices that improve your mental and physical health.
Meaning
“Until you understand how your efforts contribute to the world, you are simply going through the motions each
day.” – Tom Rath
According to a 2008 study by the Radiological Society of North America, when a patient’s photo was attached to
an MRI scan, the accuracy of the radiologists’ diagnosis improved by 46%! Therefore, get in the habit of making
a connection between what you are working on and who it is impacting. Place a picture of who your work is
impacting on your desk or on the wallpaper of your computer desktop.
Interaction
“We need at least three to five positive interactions to outweigh every one negative exchange. Bad moments
simply outweigh good ones. Whether you’re having a one-on-one conversation with a colleague or a group
discussion, keep this simple shortcut in mind: At least 80 percent of your conversations should be focused on
what’s going right.” – Tom Rath
What's ‘right’ includes: focusing on a strength, recent accomplishment, or an experience you can look forward
to. At end of each day, as you lay in bed, reflect upon the positive interactions you had during the day.
Reflecting on positive interactions will focus your mind to form more positive interactions tomorrow.
Physical Health
“There is absolutely no dietary need for any added sugar - a toxin that fuels diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and
cancer. Eliminate as much added sugar as possible…Drink more water, tea, and coffee instead of soda or other
sweetened drinks.” – Tom Rath
Look at the label of everything you are about to purchase and eat. If it contains more than 10 grams of sugar,
don’t buy it. Aim for zero added sugar (naturally sweetened foods only) throughout the day to keep you blood
sugar stable and remain fully charged. At a minimum, avoid these sugary foods: soda, candy, pastries, fruit juice,
and most dressings.
“Being active throughout the day is the key to staying energized. Even 30–60 minutes of exercise a day will not
cut it if you spend the rest of your day sitting around. Moving around and getting more activity every hour is
what will keep you fully charged” – Tom Rath
A study of over 200,000 people found that even if you exercise more than 7 hours each week you still had a 50%
greater risk of death if you sit the majority of the time each day.
“When you sit down, the electrical activity in your leg muscles shuts off quickly. Your rate of burning calories
drops to just one per minute. The enzymes that help break down fat fall by 90 percent. After sitting for two
hours, your good cholesterol drops by 20 percent.” – Tom Rath
Set hourly reminders to move around. Make standing the default position (get a stand-up desk if you work in an
office).
“The best performers in these studies slept for 8 hours and 36 minutes per night on average. The average
American, in contrast, gets just 6 hours and 51 minutes of sleep on weeknights…One study suggests that losing
90 minutes of sleep can reduce daytime alertness by nearly one-third.” – Tom Rath
Sleep is essential to our daily performance. Here is how to get more of it:

Reduce your exposure to light at night (turn off electronic devices 1 hour before a scheduled bed
time).

Lower the room temperature (reduced temperature prevents your natural body clock from waking
you up in the middle of the night).

Reduce exposure to noise while sleeping by wearing ear plugs or playing a white-noise soundtrack
while sleeping (use an app on your smartphone).
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from 10% Happier by Dan Harris
“There’s a reason why business people, lawyers, and marines have embraced meditation. There’s no magic or
mysticism required—it’s just exercise. If you do the right amount of reps, certain things will happen, reliably and
predictably.”– Dan Harris
Less reactionary
What happens when I start meditating?
“What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, ‘respond’ rather than simply ‘react…A
successful dotcom friend of mine said that once he started meditating he noticed he was always the calmest person in the room during
heated meetings. He called it a “superpower.” – Dan Harris
Meditation gives you the ability to detach and observe a situation, without impulsively reacting to it. This creates a temperament that is
essential for leadership. It can also prevent you from saying something to your boss that you’ll later regret.
More resilient
“I had long assumed that the only route to success was harsh self-criticism. However, research shows that ‘firm but kind’ is the smarter play.
People trained in self-compassion meditation are more likely to quit smoking and stick to a diet. They are better able to bounce back from
missteps. All successful people fail. If you can create an inner environment where your mistakes are forgiven and flaws are candidly
confronted, your resilience expands exponentially.” – Dan Harris
Less fearful
“Striving is fine, as long as it’s tempered by the realization that, in an entropic universe, the final outcome is out of your control. If you don’t
waste your energy on variables you cannot influence, you can focus much more effectively on those you can. When you are wisely ambitious,
you do everything you can to succeed, but you are not attached to the outcome—so that if you fail, you will be maximally resilient, able to
get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fray.” – Dan Harris
More present
“Many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment. And
imagine living your whole life like that, where always this moment is never quite right, not good enough because you need to get to the next
one. That is continuous stress…When you have one foot in the future and the other in the past, you piss on the present.” – Dan Harris
"We spend almost every waking moment lost in thought. This is what mindfulness is cutting through. The enemy of mindfulness is to be
distracted by thought – thinking without knowing that you're thinking." – Sam Harris, author and neuroscientist
“When you see that there’s something better than what we have then it’s just a matter of time before your brain is like, ‘Why the fuck am I
doing that? I’ve been holding on to a hot coal.’ ” – Dr. Jud Brewer, mindfulness researcher at Yale
1.
2.
3.
3 Ways to Start Meditating:
Download a guided meditation (I suggest using a smartphone app like ‘Calm,’ ‘Headspace’, or ‘10% Happier’).
Go for a walk every morning and pay attention to the sights and sounds around you. When you notice yourself thinking
(labeling, ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future), just bring your attention back to the sights and sounds.
Sit upright in a chair, set a timer for 7 minutes, and close your eyes. Feel your breath moving and naturally flowing in and out of
your nose. When you notice yourself thinking, gradually return your focus back to your breath.
“Every time you get lost in thought—which you will, thousands of times—gently return to the breath. I cannot stress strongly enough that
forgiving yourself and starting over is the whole game. As my friend and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg has written, ‘Beginning again
and again is the actual practice, not a problem to overcome so that one day we can come to the ‘real’ meditation.’” – Dan Harris
“If you give your brain enough of a taste of mindfulness, it will eventually create a self-reinforcing spiral—a
retreat from greed and hatred” – Dan Harris
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman
“This book is about my personal quest to test the art and science of rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any
new skill as quickly as possible. The purpose of this book is to help you acquire new skills in record time. In my
experience, it takes around twenty hours of practice to break through the frustration barrier: to go from
knowing absolutely nothing about what you’re trying to do to performing noticeably well.” – Josh Kaufman
Here is a systemic way to become competent in any skill (mental or physical) as quickly as possible:
Deconstruct a skill into the smallest possible sub-skills
"Deconstructing the skill before you begin also allows you to identify the parts of the skill that aren’t important
for beginning practitioners. By eliminating the noncritical sub-skills or techniques early in the process, you’ll be
able to invest more of your time and energy mastering the critical sub-skills first." – Josh Kaufman
One way to deconstruct a skill: imagine the opposite of what you want. Picture a situation where you’ll need to
use your desired skill. With that situation in mind, imagine the worst-case scenario. For example, if you wanted
to learn to white-water kayak, it would be helpful to imagine going down a river in your kayak and
encountering a dangerous white-water rapid. As you hit the rapid, your kayak flips, and you’re underwater,
unable to flip the kayak over and about to hit your head on a rock. To prevent this worst-cast scenario from unfolding, you’ll need to know
the following skills: how to roll a kayak right-side up when underwater, how to navigate a river and spot dangerous rapids, and how to
control a kayak to avoid dangerous sections of the river. Each of these skills are ‘sub-skills’ of ‘kayaking.’ Thinking of a disastrous
performance with your desired skill allows you to come up with an inventory of important sub-skills to initially focus on. By breaking down
your desired skill into a set of sub-skills, acquiring the skill seems less overwhelming.
Learn just enough to practice intelligently and self-correct during practice
"Learning helps you plan, edit, and correct yourself as you practice. That’s why learning is valuable. The trouble
comes when we confuse learning with skill acquisition. If you want to acquire a new skill, you must practice it in
context. Learning enhances practice, but it doesn’t replace it. If performance matters, learning alone is never
enough.” – Josh Kaufman
Spend less time studying how to practice and more time actually practicing. Gather a collection of trusted
resources (ex: three or more top-rated books on Amazon) and quickly scan those resources for ways to
practice certain sub-skills and to self-correct while you practice. Find a consensus of best practice methods
from several resources. The moment you devise a practice plan and a way to self-correct, you should put down the books, turn off the
lesson videos, and go practice. “Instead of trying to be perfect, focus on practicing as much as you can as quickly as you can, while
maintaining ‘good enough’ form.” - Josh Kaufman
Remove physical, mental, and emotional barriers that get in the way of practice
"There are many things that can get in the way of practice, which makes it much more difficult to acquire any
skill." – Josh Kaufman
Here are three barriers to rapid skill development to consider and eliminate prior to practicing a new skill:
1. Limited access: If it's too hard to get started, or it takes too long to get started, you'll find an excuse not to
start. If you want to learn to play the guitar, place your guitar in the middle of the living room with a sheet of
music next to it. Doing so will make it easy and effortless to pick up the guitar and start practicing.
2. Distractions: Skill development requires your undivided attention while you practice. Practice in areas that
you consider boring while you are free from distractions: no television, ringing phones, or incoming e-mails.
3. Self-consciousness: The fear of looking incompetent is the largest barrier to skill development. Adjust external expectations and laugh at
yourself for the first 20 hours (without losing enthusiasm for learning the skill).
Practice the most important sub-skills (with feedback), for at least twenty hours
"Once you start, you must keep practicing until you hit the twenty-hour mark. If you get stuck, keep pushing:
you can’t stop until you reach your target performance level or invest twenty hours. If you’re not willing to
invest at least twenty hours up front, choose another skill to acquire. The reason for this is simple: the early
parts of the skill acquisition process usually feel harder than they really are. You’re often confused, and you’ll
run into unexpected problems and barriers. Instead of giving up when you experience the slightest difficulty,
precommitting to twenty hours makes it easier to persist.” – Josh Kaufman
An easy and effective way to reach 20 hours of practice is to devote 1 month, 40 minutes a day, to practicing
your desired skill (one skill at a time). I suggest practicing for 20 minutes after you wake up and 20 minutes before you go to bed. Before
each practice session, set a timer for 20 minutes and push yourself to improve (struggle is ok, in fact struggle is essential to learning
process). Seek instant feedback while you practice – use coaches, mentors, software programs, and video capture devices when possible.
After 20 hours of practice, you’ll be in a better position to decide if you want to continue developing the skill.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The 4‐Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss
“It is possible to become world‐class, enter the top 5% of performers in the world, in almost any subject
within 6– 12 months, or even 6– 12 weeks. There is a recipe, the real recipe in this book, and that is DiSSS.”
– Tim Ferriss
“Deconstruction is best
thought of as exploration. This
is where we throw a lot on the
wall to see what sticks…it is
where we answer the question:
how do I break this amorphous
“skill” into small, manageable
pieces?”
– Tim Ferriss
Break down the skill into a sub‐
set of skills. Understand each
of these sub‐skills by reading
‘conventional’ and
‘unconventional’ guides. Look
for similarities between the
two.
Interview world‐class
performers of the skill (ex:
Olympic silver medalist) and
ask them:
 “If I needed to perform in
this skill with only 20% of the
ideal training time, what would
you have me focus on?”
 “What do most novices do
that you consider to be the
biggest waste of time?”
“Rank the highest frequency items
based on their ability to provide early
wins and feeling of competency
(highest return, least amount of
time).”
– Tim Ferriss
“A goal without real
consequences is wishful
thinking. Good follow‐through
doesn’t depend on the right
intentions. It depends on the
right incentives.” ‐ Tim Ferriss
Identify the 20% of available
sub‐skills that you can use to
produce 80% of the desired
results (the sub‐skills you’ll use
most frequently).
Learn and practice the 20% high
frequency sub‐skills in a sequence
that allow you to quickly experience
a feeling of competency.
For Example: “Language is
infinitely expansive (much like
cooking) and therefore horribly
overwhelming if unfiltered.
Forget studying and masters
long lists if you don’t plan to
use them in 80% or more of the
conversations that you will
initially have.
“For cooking methods, the most
popular (as also confirmed by my
interviews) were as follows: Grilling,
Sautéing & Braising
The method that is most forgiving—
braising— goes first, because early
wins are paramount. The order of
learning then becomes: Braising,
Sautéing then Grilling.” – Tim Ferriss
Tim recommends using a site
called stickK.com to set
‘stakes’. The site allows you
to pick any goal, choose a
referee (a friend to keep you
honest), put money on the
line, and pick an ‘anti‐charity’
– an organization you so
despise so much that you’d
rather slam your head in a car
door than donate to them.
If you select the wrong
material, the wrong textbook,
the wrong group of words, it
doesn’t matter how much (or
how well) you study. It doesn’t
matter how good your teacher
is. One must find the highest‐
frequency material.” – Tim
Ferriss
When learning how to swim, don’t
start by learning the proper kicking
technique because you’ll make
minimal gains in swimming speed.
Instead, practice pushing off the side
of the pool and gliding through the
water. This will provide you with a
feeling of competency and motivate
you to learn additional sub‐skills.
Ask yourself:
 “Can I see myself using this
at least 80% of time initially
performing the skill?”
It’s also important to start with sub‐
skills that have a high margin of
error. You will make several errors
when starting a skill so you need to
feel safe doing so. Fear and anxiety
quickly erode feelings of
competency. Therefore, if you’re
learning how to swim, start in the
shallow end.
“Choose the highest yield
material and you can be an
idiot and enjoy stunning
success.”
– Tim Ferriss
 “Have I narrowed down my
study material and practice
routine to the highest
frequency items?”
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
“Based on stickK’s goal
completion percentages from
2008– 2011, we find that the
success rate with no stakes
(no money on the line) is
33.5%. Once we add stakes like
an anti‐charity, that success
rate more than doubles to
72.8%!” – Tim Ferriss
 When learning to cook,
schedule dinner parties to
give you the incentive to be a
better cook.
 When learning the guitar,
tell a friend that you will learn
a new song by a certain date
OR give $200 to an anti‐
charity.
Insights from A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler
“Flow is an optimal state of consciousness, a peak state where we both feel our best and perform our
best. It is a transformation available to anyone, anywhere, provided that certain initial conditions are met.
Everyone from assembly-line workers in Detroit to jazz musicians in Algeria to software designers in Mumbai rely
on flow to drive performance and accelerate innovation.”
– Steven Kotler (all quotes in bold are by Steven Kotler)
Flow is the feeling of being totally immersed in what you are doing. “In flow, every action, each decision, leads effortlessly, fluidly,
seamlessly to the next. It’s high-speed problem solving; it’s being swept away by the river of ultimate performance.”
According to Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Ned Hallowell: “Everything you do, you do better in flow, from baking a chocolate cake
to planning a vacation to solving a differential equation to writing a business plan to playing tennis to making love. Flow is the doorway to
the ‘more’ most of us seek. Rather than telling ourselves to get used to it, that’s all there is, instead learn how to enter into flow. There you
will find, in manageable doses, all the ‘more’ you need.”
How to Experience More Flow at Work (4 flow triggers):
lear goal with high consequences
First, you need to know exactly what you are trying to do (know the pass-fail requirements) and why you are
doing it (clear goal). Your goals should always be just beyond your current skill level, forcing you to operate in
the space between boredom and anxiety.
Then you need to put something on the line and heighten your attention (consequence). As human beings, our
fear of social consequences is similar to our fear of death (when we lived in tribes, being alienated meant
surviving as an outcast alone in the wild). Therefore, you don’t need to put your life on the line to experience
high consequence, just give people your word and stick to it (public accountability).
ich sensory experience
Being mindful of your five senses and experiencing rich sensory input that is complex and novel will trigger
flow. The more complex and unpredictable the experience, the deeper the flow state.
“If you’ve ever stood before a vast canyon and felt awe—well, awe is a state of total absorption and the front
end of flow. When sucked in by the incomprehensible complexity of geologic timescales and epic beauty, reality
pauses, if only for a moment. And in this moment, we taste the pinpoint focus, loss of self-consciousness, and
time dilation that are deep zone companions.” In the context of work: tea/coffee = taste + smell, music =
auditory, novel space = sight, and typing/sketching = tactile.
mmediate feedback
When your experience includes an immediate cycle of action-reaction-improvement, you’ll have a better chance
of experiencing flow. “The smaller the gap between input and output, the more we know how we’re doing and
how to do it better. If we can’t course correct in real time, we start looking for clues to better performance—
things we did in the past, things we’ve seen other people do, things that can pull us out of the moment. “
In the context of your work, externalize thoughts so you can immediately improve upon them – sketch out
ideas, type out sentences, draw on the whiteboard.
ay “Yes! And…”
Whatever comes up, accept it and add to it.
“Interactions should be additive more than argumentative. The goal here is the momentum, togetherness, and
innovation that comes from ceaselessly amplifying each other’s ideas and actions. It’s a trigger based on the first
rule of improv comedy. If I open a sketch with, “Hey, there’s a blue elephant in the bathroom,” then “No, there’s
not”…the scene goes nowhere. But if the reply is affirmative instead—“Yeah, sorry, there was no more space in
the cereal cupboard”—well then that story goes someplace interesting.”
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Productivity Principle: The 4% Zone
Inspired by the book The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler
Optimal Challenge = Optimal Experience
“Attention is most engaged (i.e., in the now) when there’s a very specific relationship between the difficulty of a task
and our ability to perform that task. If the challenge is too great, fear swamps the system (anxiety). If the challenge is
too easy, we stop paying attention (boredom). Flow (the optimal state of consciousness) appears near the emotional
midpoint between boredom and anxiety, in what scientists call the flow channel—the spot where the task is hard
enough to make us stretch but not hard enough to make us snap." – Steven Kotler
One reason adventure sport athletes improve much faster than most athletes is that their environmental conditions
force them to stay within 4% of their current ability and remain completely focused on the task at hand. If they
pushed themselves too hard, they would encounter a situation far beyond their current skill level that could kill them
(ex: a big wave surfer trying to surf a wave 50% larger than any wave he’s ever surfed will get overwhelmed, lose
focus, and be crushed by the wave). By continually tackling challenges just beyond their CURRENT ability, adventure
sport athletes enjoy the process of improvement and end up doing the impossible (like surfing 100 foot waves).
“If we want to achieve the kinds of accelerated performance we’re seeing in action and adventure sports, then it’s 4
percent plus 4 percent plus 4 percent, day after day, week after week, months into years into careers. This is the road
to real magic. Follow this path long enough, and not only does impossible becomes possible, it becomes what’s next—
like eating breakfast, like another a day at the office." – Steven Kotler
If you want to accelerate skill development AND enjoy the process…ASK YOURSELF:
1.
What is my current ability?
Note: Current ability depends on current state of mind. When tired you don't have the same ability as when
you are fully rested. Your current skill level moves up and down the flow channel throughout the day.
Moment-to-moment self-awareness of your current ability is the key to finding the sweet spot.
2.
How can I adjust the challenge to be ‘just beyond’ my currently ability (roughly 4%)?


When Executing Repetitive/Mundane Tasks: do it slightly faster OR with slightly less effort.
When Doing Creative Work: improve your existing work by 4% (i.e. make the next revision slightly
better) OR impose creative constraints (ex: condense the length of your speech slightly).
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Peak by Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool
“The most effective (improvement) method of all: deliberate practice. It is the gold standard, the ideal to
which anyone learning a skill should aspire.” - Anders Ericsson
Turn your practice sessions into deliberate practice sessions by adding S.P.I.C.E.:
pecific performance target
If you have vague performance targets like ‘get better’ or ‘succeed,’ you’re simply wasting your time. To improve
performance, you need specific performance goals.
Steve Faloon was able to recite 82 digits by having clear goals the entire way. If he could successfully recite 39 digits,
his sole focus was getting to 40 digits.
“Deliberate practice involves well-defined, specific goals and often involves improving some aspect of the target
performance; it is not aimed at some vague overall improvement.” - Anders Ericsson
eriods of intense undistracted focus
Before Steve attempted 39 digits, he gave himself an exciting pep talk (“You got this Steve!”) before concentrating
intently on the numbers Anders gave him. For those 1 hour sessions all that mattered was hitting his targets.
“Deliberate practice is deliberate, that is, it requires a person’s full attention and conscious actions. You seldom
improve much without giving the task your full attention. It isn’t enough to simply follow a teacher’s or coach’s
directions.” - Anders Ericsson
mmediate feedback
To discover a mental representation that works, you’ll need to test various mental representations during each
practice. In order to verify if a representation is effective or not, you’ll need to receive accurate and immediate
feedback. The quicker the feedback, the faster you’ll improve your mental representation.
Steve knew if his approach was working after each attempt. Imagine if he had to wait 10 minutes before knowing
whether the last six attempts were correct…
“Without feedback— either from yourself or from outside observers— you cannot figure out what you need to
improve on or how close you are to achieving your goals.” - Anders Ericsson
ycling between comfort and discomfort
Approach skill development the same way you’d approach bodybuilding: a period of discomfort (lift weights slightly
heavier than what you can currently lift) followed by a period of ease and comfort (recovery phase) to grow new
muscles and lift larger weights next week. Improvement only comes from a willingness to push yourself beyond your
comfort zone followed by a willingness to fully rest and recover (expert performers sleep on average 8.5 hr / night).
“Deliberate practice takes place outside one’s comfort zone and requires a student to constantly try things that are
just beyond his or her current abilities. Thus it demands near-maximal effort, which is generally not enjoyable.” Anders Ericsson
xpert coaching from proven performers
Expert coaches provide effective mental representations to jump start your progress.
Expert coaching also heightens each aspect of the deliberate practice method by:

Ensuring you know the path to excellence and providing intermediate goals along the way.

Using social pressure to hold you accountable and raise the intensity of practice.

Providing accurate and immediate feedback because they know exactly what to look for.

Pushing you harder than you want, but not pushing you too far.
“Deliberate practice develops skills that other people have already figured out how to do and for which effective training techniques have
been established. The practice regimen should be designed and overseen by a teacher or coach who is familiar with the abilities of expert
performers and with how those abilities can best be developed.” - Anders Ericsson
The Ultimate Goal:
“Deliberate practice both produces and depends on effective mental representations. Improving performance
goes hand in hand with improving mental representations; as one’s performance improves, the representations
become more detailed and effective, in turn making it possible to improve even more.” - Anders Ericsson
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from 10-Minute Toughness by Jason Selk
"A considerable body of research validates that each of these five tools is highly effective for improving an
individual's ability to perform…Give it a try. Complete the mental workout for two weeks, and judge for
yourself if it helps you to improve focus, ability, and consistency." – Jason Selk
15-Second Centered Breath
When you feel performance pressure, your heart rate naturally increases. If you don’t take steps to control your heart rate,
you’ll impair your ability to think clearly (shutdown down executive functioning in the brain) and activate your fight-orflight response.
“An effective way to control heart rate is to use a "centering breath" before and during competition. The centering breath is a fifteen-second
breath in which you breathe in for six seconds, hold for two, and then breathe out for seven. In doing so, you will biologically control your
heart rate so as to better control your arousal state and ability to think under pressure." – Jason Selk
Jason Selk has found that when elite athletes and top business executives slow their breathing to 15-second intervals before going on
stage, they get enough air into the diaphragm to trigger a relaxation response and steady their heart rates.
Performance Statement
"After taking your centering breath, repeat to yourself the statement that most effectively focuses you on what it takes for
you to be successful in competition. Repeating the performance statement in your mental workout will help remind you of
the most helpful thought necessary for success." – Jason Selk
Without a performance statement, your mind will naturally fill up with thoughts of worry and self-doubt. Repeating a performance
statement is an excellent tool to reduce negative self-talk during performances. A cyclist’s performance statement is: "Weight back and
breathe easy." A business executive’s performance statement is: "Listen first; then decide; be swift and confident.”
Discover your performance statement: "Imagine that you are about to compete in the biggest game of your life, and the best coach you
have ever had is standing right next to you. Sixty seconds before the competition begins, your coach looks you in the eye and tells you that if
you stay focused on this one thing or these two things, you will be successful today. What one or two things would the coach name? (Be as
specific as possible, and avoid using the word don't)" – Jason Selk
Visualizations
After reciting your performance statement, spend one minute visualizing past success (seeing highlights from past
performances), one minute visualizing ultimate success (seeing yourself performing well on the biggest stage you can
imagine, ex: a stadium full of people), and one minute visualizing a successful upcoming performance.
Visualization Guidelines:
A. Rapidly replay a scene in your mind until it feels right.
B. Ensure your final visualization is at 'game speed' (how you expect to experience the upcoming performance in real time).
C. End each successful visualization by congratulating yourself on an excellent performance.
Questions to ask yourself while visualizing (answer with as much detail as possible):
1. What do I see? ________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. What do I hear? _______________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What do I feel? ________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Emotionally, what does it feel like to be successful? __________________________________________________________________
Identity Statement
"Upon completing your personal highlight reel, repeat to yourself your identity statement to help mold your self-image. The
identity statement is a proven tool for boosting self-confidence, which is the single most helpful mental variable in
improving performance." – Jason Selk
Complete the following statement:
“I am incredibly: (a key strength of yours – ex: passionate, thoughtful, creative, etc.); I am the: (what you want to be known for – ex: best
speaker at this conference, most effective salesperson at this tradeshow, etc.).
Jason Selk’s identity statement:
"I am more motivated than my competition; I am the most effective sports psychology consultant in the world."
15-Second Centered Breath
"The mental workout ends the way it begins, with a fifteen-second deep breath. This breath resets your heart rate to a level
of controlled arousal and increased mental focus." – Jason Selk
"The 10-MT workout is designed to help athletes control arousal (through centering breaths), create a precise
and effective focus (through the performance statement and personal highlight reel), and improve self-image
(through the identity statement)." – Jason Selk
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Spark by John Ratey MD
“Right now the front of your brain is firing signals about what you’re reading, and how much of it you soak up
has a lot to do with whether there is a proper balance of neurochemicals and growth factors to bind neurons
together. Exercise has a documented, dramatic effect on these essential ingredients.” - John Ratey MD
Exercise accelerates learning
When you exercise, your body naturally releases a protein called ‘brain-derived neurotrophic factor
(BDNF)’ into the bloodstream and up to the brain. In the 1990s, scientists discovered BNDF rapidly
accelerates brain cell growth and increases the ability to learn.
“Researchers found that if they sprinkled BDNF onto neurons in a petri dish, the cells automatically
sprouted new branches, producing the same structural growth required for learning—and causing me to
think of BDNF as Miracle-Gro for the brain…BDNF gathers in reserve pools near the synapses and is
unleashed when we get our blood pumping.” - John Ratey MD
“Exercise sparks the master molecule of the learning process” - John Ratey MD
Exercise enhances creativity
During exercise, the hippocampus brain region receives a large amount of BDNF growth factor. The
hippocampus acts like a cartographer for the brain - linking new information to existing memories.
“A memory, scientists believe, is a collection of information fragments dispersed throughout the brain. The
hippocampus serves as a way station, receiving the fragments from the cortex, and then bundling them
together and sending them back up as a map of a unique new pattern of connections.” – John Ratey MD
Exercise sparks growth in the hippocampus, helping you create new connections between existing ideas
and allowing you to come up with novel solutions to complex problems.
“If you have an important afternoon brainstorming session scheduled, going for a short, intense run
during lunchtime is a smart idea.” - John Ratey MD
Type:
What’s the most ‘productive’ way to exercise?
Largest cognitive benefits in the least amount time, done sustainably
The most effective form of exercise for increasing mental performance is aerobic exercise (also known as cardio). Aerobic exercise
includes any activity that pushes your heart and lungs for a sustained period. Examples include running, biking, and swimming. Although
weight training is essential for physical health, it won’t provide the cognitive benefits aerobic exercise does.
Timing:
Schedule your aerobic exercise before learning a difficult subject, tackling a complex project, or conducting a brainstorming.
Duration:
Exercise for 20-30 minutes with at sustained heart rate of 60-70% of your maximum heart rate (max heart rate = 208 - (0.7)*current age). If
you exceed 70% of your maximum heart rate, you’ll start burning reserve fuel (glycogen) and releasing large amounts of lactic acid, which
breaks down muscle. The more time you spend above 70% of your maximum heart rate, the more recovery time you’ll need between
exercises, and the less often you’ll reap the cognitive benefits of exercise. If you don’t have a heart rate monitor, don’t worry. Iowa State
University kinesiologist Panteleimon Ekkekakis has found moving at a pace which feels “somewhat hard” is a good indication you are
exercising near 70% of your maximum heart rate.
You experience the largest mental gains when you combine aerobic exercise with an activity that requires advanced motor skills:
“Choose a sport that simultaneously taxes the cardiovascular system and the brain—tennis is a good example—or do a ten-minute aerobic
warm-up before something nonaerobic and skill-based, such as rock climbing or balance drills. While aerobic exercise elevates
neurotransmitters, creates new blood vessels that pipe in growth factors, and spawns new cells, complex activities put all that material to
use by strengthening and expanding networks. The more complex the movements, the more complex the synaptic connections.” - John
Ratey MD
“In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not
separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man
can attain perfection.” - Plato
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Rethinking Positive Thinking by Gabriele Oettingen
“Positive fantasies led to lower energy levels, which in turn predicted lower accomplishment" ‐ Gabriele
Oettingen
Gabriele Oettingen has studied the effect of positive visualization for several decades, and she’s uncovered some surprising findings:


College students who visualized themselves receiving a good grade on a psychology 101 midterm received a lower
grade than students who didn’t participate in the positive visualization exercise.
College graduates who visualized themselves getting a high paying job received fewer job offers and earned less money
than graduates who didn’t complete the positive visualization exercise.
When you allow yourself to fantasize about a positive result in the future, you fool your mind into thinking that you’ve already achieved
that result. If the mind thinks you’ve already reached your goal, it won’t be motivated to take action towards attaining that goal.
Author Gabriele Oettingen has found that women who participate in a six‐minute visualization exercise lower their blood pressure by 3‐5
points (mimicking the calming effects of smoking half a cigarette).
"Positive fantasies might make us feel electrified for an instant, but at the very least, this feeling does not correspond to what is going on in
our bodies.” – Garbriele Oettingen
However, positive fantasies are helpful if you want to decide which goal to pursue. By fantasying you can rapidly simulate several future
experiences and select the future that is most worth struggling for. Therefore, you should not scrap the practice of positive thinking.
Here is how you can use positive thinking to envision the future you want and RAISE your motivation to attain that vision:
ish: "What do I want, and why is it reasonable?" ‐‐> allow yourself to see it
Visualize yourself making progress in one of the following areas of your life: physical health, financial security, key
relationships, or the problem you are most concerned with now. Then focus on one action you could take today to
move you closer to that vision. Make sure the action is feasible and completely within your control.
Examples: go for a run after work, eat one serving of vegetables with every meal, cook dinner for my partner, etc.
utcome: “What powerful emotion do I associate with getting it? ‐‐> allow yourself to feel it
Focus on the greatest benefit that will flow from completing your wish today. Allow yourself to feel a peak emotion
associated with completion your intended action.
Examples: balanced, proud, relieved, connected, energized, satisfied, etc.
bstacle: “Why is it going to be hard?” ‐‐> see yourself struggling to get it
Focus on the biggest internal obstacle you need to overcome today to fulfill your wish. If your goal is feasible, then the
only thing that can hold you back from achieving is an internal limitation. This means being honest you’re yourself and
preempting the excuses that you’ll come up with during the day to avoid taking action.
Examples: got distracted, too busy, too tired, procrastinated too much, couldn’t resist, etc.
lan: “How do I know I can still do it?” ‐‐> see yourself overcoming a struggle to achieve it
Focus on your response to this obstacle. Consider what has worked in the past, or what you think could work based on
advice from a credible resource. Then think: “If I notice the obstacle, then I will…[the action you will take to move past
the obstacle]”
Examples: “If I come home tired from work, then I will put on my running shoes and walk outside.” OR “If I experience
cravings for junk food, then I will go for a walk and drink a large glass of water.”
Instead of fantasizing about a future goal, start WOOPing your goals. Start by visualizing what you want, then anticipate what might hold
you back, and come up with an if‐then plan to neutralize those internal struggles. By WOOPing your goal you'll remain motivated to take
action, and be more likely to actually experience your optimistic vision of the future.
“Participants in our studies show important, long‐term changes in their behavior—such as eating more
vegetables, exercising more, drinking less—after as little as a single WOOP session…It’s a living tool
that you can use in your everyday life. Practiced daily over an extended period of time, WOOP enables
you to not only solve specific problems or wishes, but live a life that is balanced, meaningful, and
generally happy.” ‐ Gabriele Oettingen
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy
"It is the quality of time at work that counts and the quantity of time at home that matters." – Brian Tracy
To increase the quality of your work‐time, you need to eat more ‘frogs’.
"Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don't do something about it. It is
also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment." – Brian Tracy
Eating your biggest frogs allows you to get more done in less time so that you can spend more face time with the people you care about
most, doing the things that give you the most joy.
How to Find Your Biggest Frog
Consider the Consequences
We all take on roles in our professional lives, and those roles require a series of key results to survive and thrive.
"The key result areas of management are planning, organising, staffing, delegating, supervising, measuring, and
reporting. These are the areas in which a manager must get results to succeed in his or her area of responsibility. A
weakness in any one of these areas can lead to under‐achievement and failure as a manager." – Brian Tracy
What are the key result areas of your current role? Hint: Your key results are the reason you’re on the payroll (if you’re
an employee) or the reason you’re in business (if you’re an entrepreneur).
Visualize the long‐term consequences of doing nothing on your work to‐do list for an entire week. Then circle the five items, if left undone,
that would have the greatest long‐term impact on your key results areas.
"The potential consequences of any task or activity are the key determinants of how important a task really is to you and to your company.
This way of evaluating the significance of a task is how you determine what your next frog really is." – Brian Tracy
"The mark of the superior thinker is his or her ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing or not doing something." – Brian Tracy
Find Your Greatest Contribution
Among the things that you’ve identified to have long‐term consequences on your key result areas, ask yourself:
What ONE task could I do ALL day, that would contribute the greatest value to my company?
Brian Tracy says that if you ask yourself that question three times, the three tasks you come up with will be 90% of the
contribution you can provide your company.
"Perhaps the most important WORD in the world of work is contribution. Your rewards, both financial and emotional,
will always be in direct proportion to your results, to the value of your contribution." – Brian Tracy
"Identify the three things you do in your work that account for 90 percent of your contribution, and focus on getting them done before
anything else. You will then have more time for your family and personal life." – Brian Tracy
Do the Worst First
Start with the task you’ve most been avoiding. Do the worst first.
By doing the worst first, you'll receive the greatest sense of relief and satisfaction upon completing it, giving you the
confidence you eat more frogs.
"Eat the biggest and ugliest frogs before anything else.” – Brian Tracy
"Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with
the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long." ‐ Brian Tracy
How to Eat That Frog
The best way to eat a big ugly frog is to focus (solely) on the next bite.
"One of the best ways to eat a large frog is for you to take it one bite at a time…There is an old saying that ‘by the yard it’s hard; but inch by
inch, anything’s a cinch!’” – Brian Tracy
I focus solely on the next bite by asking myself: "What initial result can I achieve in the next 10 minutes to get me moving in the right
direction?"
"Your job is to go as far as you can see. You will then see far enough to go further. To accomplish a great task, you must step out in faith and
have complete confidence that your next step will soon become clear to you." – Brian Tracy
“You cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond, but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one, and
that will be enough, at least for the time being." – Brian Tracy
Nathan Lozeron, @nlozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The ONE Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
“Success demands singleness of purpose. You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of
doing more things with side effects. It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in
this world.” – Gary Keller (all quotes below are by Gary Keller)
3 Commitments that Reveal your ONE Thing
“What ONE Thing can I do, such that by doing it, makes everything else easier or unnecessary?” To find the answer, remember your
M.A.P.:
astery
What can I do to continuously improve?
“When you can see mastery as a path you go down instead of a destination you arrive at, it starts to feel accessible
and attainable. Most assume mastery is an end result, but at its core, mastery is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and
a journey you experience. When what you’ve chosen to master is the right thing, then pursuing mastery of it will make
everything else you do either easier or no longer necessary.”
ccountability
What am I committed to?
“Taking complete ownership of your outcomes by holding no one but yourself responsible for them is the most
powerful thing you can do to drive your success. As such, accountability is most likely the most important of the three
commitments. Without it, your journey down the path of mastery will be cut short the moment you encounter a
challenge. Without it, you won’t figure out how to break through the ceilings of achievement you’ll hit along the way.”
assion
What result would I do anything to achieve?
“When you’re in search of extraordinary results, accepting an OK Plateau or any other ceiling of achievement isn’t okay
when it applies to your ONE Thing.”
Recall what you’re trying to master, what you’re accountable for, and what big audacious goal drives you to identify your ONE thing amidst
a sea of many ‘things.’
2 Beliefs that Distract you from your ONE Thing
I just can’t say 'no'...
“Someone once told me that one ‘yes’ must be defended over time by 1,000 ‘nos.’”
The road to doing too many things and spreading yourself thin is paved by saying ‘yes’ too quickly and ‘no’ not soon
enough. “Peers will ask for your advice and help. Co-workers will want you on their team. Friends will request your
assistance. Strangers will seek you out. Invitations and interruptions will come at you from everywhere imaginable.
How you handle all of this determines the time you’re able to devote to your ONE Thing and the results you’re
ultimately able to produce.”

After you establish your three commitments, embrace the discomfort of saying 'no' to people in order to say ‘yes’ to your ONE
thing.
It all needs to get done (it's all equally important)...
When your to-do lists get long, you probably get the feeling that you’re falling behind. The fear of falling behind makes
everything seems urgent AND important. “When everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equal. We
become active and busy, but this doesn’t actually move us any closer to success. Activity is often unrelated to
productivity, and busyness rarely takes care of business. Long hours spent checking off a to-do list and ending the day
with a full trash can and a clean desk are not virtuous and have nothing to do with success.”
“A not-so-funny thing happens along the way to extraordinary results. Untidiness. Unrest. Disarray. Disorder. Messes are inevitable
when you focus on just one thing. While you whittle away on your most important work, the world doesn’t sit and wait. It stays on fast
forward and things just rack up and stack up while you bear down on a singular priority.”

After establishing your three commitments, embrace a little chaos, and stay true to your ONE thing. Remember
what Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke once said: “The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest.”
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney,
Sean Covey, and Jim Huling
Why is it so hard to execute promising ideas and important goals?
Authors Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling have surveyed over 200,000 leaders around the world to find out why they struggle
to execute. The answers varied, but the authors realized all their answers had one thing in common. The main reason leaders and teams
routinely fail to execute promising strategies and important team goals is because they spend all their energy dealing with the whirlwind.
“The real enemy of execution is your day job! We call it the whirlwind. It’s the massive amount of energy that’s necessary just to keep your
operation going on a day‐to‐day basis; and, ironically, it’s also the thing that makes it so hard to execute anything new. The whirlwind robs
from you the focus required to move your team forward.” – The 4 Disciplines of Execution
The whirlwind includes all the incoming messages you need to respond to, all the important phone calls you need to take, all the problems
you need to resolve, and all the meetings you need to prepare for.
“The whirlwind is urgent and it acts on you and everyone working for you every minute of every day. The goals you’ve set for moving
forward are important, but when urgency and importance clash, urgency will win every time." – The 4 Disciplines of Execution
Executing any promising idea or important goal amid a raging whirlwind requires discipline. It requires the discipline to deal with urgent
items while remaining focused on what’s important. The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) is a simple, repeatable, and proven formula to do
just that.
Discipline #1: Focus on the WIG
The first discipline of execution requires sustaining the whirlwind at its current level while you advance one wildly important
goal. To find your wildly important goal, DON’T ASK: “What’s most important?” If you ask that question, you’ll inevitably focus
on the whirlwind because everything in the whirlwind seems important. Instead, ask yourself: “If everything else remained at
its current level of performance, what one achievement would make everything else seem secondary?”
In other words, if you didn’t need to worry about anything else for the time being, what one goal would you focus on right now?
“Once you stop worrying about everything else going backward, you can start moving forward on your WIG.” – The 4 Disciplines of
Execution
Discipline #2: Measure Lead Behaviors
There are two measurements you can focus on while executing: lead behavior measurements and lag result measurements.
Lag result measurements are measurements of the results you want. Lead behavior measurements are measurements of the
critical day‐to‐day activities that lead to the results you want.


More sales calls (lead behavior) leads to more sales (lag result).
More time spent studying (lead behavior) leads to higher grades (lag result).
Measuring results such as sales or grades can be frustrating because it takes time for your actions to produce measurable results. That’s
why they are called lag results.
If you measure a value you can’t immediately improve, your willingness to execute will diminish. However, when you focus on a metric you
can influence every day or every week, like a lead behavior, you’ll sustain your level of execution. Seeing daily/weekly signs of
improvements will increase engagement and drive the execution of your WIG.
Discipline #3: Put up a Scoreboard
Without a scoreboard, you or your team will lose track of your measurements, forget
the score, and lose the will to win. Therefore, you need to create an office
scoreboard that includes your WIG (title at the top of the scoreboard), your lag
measurements (line chart from left to right), and your lead measurements (bar
chart below the lag measurements).
Your office scoreboard should be large enough to notice every day and simple enough to
know if you’re winning in 5 seconds or less. If you’re improving the lead measurement, and that lead measurement is corresponding to
improvements in the lag measurement, then you’re winning.
Discipline #4: Schedule Weekly Accountability Talks
The fourth discipline of execution requires setting up weekly accountability meetings with teammates or peers (not bosses or
managers). Holding regular weekly accountability meetings with people at your level (called WIG sessions) ensures you stay in
the game.
When you set up reoccurring weekly meetings with teammates or like‐minded peers to discuss your efforts, you strengthen your
commitment to execution.
During your WIG sessions (~15‐minute weekly accountability meetings), do three things: report on last week’s commitment, review the
scoreboard and describe the actions you took to advance your WIG, and commit to a lead behavior improvement or a specific deliverable
for this week.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg
“The choices that are most powerful in generating motivation are decisions that do two things: They convince
us we’re in control and they endow our actions with larger meaning.” – Charles Duhigg
Feel in control by choosing:



Where to work (office, conference room, coffee shop, etc.)
How long to focus on a particular problem (work intensely for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 50 minutes?)
What to do while working (listen to music, have a cup of coffee, drink a cup of tea, etc.)



Benefits other people
Increases your skill level
Leads to a result that you’ll be proud of
Generate meaning by choosing to see the connection between what you do and how it:
Increase Focus
3 Choices that Increase Productivity:
Before the day starts, CHOOSE to
predict how the day will unfold.
Your mind is a prediction machine. It loves
to know whether it’s predictions are right
or wrong. Envisioning tomorrow causes the
brain to focus intently on what it failed to
predict.
"We aid our focus by building mental
models—telling ourselves stories—about
what we expect to see." – Charles Duhigg
To stay focused during the day, make the
following predictions at the start of the
day:

Given my current schedule, how
much progress do I expect to
make today?

What distractions am I likely to
encounter?

How am I likely to handle those
distractions?
At the end of the day ask yourself: “What
was I wrong about?”
Improve Decisions
When making decisions, CHOOSE
to consider the desirable and
undesirable outcomes. Then assign
approximate probabilities to each
possible outcome.
“Making good decisions relies on forecasting
the future, but forecasting is an imprecise,
often terrifying, science because it forces us
to confront how much we don’t know. The
paradox of learning how to make better
decisions is that it requires developing a
comfort with doubt." – Charles Duhigg
By seeing decisions as a range of possible
outcomes with approximate probabilities
(i.e. there’s an 80% chance of getting into
the college I want to), you’ll be less prone
to seek absolute certainty before making a
decision. This speeds up the decision
process and leads to more action.
Increase Team Performance
When leading a team, CHOOSE to
give team members the authority
to make decisions.
If you crave autonomy, so does your team.
Empower others to make choices and
provide them with a safe environment to do
so.
"By pushing decision making to whoever is
closest to a problem, managers take
advantage of everyone’s expertise and
unlock innovation.
A sense of control can fuel motivation, but
for that drive to produce insights and
solutions, people need to know their
suggestions won’t be ignored and that their
mistakes won’t be held against them." Charles Duhigg
"Learning to think probabilistically requires
us to question our assumptions and live with
uncertainty. To become better at predicting
the future—at making good decisions—we
need to know the difference between what
we hope will happen and what is more and
less likely to occur." – Charles Duhigg
"Productivity is about recognizing choices that other people often overlook… Productive people and companies
force themselves to make choices most other people are content to ignore. Productivity emerges when people
push themselves to think differently.” – Charles Duhigg
Nathan Lozeron, @nlozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Productivity Principle: Predict to Perform
Inspired by the book Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg
In 2012, two economists and a sociologist from MIT studied the habits of top performers in a midsized
recruiting firm. The researchers analyzed profit-and-loss data, appointment calendars, and 125,000 emails from
the past ten months.
“The superstars (those who earned an extra $10,000 in bonuses each year) were constantly telling stories about
what they had seen and heard. They were more likely to throw out ideas during meetings, or ask colleagues to
help them imagine how future conversations might unfold, or envision how a pitch should go. They came up
with concepts for new products and practiced how they would sell them.” – Charles Duhigg
The superstars told stories about their past experiences in the hopes that they could predict how future events
would unfold. These superstars were also prone to take on projects outside their area of expertise because it
was harder to predict how events would unfold. The mere act of making predictions was a source of
enjoyment for these high performers because it caused them to focus more intently on what they were doing.
According to Judy Willis, M.D., and neuroscientist, “every prediction you make triggers an increase in attention
and dopamine.” Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that boosts attention and reduces noise in neural networks,
making it easier to notice patterns. Increased pattern recognition means increased creativity, which ultimately
boosts learning and overall performance.
You won’t just get a shot of dopamine when your predictions are right; you’ll also release dopamine when your
predictions are wrong. In fact, Dr. Willis says “the dopamine boost is often greater when you learn something
new and useful than when you succeed.” This is one of the reasons gamblers keep coming back to the casino
despite losing more often than not.
Therefore, to boost your awareness, creativity, and performance, get in the habit of envisioning detailed
stories for events you are about to experience. Before your next meeting, ask yourself:
Take a few minutes each morning to visualize how your day will unfold:



What does my quest to ‘get things done’ look like today?
What conflicts am I likely to experience?
How will I respond?
When you know how things should proceed, it’s easier to anticipate distraction and take corrective action.
“If you want to make yourself more sensitive to the small details in your work, cultivate a habit of imagining, as
specifically as possible, what you expect to see and do... Then you’ll be prone to notice the tiny ways in which
real life deviates from the narrative inside your head.
By developing a habit of telling ourselves stories about what’s going on around us, we learn to sharpen where
our attention goes.” – Charles Duhigg
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from How to Have a Good Day by Caroline Webb
Morning Intention
 Think about the day ahead and the activities you are likely to do (actions and interactions).
Write them down if possible.
“What matters most today?”
 Find 1 or 2 key outcomes: _______________________ & _______________________
“What does that mean for my attitude, attention, and actions?”
 Contrast an ideal outcome with overcoming obstacles. [OUTOME]  [OBSTACLE]
“What specific goals should I set/prime for the day?”
 Schedule uninterrupted blocks of time where you can turn off notifications and advance your
goals through creative thinking.
Daily Monitoring
Shallow Breathing
Remind yourself to breathe deeply when you start feeling ‘defensive’ - aim for 90 seconds of deep
diaphragmatic breathing each time.
Task Resistance
“What bigger aspiration or value of mine does this task speak to?”
“How does this request support something that matters to me?”
Behavior of Others
Could they simply be tired, hungry, or dealing with a lot right now?
“What went well today?”
Nightly Recap
1. ___________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Productivity Principle: The Positive ‘No’
Inspired by the book Essentialism by Greg McKweon &
the co-founder of the Harvard Program on Negotiation, William Ury
Why do we say ‘Yes’ when we want to say ‘No’?
We forget our purpose
“When we are unclear about our real purpose in life— in other words, when we don’t have a clear sense of our
goals, our aspirations, and our values— we make up our own social games.” – Greg Mckeown.
Without a clear purpose we’ll default to playing petty social games that provide little meaning to our life.
We fear social awkwardness
“The fact is, we as humans are wired to want to get along with others. After all, thousands of years ago when we
all lived in tribes of hunter gatherers, our survival depended on it. And while conforming to what people in a group
expect of us— what psychologists call normative conformity— is no longer a matter of life and death, the desire is
still deeply ingrained in us.” – Greg Mckeown
How can we develop the courage to say ‘No’?
We need to see ‘No’ in a new and empowering way:
A. When we say ‘No,’ we’re actually saying ‘Yes’ to a life of meaning.
Each external ‘No’ is an inward ‘Yes.’ Those inward ‘Yes’s’ strengthen our
commitment to our purpose/priorities, defining who we are and what we stand
for.
B.
C.
When we say ‘No,’ we’re actually saying ‘No’ to a request, not a person.
“Everyone is selling something— an idea, a viewpoint, an opinion— in exchange for your time. Simply being
aware of what is being sold allows us to be more deliberate in deciding whether we want to buy it…we forget
that denying the request is not the same as denying the person. Only once we separate the decision from the
relationship can we make a clear decision and then separately find the courage and compassion to
communicate it.” – Greg Mckeown
When we say ‘No,’ we’re trading short-term popularity for long-term respect.
“(W)hen the initial annoyance or disappointment or anger wears off, the respect kicks in. When we push back
effectively, it shows people that our time is highly valuable. It distinguishes the professional from the
amateur... learn to say no firmly, resolutely, and yet gracefully. Because once we do, we find, not only that our
fears of disappointing or angering others were exaggerated, but that people actually respect us more…I have
found it almost universally true that people respect and admire those with the courage of conviction to say
no.” – Greg Mckeown
What’s the best way we can say ‘No’ without damaging a relationship?
We need to frame our ‘No’ as a ‘Positive No’:
1.
2.
3.
Start with a personal ‘Yes’ by stating a personal priority.
 “I’m currently working hard to finish ____” OR “I’ve set the ambitious goal of
completing ____, within the next ____.”
Continue by stating the conflict with our personal priority.
 “Because of that, I need to say no to all requests at this time.” OR “For that reason, I need to let go of a
lot of things and devote my time and attention to doing the best to successful complete ____.”
Finish by showing that we still care and offer to help out in a small way.
 “Here are a few resources that I found to help your ____ succeed.” OR “Although I can’t assist you with
this project I can introduce you to someone who can.”
Nathan Lozeron, @nlozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from SuperBetter by Jane McGonigal
“When we play a game, we volunteer to be challenged. No one forces us to try to solve a game’s puzzles, or
defeat another team, or reach a certain score. Because we are fully in control of whether we accept a game’s
challenge, we don’t experience anxiety or depression when we play— despite the very real possibility of loss or
defeat. Our primary experience is of agency, not of threat.” – Jane McGonigal
4 steps to develop a ‘gameful’ mindset at work:
Embark on a quest of self-efficacy
"Self-efficacy means having confidence in the concrete skills and abilities required to solve specific problems or
achieve particular goals. It is usually context-specific: you might have high self-efficacy at work but low selfefficacy about public speaking or losing weight. Self-efficacy is the crucial difference between having lots of
motivation but failing to follow through, and successfully converting motivation into consistent and effective
action. With high self-efficacy, you are more likely to take actions that help you reach your goals, even if those
actions are difficult or painful. You also engage with difficult problems longer, without giving up. But with low
self-efficacy, no matter how motivated you are, you’re less likely to take positive action— because you lack belief
in your ability to make a difference in your own life.” – Jane McGonigal
To build you self-efficacy, seek out and complete quests - simple, daily actions that get you closer to reaching a bigger goal. Just like a hero
in a video game, you can use each quest as an opportunity to gain experience points and develop new skills. These experience points (XP)
give you the confidence to take on larger and larger quests.
Keep score
"Keeping score will highlight your progress …and to get a deeper understanding of your own play. This has been
true of games as long as humans have played them. In fact, my favorite argument in favor of personal
scorekeeping was written over one hundred years ago, in a 1914 issue of Baseball Magazine. “The Pleasure and
Profit of Keeping Score” was an editorial that strongly encouraged baseball fans to fill out their own scorecards
during professional games. Track every run, hit, and error, it argued, in order to better understand, remember,
and enjoy the game:
Most spectators watch a great play with an interest, which, however intense, is forgotten in the thriller of the next
inning. They leave the grounds with a hazy idea of a rather enjoyable afternoon, whose main features are scarce refreshed by reading press
accounts of them some hours later. Keeping score remedies all this. It burns the play into memory. It greatly increases the spectator’s
knowledge of the game. . . . And, best of all, it is a pleasure in itself.” – Jane McGonigal
Keep track of the experience points that you gain throughout the day (i.e. the relative difficulty of the tasks that you complete). For
example, journal in the morning: 10XP, read 10 pages of a book: 12 XP, draft a proposal: 25 XP (XP = experience points).
Recruit allies
“Having social support makes it easier for us to achieve our goals. It’s not just that our friends and family help us
directly by offering their time, advice, or resources. Medical research shows that our bodies respond to social
support in dramatic ways, getting stronger and more resilient every time someone helps us.” – Jane McGonigal
Call a co-worker to ask for help. Ask a friend to join you at a coffee shop to brainstorm ideas for your next
project. Tell your spouse about the challenges you’re facing at work.
Search for power-ups:
Examples of Power-ups: “Look out a
window for thirty seconds (mental). Hold my
husband’s hand for six seconds (social). Eat
ten walnuts, because they’re good for my
brain (physical). Send a text message to my
mom (social). Listen to a song from one of
my favorite Bollywood movies (mental). Do
ten push-ups even if I’m exhausted
(physical).” – Jane McGonigal
“You are stronger than you know. You are surrounded by potential allies. You are the hero of your own story.”
- Jane McGonigal
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Getting Things Done by David Allen
“Reflect for a moment on what it actually might be like if your personal management situation were totally
under control, at all levels and at all times. What if you had completely clear mental space, with nothing pulling
or pushing on you unproductively? What if you could dedicate fully 100 percent of your attention to whatever
was at hand, at your own choosing, with no distraction?” – David Allen
Here’s How: Build a trusted system (an external brain), and actively capture, clarify, and remind yourself of whatever you need to do at the
time you need to do it. Here is my GTD (Getting Things Done) system and the three habits that allow my GTD system to be successful:
Capture
“There is no reason to ever have the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought…Anything you consider unfinished in any way
must be captured in a trusted system outside your mind, or what I call a collection tool, that you know you’ll come back to regularly and sort
through.” - David Allen
The Cue
The Sequence
Think of an idea, or
1a. Capture the idea or action item in Evernote by using the Evernote app on smartphone.
action item.
Note: I use Evernote, but you could use any other list-making app on your smartphone. If you don’t carry a smartphone, carry a small
notepad and pen to capture items. The tool you use doesn’t matter. What matters is how fast you can capture items. Capture ideas and
actions in their undeveloped form. You’ll decide what to do with them during the next phase: processing.
Process
“You must clarify exactly what your commitment is and decide what you have to do, if anything, to make progress toward fulfilling it…You
must use your mind to get things off your mind.” - David Allen
The Cue
Receive a daily
calendar
notification at 4pm.
The Sequence
1. Open capture list within Evernote, look at one item at a time (starting from the top), and ask: “Do I want to
act on this soon?”
2a. If No: add item to the someday/maybe list or reference folder. If completely useless, delete it.
2b. If Yes: convert item to a next physical action, determine the outcome, and add outcome to the project list if
it requires more than one action to complete. Then complete the next action item in 2-minutes or less OR
move it to an appropriate location (see table below).
Where I put my processed items:
Reference List
Someday/Maybe List
Calendar
Follow-up List
Next Action List(s)
Project List
Location: Evernote.
Location: Evernote.
Location:
Location: Email.
Location: Index cards
Location: Index
Thought process:
Thought process: "I
Outlook.
Thought process:
I carry with me.
card I carry with
“This idea might be
might want to do
Thought process:
“It’s out of my
Thought process:
me.
useful one day but
this, but not
“I need to do this
hands but I
“Not time specific but Through Process:
it’s not actionable
now…and I’d like to
at a certain time
should follow-up
should get done as
“This is an
at this time.”
be reminded of it
on a certain day.
on it soon.”
soon as possible or
outcome that
I keep all
periodically.”
Otherwise I’ll
I use boomerang
when possible (in the
requires many
documents and
Examples: Books to
miss my
in Gmail to send
right context).”
actions to be
reference files in
read, recipes to try,
opportunity.”
an email to
Item format: action completed and I
Evernote with the
movies to rent,
The calendar is
myself in the
item - detail. Create
can’t forget that.”
appropriate tags so
weekend trips to
sacred space.
future for all
separate lists for
Project =
I can find them
take, web sites to
ONLY put time
follow-ups.
different contexts:
something that
when I need them.
surf.
specific items in
@home, @office,
requires many
actions to be
the calendar,
@store.
completed in a
otherwise, you’ll
devalue all items.
year or less.
Note: Never spend more than 2 minutes on any one item; clarify or complete each item in 2 minutes or less.
Review
“The more complete the system is, the more you’ll trust it. And the more you trust it, the more you’ll be motivated to keep it…(each week)
Get clean, clear, current, and complete.” – David Allen
The Cue
Receive a weekly
calendar
notification on 3pm
each Friday.
The Sequence
1. Spend 5 minutes writing a 3-5 year vision: “What does a typical day to look like 3-5 years from now?”
2. Re-write project list on a new index card in order of importance (leave out any projects that were
completed during the past week).
3. Re-write next action lists on new index cards, in order of importance (leave out any projects that were
completed during the past week).
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Productivity Principle: Batching Buckets
Inspired by the book Getting Things Done by David Allen
The Situation  Your to-do list is massive.
“Everything you’ve told yourself you ought to do, your mind thinks you should do right now. This produces an all-pervasive stress factor
whose source can’t be pin-pointed.” – David Allen, author of Getting Things Done
Why You Should Care:
The longer your to-do list gets, the more anxiety you’ll feel. Getting through your to-do list starts to seem impossible, and you
procrastinate on your to-do list as long as possible. Essential items go undone, and anxiety builds.
“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.” – Will Roger
What You Can Do About It:
Start capturing action items on separate batch lists (aka batch buckets), and empty those buckets in the right CONTEXT/ MODE. Doing so is
an efficient use of your time, and it prevents your to-do list from getting out of control.
“There is never a moment at which you
could do everything you’ve decided to
do, simply because most of those actions
require a specific tool or location.” –
David Allen
“If you have traveled to meet a client at
her office and on arrival discover that
the meeting will be delayed for fifteen
minutes, you will want to refer to your
Calls list for something you could do to
use your time productively. Your action
lists should fold in or out, based on what
you could possibly do at any time.” –
David Allen





CONTEXT
MODE
What’s the best
context to be in to
complete this?
What’s the optimal
mental state to be in
to complete this?
At Office?
In Car?
At Home?
During Meeting?
At Grocery Store?



High EnergyFocused Mode?
Social-Talkative
Mode?
Low EnergyMindless Mode?
“We all have times when we think more
effectively, and times when we should
not be thinking at all.” - Daniel Cohen
“When I first wake up, my brain is
relaxed and creative. The thought of
writing a comic is fun, and it’s relatively
easy because my brain is in exactly the
right mode for that task. I know from
experience that trying to be creative in
the midafternoon is a waste of time. By
2:00 P.M. all I can do is regurgitate the
ideas I’ve seen elsewhere. At 6:00 A.M.
I’m a creator, and by 2:00 P.M. I’m a
copier.” – Scott Adams, Creator of the
Dilbert Comic
“You should have as many in-trays as you need and as few as you can get by with.” – David Allen
If I need to call a client, friend, or colleague, I put the task on my calls list and make the phone call during my commute time (when I can’t
do much else). Context: car. Mode: social/talkative.
If I need to write a blog post, I’ll put that task on my deep work list and complete that task in a deep work mode after my morning coffee
when my energy and focus are highest. Context: quiet space. Mode: high energy and focus.
What contexts (locations or tools) frequently constraint your actions (car, meeting, store, etc.)?
____________________________, ____________________________, ____________________________, ____________________________.
What time of the day do you most experience the following modes?
Focused work mode: ____ - ____ AM/PM | Mindless work mode: ____ - ____ AM/PM
Social/Talkative mode: ____ - ____ AM/PM | Anything-but-work mode: ____ - ____ AM/PM
What 3-5 lists can you make based on the contexts and modes listed above and direct actions to throughout the day?
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.” – Henry David Thoreau
Pareto’s Law states that 20% of work activity leads to 80% of the desired results. Therefore, 80% of potential tasks produce just 20% of
desired results. To drastically reduce your workweek, find, eliminate, or delegate 80% of tasks so you can focus on the vital 20%.
While working, get in the habit of asking: “Is this the best use of my time?”
Does it generate income? Am I obligated to do it? Do I enjoy it? If the answer to these questions is ‘No’, you’re doing an ‘80%’ activity, and
you need to complete the following steps (in the following order):
Let It Go
Are the consequences of not doing it reversible? What’s the worst case scenario of NOT doing this?
Run small ignorance experiments: stop doing tasks with small and reversible consequences. After the experiments are
complete, determine if you can live with the consequences and if you should stop doing those tasks all together.
“Can you let the urgent ‘fail’—even for a day—to get to the next milestone for your potential life-changing tasks? Small problems
will crop up, yes. A few people will complain and quickly get over it. BUT, the bigger picture items you complete will let you see
these for what they are—minutiae and repairable hiccups. Make this trade a habit. Let the small bad things happen and make the
big good things happen.” – Tim Ferriss


Let Others Do It
Is the task you want to hand off well defined (does it have clear instructions and requirements)? Is your hourly rate higher than what it would
cost someone else to do the task?


Passing inefficient tasks to others will generate more work for you in the long run.
“Each delegated task must be both time-consuming and well-defined. If you’re running around like a chicken with its head cut off
and assign your VA (virtual assistant) to do that for you, it doesn’t improve the order of the universe.” – Tim Ferriss
Rule of thumb: do a task at least five times before handing it off to others - this allows you to work out any issues and simplify the
process.
Estimate your hourly income by cutting the last three zeros off of your annual income and halving the remaining number (ex:
$50,000/year = $25/hour). If you make $25/hour, you should outsource all tasks that cost less than $25/hour to complete. This
allows you to generate more income by focusing on high-value tasks.
Always be thinking ‘How can I teach someone to do this?’ Make yourself replaceable by building checklists and FAQs and move on to
bigger and better things. When you’ve fully defined the tasks you want others to do, it’s time to hire a virtual assistant (VA):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
7 Site to Find a VA:
www.fiverr.com
www.b2kcorp.com
www.taskseveryday.com
www.upwork.com
www.guru.com
6. www.freelancer.com
7.
www.fancyhands.com
1.
7 Common VA Tasks:
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Schedule meetings,
follow-up appointments,
and travel
accommodations
Make meeting minutes
(transcribe meeting
audio)
Conduct web-researches
Complete errands and
online purchasing
Do website maintenance
(web design, publishing,
uploading files) & basic
web design
Proofread, format, and
edit
Write software programs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
7 Rules to When Using a VA:
Create a competency test for desired skills (ex: for
excellent English speaking skills schedule a call first).
Have VAs rephrase the task back to you to verify their
understanding of the requirements.
Require intermediate progress updates (ex:
screenshots every 4 hours).
Make deadlines no longer than 72 hours away (24-48
hours is ideal). If the task is large, break it down into
smaller tasks that can be completed within 72 hours.
Issue one task at a time. Start small and go bigger over
time. Eventually, you’ll provide them prioritized task
lists to complete.
Help their decision-making process by identifying
several ‘if-then’ statements, general decision-making
philosophies, and monetary thresholds (ex: allow VAs
to use their judgement for decisions for purchased of
$20 or less) to remedy potential issues.
Never allow VA’s to use a debit card (credit card only),
and create separate user accounts for VA’s with
passwords that you don’t typically use.
“’Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it's
important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.” – Tim Ferriss
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work
in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland
“At its root, Scrum is based on a simple idea: whenever you start a project, why not regularly check in, see if
what you’re doing is heading in the right direction, and if it’s actually what people want? And question whether
there are any ways to improve how you’re doing what you’re doing, any ways of doing it better and faster, and
what might be keeping you from doing that.” – Jeff Sutherland
All major projects require cycles of execution and improvement called Scrum Sprints. Scrum
Sprints are typically conducted bi-weekly, and they contain the following 7 steps:
LIST: Create/Update a Backlog List (list document)
 Quickly list or update ALL desirable outcomes for the project.
 Format these outcomes to represent specific points in the ‘User’s Experience Story’: Who (X) + What (Y) + Why (Z) - “As an
operator (X), I use the touch screen to start the motor (Y), so I can control the pump remotely (Z).”


Ensure each item is testable (can be built and tested according to a clear set of pass-fail requirements).
Sort items in order of their ability to validate critical assumptions AND provide immediate value.
ESTIMATE:
 Part 1: Refine and Estimate Backlog Items (list document with numbers and sections boxed off)
1.
2.

Assign the longest duration item(s) with a 13 (highest Fibonacci number in the sequence: 1,2,3,5,8,13)
Assign Fibonacci numbers 1,2,3,5,8,13 to all items, relative to the hardest item
Part 2: Sprint Planning Session
1.
2.
3.
Set fixed Sprint duration (time till next evaluation - max 20% of the project duration)
INITIAL SPRINT: estimate points to be completed within that time
SUCCESSIVE SPRINTS: previous Sprint actual point total + 10%
POPULATE: Make Work Next Actions Visible
 Write all items that need to be completed during the current Sprint onto cards and put them in the ‘DO’ column of your Scrum
Board (a Scrum board is a wall board with post-it notes OR software program with 3 lists: DO, DOING, DONE – I suggest using
the software program Trello.com).


Move the three top priority items into the ‘DOING’ column (never have more than 3 items in the DOING column).
When you complete an item move it from the ‘DOING’ column to the ‘DONE’ column.
CHART: Make Work Progress Visible
 At the end of each day, take the total number of points in the ‘DONE’ list and subtract that that total from the Sprint total.
 Show the results on a ‘Burndown Chart’ (a line chart that reduces in value each day, with the y-axis representing the Sprint point
total and the x-axis representing the number of day in the Sprint):
ASK: Conduct 15-minute Daily Stand-up Meetings
 What did I/we do yesterday to help the team finish the Sprint?
 What can I/we do today to help the team finish the Sprint?
 What upcoming obstacles might slow my/our progress?
DEMONSTRATE: Host a Sprint Demonstration
 Invite all project stakeholders (client, management, product owner or potential customer).
 Show the Sprint results (functional products only).
 Gather constructive feedback.
REFLECT: Conduct a Sprint Retrospective (lessons learned document)
 What went well?
 What could have been better?
 What can we do differently next Sprint?
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
“(T)he volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits
correctly, safely, or reliably.” – Atul Gawande, MD
Each day we process an overwhelming amount of information and take on more responsibility. As the complexity of our life increases, we
make small consequential oversights in our work, despite having experience and training. These oversights cause our co-workers,
managers, and customers to doubt the quality of our work.
When author and surgeon Atul Gawande makes a small oversight, like forgetting to wash his hands before surgery, he puts a patient’s life
in jeopardy. According to research, these small avoidable oversights occur more than 75,000 times a year in operating rooms across
America. On Gawande’s quest to find a solution he discovered a surprisingly simple, yet powerful tool the aviation industry has used for
years: the checklist.
“Four generations after the first aviation checklists went into use, a lesson is emerging: checklists seem able to defend anyone, even the
experienced, against failure in many more tasks than we realized. They provide a kind of cognitive net. They catch mental flaws inherent in
all of us—flaws of memory and attention and thoroughness. And because they do, they raise wide, unexpected possibilities.” – Atul
Gawande, MD
Checklists = Excellent Results
Several industries use checklists to verify their work and make important decisions:



More than 16 disciplines use checklists on a major construction site to coordinate efforts and verify each major step of the
building process. Their discipline to use checklists has kept the building failure rate in America to 0.00002% (1 in every 50,000
structure partially or entirely collapses due to human error).
Venture capitalists who take a methodical, checklist-driven approach to investing in businesses are 40% less likely to fire senior
management for incompetence. Venture capitalists who use checklists to verify investments experience 45% larger returns than
venture capitalists who avoid using checklists to verify their decisions (on average).
When surgeons and nurses started using checklists before surgery, major complications dropped by 36 percent, and deaths
reduced by 47 percent!
Resistance to Checklists
It’s one thing to realize that checklists work, it’s another thing to actually use them.
“It somehow feels beneath us to use a checklist, an embarrassment. It runs counter to deeply held beliefs about how the truly great among
us—those we aspire to be—handle situations of high stakes and complexity. The truly great are daring. They improvise. They do not have
protocols and checklists…Maybe our idea of heroism needs updating.” – Atul Gawande, MD
To overcome the resistance of using checklists, you’ll need to make checklists efficient and effective. The more efficient a checklist is, the
more likely you’ll use it. The more effective a checklist is, the more mistakes you’ll catch and the more you’ll learn to rely on it.
A Checklist for Making Useful Checklists
Pause Point
Every checklist must have a clear trigger – a location or routine action that reminds you to pause and complete the checklist. For
example, I use a checklist when releasing a video on YouTube to verify the video's description, tags, and the links within the
video. The pause point is just before I hit the ‘publish’ button on YouTube.com.
Speedy
Aviation checklist specialist Dan Boorman recommends making each checklist less than 60 seconds to complete - any longer and
you’ll start taking shortcuts. To make a checklist speedy, aim for 5-9 ‘killer’ items. A ‘killer’ item is an item that if missed gives the
impression of poor quality, or adversely effects other people.
Short and Concise Items
A checklist is NOT a how-to guide. Each item on a checklist should be a short and concise reminder of a routine that you are
familiar with (prior training and expertise). For example, a pre-surgery checklist includes: “verify reserve blood.” This item
description is sufficient for surgeons since surgeons know exactly where the reserve blood is stored, and how much reserve
blood is needed before starting surgery.
Field Tested and Revised
Checklists must be practical and based on actual experience. A useful checklist is made up of past failures and lessons learned.
For checklists to remain useful you need to continually update the items with the latest discoveries and lessons learned.
Final note: For checklists to be effective you need to read, verify and physically check-off or click each item on a checklist. It’s the deliberate
act of going through each item that makes checklists effective, NOT the fact that you are familiar with every item on a checklist.
"(Checklists) not only offer the possibility of verification but also instill a kind of discipline of higher
performance.” – Atul Gawande, MD
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Productivity Principle: Process vs. Product
Inspired by the book A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley
“Procrastination is the death of success.” – Barbara Oakley
↑Time Spent Focusing on Product = ↑Time Spent Procrastinating…
“Product is an outcome—for example, a homework assignment that you need to finish.
Process means the flow of time and the habits and actions associated with that flow of time—as in, “I’m going
to spend twenty minutes working.” – Barbara Oakley
To prevent procrastination, you want to avoid concentrating on product. Instead, your attention should be on building processes—habits—
that coincidentally allow you to do the unpleasant tasks that need to be done. – Barbara Oakley
When you focus on product, you rely on a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (a relatively new part of the brain in human
evolution). This is the rational ‘thinking’ part of the brain you use to visualize solutions. It’s also an inefficient, energy intensive part of your
brain.
When you focus on process, you rely on a part of the brain called the basil ganglia (a relatively old part of the brain in human evolution).
This part of the brain is used to execute habits (familiar work routines) and requires very little energy to operate.
You have thousands of habits stored in your basil ganglia. By trusting the automatic execution of these habits and not obsessing over the
end result, you bypass procrastination. It helps if you use a timer to cue your habits and periodically think of the product to ensure you
don’t stray too far from your intended outcome.
Start by focusing on the process and let your
habits take over. At set intervals turn your
attention to the product (the intended
outcome) for a brief period of time.
Aim to improve the process with each
subsequent interval.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer Ph.D.
“Kaizen is an effective, enjoyable way to achieve a specific goal, but it also extends a more profound challenge:
to meet life’s constant demands for change by seeking out continual—but always small—improvement.”
– Robert Maurer Ph.D.
What is kaizen?
A Japanese practice of taking small steps to continuously improve a process or product.
Why is kaizen an effective personal development strategy?
"Attempts to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means often fail because they heighten fear. But the small steps of kaizen disarm
the brain’s fear response, stimulating rational thought and creative play." – Robert Maurer Ph.D.
Setting a big goal is exciting. But it’s also scary. The larger the change we want to make, the more fear we experience (fear of the unknown
and fear of failure). When a region of the brain called the amygdala detects fear, it triggers our fight-or-flight response in the body. When
our fight-or-flight response is active, we instinctively seek out comfort and find it hard to concentrate on our long-term goals.
However, when we use kaizen and take embarrassingly small steps towards a goal, we tiptoe past the amygdala's fear detection system
and avoid activating the flight-or-fight response. These small steps eliminate a fear of failure and remove the urge to distract ourselves.
The smaller the steps we take, the quicker we lay new neural networks in the brain and develop positive habits.
Dr. Maurer says with kaizen "your resistance to change begins to weaken. Where once you might have been daunted by change, your new
mental software will have you moving toward your ultimate goal at a pace that may well exceed your expectations."
Take large steps towards change --> Feel fear --> Activate fight-or-flight response --> Seek short-term relief/comfort --> Failure
Take very small steps --> Bypass fear --> Reduce the urge for immediate comfort --> Take action and build constructive habits --> Success
Two counterintuitive ways to use Kaizen to achieve large goals
Ask small questions
“Your brain loves questions and won’t reject them . . . unless the question is so big it triggers fear. Questions such as
‘How am I going to get thin (or rich, or married) by the end of the year?’ or ‘What new product will bring in a million
more dollars for the company?’ are awfully big and frightening.’” – Robert Maurer Ph.D.
If you’ve ever tackled a big creative project, like writing a speech, you've experienced the destructive power of a BIG
question. By asking: "How can I write a speech that leaves my audience spellbound?" you start feeling the pressure
to perform. You fidget, you check Facebook, you grab another cup of coffee...every time you attempt to start writing you draw a blank.
Now imagine you asked yourself: "What's one idea I could share?” or “What's one story I could share?” or “What's one thing I want my
audience to do differently as a result of this speech?" After asking yourself these questions over and over again you’d come up with ideas.
Soon the words would start pouring out! Without the fear of a big question your brain is eager to come up with creative ways to make
progress.
"If you are trying to reach a specific goal, ask yourself every day: What is one small step I could take toward reaching my goal? Consider
writing your question on a Post-it note and then sticking it onto your nightstand (or dashboard, or coffeepot)." – Robert Maurer Ph.D.
Focus on small intermediate rewards
When Karan Pryor, author of 'Don't shoot the dog,' was attending graduate school, she found it hard to get to class
after a long day of work. Going to class required a one hour commute, three hour lecture and another long hour
back home in the cold. Thinking of going to school everyday to get her Ph.D. filled her with anxiety.
"Instead (of focusing on the entire trip), Pryor broke her journey down into a series of distinct segments—walking to
the subway station, changing trains, taking the stairs to her classroom. Each time she completed a segment, she
allowed herself a square of chocolate. In this way she was training herself to associate each segment of the journey with pleasure. 'In a few
weeks,' she says, 'I was able to get all the way to class without either the chocolate or the internal struggle.'"– Robert Maurer Ph.D.
"Small rewards are the perfect encouragement. Not only are they inexpensive and convenient, but they also stimulate the internal
motivation required for lasting change." – Robert Maurer Ph.D.
To achieve an audacious goal simply focus on the smallest step you can take to make progress. While the steps you take may be small, the
change you'll experience won't be.
“Improve by 1% a day, and in 70 days you’re twice as good.” – Alan Weiss, Ph.D.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin
“In the chaos of everyday life, it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters, and I can use my habits to make sure
that my life reflects my values.” - Gretchen Rubin
If you develop the right habits, you can get incredible results:

Daily reading habit = incredibly knowledgeable

Regular exercising habit = incredibly fit

Healthy eating habit = incredibly energetic

Daily practice habit (drawing or writing) = incredibly talented
Well-developed habits are powerful productivity tools because they allow you to produce results effortlessly. “With habits, we don’t make
decisions, we don’t use self-control, we just do the thing we want ourselves to do.” - Gretchen Rubin
4 reasons you’ve failed to develop a productive habit in the past:
Confused
“The more specific I am about what action to take, the more likely I am to form a habit.” – Gretchen Rubin
When trying to develop a new habit, the slightest amount of confusion leads to procrastination. If you don’t have a clear action plan (i.e.
when, where, and how you’ll take action), you’ll avoid adopting the new habit and continue executing an older, more familiar habit.
Solution: Connect the new habit to an existing habit (create a trigger) and write down an explicit action sequence.
Example: “When I finish making a tea in the morning [EXISTING HABIT], I will sit down at my desk, open a new Microsoft Word document,
and start journaling until I reach 1,000 words [SPECIFIC ACTION SEQUENCE].
Inconsistent
“Habits grow strongest and fastest when they’re repeated in predictable ways.” – Gretchen Rubin
If a new behavior isn’t executed in a predictable manner, you’ll require decision making power to initiate the behavior, which leads to
failure in the long-run. Until a new behavior seems familiar and regular, your brain will resist doing it.
Solution: Increase your familiarity with the new habit by executing the habit on a daily basis. The more familiar a habit becomes, the less
resistance you’ll have to initiate the habit (the habit seems natural – something you ‘just do’). Aim to execute a new habit in the same place
and time each day. Adopt the Andy Warhol philosophy: “Either once only, or every day.”
Weak value
“The clearer I am about what I value, and what action I expect from myself – not what other people value, or expect from me – the more
likely I am to stick to my habits.” – Gretchen Rubin
Many habits we attempt to develop are red herrings: people insist we do them, but we don’t really want to. Unless the willingness to build
a habit comes from within, you won’t have the drive and dedication required to develop a habit.
Solution: Ensure a habit is deeply meaningful to you before attempting to develop it. Ask yourself, “What will this habit ultimately lead to?”
Then ask, “On a scale of 1-10, how much does this excite me?”. If you answer is anything less than a 10, don’t bother adopting the habit
because you won’t stick with it. Only develop habits you know will have a tremendous impact on your life. It’s helpful to find people who
have developed your desired habit (ex: daily exercise) and see if their results are something you’d rank on as a 10 on your excitement scale.
Wrong strategy
Before attempting to develop a new habit, consider your personality type:
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Originals by Adam Grant
“Ultimately, the people who choose to champion originality are the ones who propel us forward. After spending
years studying them and interacting with them, I am struck that their inner experiences are not any different
from our own. They feel the same fear, the same doubt, as the rest of us. What sets them apart is that they take
action anyway. They know in their hearts that failing would yield less regret than failing to try.” – Adam Grant
5 Ways to Increase ‘Originality’
Question the default
“The hallmark of originality is rejecting the default and exploring whether a better option exists. I’ve spent more than a decade studying
this, and it turns out to be far less difficult than I expected. The starting point is curiosity: pondering why the default exists in the first place.”
– Adam Grant
A study containing 30,000 customer service agents showed that those who rejected the default browser (Internet Explorer & Safari) and
installed Chrome or Firefox were found to be better at solving customer issues. Those who questioned default options came up with more
creative solutions to customer issues and increased their job satisfaction. You can boost your creativity/originality by questioning default
options and experimenting with other alternatives.
“When you remember that rules and systems were created by people, it becomes clear that they’re not set in stone—and you begin to
consider how they can be improved.” – Adam Grant
Protect your downside
Two of the most original entrepreneurs of our time - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and the automotive pioneer Henry Ford - were NOT
huge risk takers. Bill Gates made sure he could go back to Harvard if his software company didn’t take off. Ford worked for Thomas Edison
two years after building the carburetor that revolutionized the auto industry. Endeavor co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg has trained
many entrepreneurs over the span of several decades and she says “the best entrepreneurs take the risk out of risk-taking.”
“Having a sense of security in one realm gives us the freedom to be original in another. By covering our bases financially, we escape the
pressure to publish half-baked books, sell shoddy art, or launch untested businesses.” – Adam Grant
Protect your downside before diving into a creative pursuit (i.e. don’t quit your day job if you want to start a business). Working without a
sense of security limits your originality.
Broaden you interests
Based on a Michigan State University study, scientists with a broad range of interests are more likely to make original discoveries and win
the Nobel Prize:

Musical Interest (playing an instrument, composing, conducting) = 2x greater chance of winning Nobel

Art Interest (drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting) = 7x greater chance of winning Nobel

Writing Interest (poetry, plays, essays) = 12x greater chance of winning Nobel

Performing Arts Interest (amateur actor, dancer, magician) = 22x greater chance of winning Nobel
Generate more bad ideas
You need to generate more ideas (and produce more shitty work) to generate original ideas:

Shakespeare produced 37 plays & 154 sonnets over his lifetime

Mozart composed 600 pieces before he was 35

Einstein published 248 papers
Highly creative people throughout history simply produce more work. “When it comes to idea generation, quantity is the most predictable
path to quality. ‘Original thinkers,’ Stanford professor Robert Sutton notes, ‘(Originals) will come up with many ideas that are strange
mutations, dead ends, and utter failures. The cost is worthwhile because they also generate a larger pool of ideas—especially novel ideas.’”
– Adam Grant
Procrastinate on purpose
Adam and his team conducted a study to determine which participants could come up with a creative solution to a complex problem:
those who started and finished a task in a single sitting or those who started a task then procrastinated and completed it later.
The reason our creativity increases when we procrastinate on purpose is due to the ‘Ziegarnik Effect’: “Once a task is finished, we stop
thinking about it. But when it is interrupted and left undone, it stays active in our minds.” – Adam Grant
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
“The only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition.” – Blue Ocean Strategy
If you want to launch a successful business, don’t waste time competing for market share. Instead, focus on creating new value and
expanding the current market. If you create new value, you will find yourself in a highly profitable Blue Ocean, where the competition is
irrelevant.
Professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne studied the launch of 108 businesses across 30 industries over the span of several decades.
Their study revealed that when a new business tried to compete with an established business and steal market share, they were
substantially less profitable than a new business that avoided competition. Of the 108 businesses, 16 businesses adopted a Blue Ocean
strategy by creating a new product category that made the competition irrelevant. Those 16 Blue Ocean businesses took home 61% of the
combined profits of all 108 businesses! What's more, those 16 Blue Ocean businesses went on to dominate their market category for 10-15
years!
“The companies caught in the red ocean followed a conventional approach, racing to beat the competition by building a defensible position
within the existing industry order. The creators of blue oceans, surprisingly, didn’t use the competition as their benchmark. Instead, they
followed a different strategic logic that we call value innovation.” – Blue Ocean Strategy
WHAT IS VALUE INNOVATION?
Value Innovation is the act of producing an innovative new product at a remarkably low price.
The first step of value innovation is selecting your target audience. Instead of focusing on regular
customers within your desired market (existing customers everyone is competing for), focus on the
customers on the edge of your market (infrequent customers) and customers in adjacent markets, who
either avoid your market or have never heard of your market. In the example below, Casella wines started to
process of developing a new wine by focusing on the needs of beer and cocktail consumers.
The next step of value innovation is to look at the typical business model in your market and ask four
questions:




What processes can we ELIMINATE?
What standards can we REDUCE?
What standards can be RAISE?
What standards or processes can we incorporate from adjacent industries to CREATE a
new experience?
“Our research has found that rarely do managers systematically set out to eliminate and reduce their investments in factors that an industry
competes on. The result is mounting cost structures and complex business models.
The second two factors (raise and create), by contrast, provide you with insight into how to lift buyer value and create new demand.
Collectively, they allow you to systematically explore how you can reconstruct buyer value elements across alternative industries to offer
buyers an entirely new experience, while simultaneously keeping your cost structure low.”- Blue Ocean Strategy
HOW CASELLA WINES ACHIEVED VALUE INNOVATION:
Casella Wines started by asking non-wine drinkers [beer and cocktail drinkers] why they avoid wine. They discovered that most non-wine
drinkers thought wine was intimidating and pretentious. These non-wine drinkers said the complexity of wine’s taste was a turnoff. Casella
Wines aimed to address the frustrations of these ‘noncustomers’ by creating a wine that was fun, unintimidating, and easy to drink. To
achieve this, they implemented the four value innovation action framework:




They ELIMINATED the wine aging process. Aging wine resulted in a taste that was too complex for nonwine drinkers. By eliminating the aging process they saved money on oak barrels and storage costs.
They REDUCED their inventory to just two wines, a white Chardonnay and a red Shiraz. By reducing
their inventory two wines they had far fewer wines than most wine businesses, and this was a good
thing because it made the wine selection process less intimidating for non-wine drinkers.
They RAISED the freshness and drinkability of the wine by raising their grape selection standards.
Raising the drinkability of the wine made it fun to drink for beer and cocktail drinkers.
They incorporated a few standards from the beer industry to CREATE a new wine experience for nonwine drinkers. They created a wine label that simple and inviting, like most beer bottle labels. It didn’t
have the age of the wine and it didn’t have fancy language describing the vineyard or the winemaking
process. It had an image of a kangaroo, the name of their wine company, and the origin country of the
wine: ‘Australia.’ This simple label made their wine seem less pretentious, and more fun and
adventurous.
“Casella Wines created [yellow tail], a wine whose strategic profile broke from the competition and created a blue ocean. Instead of
offering wine as wine, Casella created a social drink accessible to everyone: beer drinkers, cocktail drinkers, and other drinkers of nonwine beverages. In the space of two years, the fun, social drink [yellow tail] emerged as the fastest growing brand in the histories of
both the Australian and the U.S. wine industries and the number one imported wine into the United States, surpassing the wines of
France and Italy. By August 2003 it was the number one red wine in a 750-ml bottle sold in the United States, outstripping California
labels.” – Blue Ocean Strategy
Nathan Lozeron, @nlozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Little Bets by Peter Sims
“Chris Rock, the Pixar filmmakers, Frank Gehry, Steve Jobs, and Colonel Casey Haskins are all perfectionists and
yet they accept, even welcome, failure as they develop new ideas and strategies.” - Peter Sims
Failure = Imperfection, and that's hard to accept.
“Innate curiosity, which is the basis for so much creativity routinely gets squelched (as an adult). Perfection is rewarded, while making
mistakes is often penalized. The term “failure” has taken on a deeply personal meaning, something to be avoided at nearly all costs.” - Peter
Sims
A growing body of psychology research reveals that there are two forms of perfectionism: Healthy & Unhealthy.
“Healthy perfectionism is internally driven in the sense that it’s motivated by strong personal values for things like quality and excellence.
Conversely, unhealthy perfectionism is externally driven. External concerns show up over perceived parental pressures, needing approval, a
tendency to ruminate over past performances, or an intense worry about making mistakes. Healthy perfectionists exhibit a low concern for
these outside factors.” - Peter Sims
3 Questions to Combat ‘Unhealthy’ Perfectionism
Questions direct our focus and guide our actions. By routinely asking the right questions we’ll find the courage to make little bets, embrace
small failures, and prevent an unhealthy perfectionism from paralyzing our productivity.
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
"As an engineer and later as a manager, I was accustomed to measuring progress by making sure our work
proceeded according to plan, was high quality, and cost about what we had projected. After many years as an
entrepreneur, I started to worry about measuring progress in this way. What if we found ourselves building
something that nobody wanted? In that case what did it matter if we did it on time and on budget?" – Eric Ries
The Core Question:
How can I build an innovative product without wasting a bunch of time and effort?
Entrepreneurship and innovation inherently result in wasted time and effort because there isn’t an exact roadmap you can follow to
achieve success. Without a clear roadmap, you may be tempted to rely on intuition, expert advice, or focus group surveys to determine if
the work you are doing will ultimately be valuable. However, author Eric Ries says this is the wrong approach.
In 2004 Eric Ries was the Chief Technology Officer of a Silicon Valley Startup called IMVU. After wasting six months building a product
nobody wanted, Eric Ries and his team discovered they could avoid wasted effort by building preliminary (and somewhat embarrassing)
products and presenting them to target customers to measure their behavior. Eric Ries calls this the Lean Startup method.
1.
Create a Vision
2.
Identify Critical Assumptions
The Lean Startup Method:
Write out a brief, high-level description of your product or service. This is NOT a step-by-step execution plan. It is simply a framework you
can use to explain the value proposition of your idea to others and discover critical assumptions. I like to write out a vision for a new
business in list-form and from an end user’s experience – a narrative detailing how a target customer would experience my product or
service for the first time.
Look at your vision and ask yourself: “What value assumptions have I made, which if wrong, would result in a significant amount of wasted
time and effort?” It’s easy to overlook the list of assumptions within your vision/value proposition because the value seems obvious to you.
What you consider simple and meaningful is often complex and meaningless to others. Failing to identify and test assumptions inherent in
your value proposition can lead to wasted work and frustration down the road.
3.
Build Minimum-Viable Products (MVPs) to Test Critical Assumptions
Pick one critical assumption and ask yourself: “What early version of my desired product can I build to test this
assumption?”
Here is a guideline you can use to create your MVP: “What component, feature, or process of my ideal product is not
absolutely necessary to test my assumption?|” An MVP is a lean version of your final product, BUT it is still functional
and valuable to your loyal customers.
IMVU’s Minimum-Viable Product development strategy: “Instead of spending years perfecting our technology, we build
a minimum viable product that is terrible, full of bugs and crash-your-computer-yes-really stability problems. Then we
ship it to customers way before it’s ready. And we charge money for it. After securing initial customers, we change the
product constantly—much too fast by traditional standards—shipping new versions of our product dozens of times
every single day.” - Eric Ries
4.
Release MVP & Measure Behavior
Once you’ve built an MVP with enough functionality to test a critical assumption, it’s time to release your MVP to a
small segment of potential customers. This process is scary, but it’s important to remember: “Am I willing to
temporarily look foolish to customers on route to building a great product? Would I rather delay and risk wasting a
significant amount of time and effort?”
If you had an idea for an innovative new board game, you could:
a.
Create a Facebook ad and target a small group of avid board game players.
b. Direct people to a webpage with an animated video describing your board game (the Minimum Viable
Product in this case).
c.
Install a “Pre-order: $20” button on the bottom of the webpage with an estimated release date of the
board game.
Once the MVP is public, you need to evaluate key metrics to validate your product or service. In this example, you
could measure the amount of clicks your ad gets versus a typical Facebook ad, the average watch time on your video,
or the percentage of pre-orders you receive for every person who visits your webpage.
5.
Pivot OR Persevere
Make tweaks to your MVP to get the desired customer behavior (clicks, engagement time, pre-orders, etc.). If you
don’t observe the desired customer behavior after several iterations, it’s time to pivot to a new product strategy and vision.
“The sign of a successful pivot is that these engine-tuning activities are more productive after the pivot than before.” – Eric Ries
When doing innovative, creative work always ask yourself: "Which of my efforts are value-creating and which are wasteful?"
Then seek empirical data from live experiments rather than relying on market research, focus groups, or pure intuition.
Nathan Lozeron, @nlozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Sprint by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky
& Braden Kowitz
7 Profound Problem-Solving Techniques
Used in the Sprint Method
Map the Problem
Determine the steps required to get the users/customers to a desired result. Find someone that has experience with this
problem (so called ‘expert’) and ask them to verify your map.
The goal of developing a map is to reveal ONE event between the user and the end result that is more important than any
other event at this particular time.
Ask “How might we…?”
List all the possible failure points on your map and then convert them into “How might we…?” questions.
Example: A ‘site crashes from too much traffic’ issue turns into “How might we prevent the site for crashing when traffic is
high?” Converting an issue into a “How might we…?” question converts a problem into an interesting challenge, thus
making your problem-solving more enjoyable.
“When we tried it, we came to appreciate how the open-ended, optimistic phrasing forced us to look for opportunities and
challenges, rather than getting bogged down by problems or, almost worse, jumping to solutions too soon. And because every
question shares the same format, it’s possible to read, understand, and evaluate a whole wall full of these notes at once.” –
Sprint book
Gather a Team and Vote w/ Dots
WHY?...When each person votes with dots, visual patterns emerge. When all the dots (5 per person) are placed on the board
containing various options, important issues start to emerge. Dot voting is a great way of limiting the endless back and forth
discussion and discovering the biggest issues in less time.
HOW?...Give team members an equal collection of dot stickers to place on the wall of ideas.
Conduct Lightning Demos
Use a timer to search for and sketch examples. Reveal a new example every 3-5 minutes. Look inside and outside your
domain/industry. Find out what other people have done to solve the problem you’re dealing with.
Silently Sketch
Some people have the ability to persuade others to adopt their solution with a great presentation (even if the idea is bad!).
The final solution selection should be based on the quality of the solution, not the charisma of the presenter. To ensure the
best idea wins every time, everyone needs to sketch their ideas:
“Everyone can write words, draw boxes, and express his or her ideas with the same clarity. If you can’t draw (or rather, if you
think you can’t draw), don’t freak out. Plenty of people worry about putting pen to paper, but anybody—absolutely
anybody—can sketch a great solution.” – Sprint book
Elect a Decider
Select one person to make all the final decisions.
WHY?...Doing so limits the endless discussion surrounding a decision and allows the team to move forward confidently and
swiftly. Since you should be testing your solution long before it is fully developed, it’s OK if the decisions aren’t perfect!
Validate w/ 5 People
According to data from 1000’s of user tests, 85% of the potential issues of your proposed solution are revealed after testing
the solution with JUST 5 people.
Testing your solution on more than 5 people yields diminishing returns.
“Lurking beneath every goal are dangerous assumptions. The longer those assumptions remain unexamined, the
greater the risk.”
- Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from Deep Work by Cal Newport
“My commitment to depth has rewarded me. In the ten-year period following my college graduation, I published
four books, earned a PhD, wrote peer-reviewed academic papers at a high rate, and was hired as a tenure-track
professor at Georgetown University." – Cal Newport
Shallow Work: non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks that can be completed in a semi-distracted state. Shallow work
includes answering email, sorting documents, and running errands. The less engagement your work requires, the more shallow it is.
“In an age of network tools, knowledge workers increasingly replace deep work with the shallow alternative—constantly sending and
receiving e- mail messages like human network routers, with frequent breaks for quick hits of distraction. Larger efforts that would be well
served by deep thinking, such as forming a new business strategy or writing an important grant application, get fragmented into distracted
dashes that produce muted quality.” - Cal Newport
Any task that you complete while in a semi-distracted state will likely be automated in the near future (completed by software programs
and/or robots). Or the task will be completed by several thousand people around the world who are willing to do it for far less money than
you are doing it for. The more shallow work you do, the less rare and valuable your skills are, and the more likely you’ll be replaced by a
cheaper alternative.
Deep Work: hard but important intellectual work that in completed during long uninterrupted periods of time. Deep work requires a
state of distraction-free concentration to push you cognitive capabilities to their limit and create new value that is hard to replicate. Here
are 3 Examples of Deep Work:

Writer Mark Twain worked in a cabin isolated from the main house, requiring his family to blow a horn to attract his attention
for meals.

While writing the Harry Potter books, JK Rowling's only tweet for the first year and a half after joining Twitter was: “This is the
real me, but you won’t be hearing from me often I am afraid, as pen and paper is my priority at the moment.”

CEO Bill Gates famously conducted “Think Weeks” twice a year, during which he would isolate himself in a lakeside cottage to
do nothing but read and think big thoughts. One think week led to the famous “Internet Tidal Wave” memo which led to
development of Microsoft’s powerful web browser.
If you want to develop skills and produce work that the world considers rare and valuable, you need to develop a daily deep work ritual.
4 Deep Work Ritual Requirements:
edicated workspace
“Your ritual needs to specify a location for your deep work efforts. This location can be as simple as your normal office with
the door shut and desk cleaned off (a colleague of mine likes to put a hotel-style “do not disturb” sign on his office door
when he’s tackling something difficult). If it’s possible to identify a location used only for depth—for instance, a
conference room or quiet library—the positive effect can be even greater.” – Cal Newport
xact end time
“Give yourself a specific time frame to keep the session a discrete challenge and not an open-ended slog.” – Cal Newport
By establishing a clear end time for each deep work session, you give yourself permission to focus intensely and
experience discomfort because you know exactly when the discomfort will end.
asy starting sequence
“Your ritual needs rules and processes to keep your efforts structured. Without this structure, you’ll have to mentally
litigate again and again what you should and should not be doing during these sessions and keep trying to assess whether
you’re working sufficiently hard. These are unnecessary drains on your willpower reserves.” – Cal Newport
ower-ups
“Your ritual needs to ensure your brain gets the support it needs to keep operating at a high level of depth. For example,
the ritual might specify that you start with a cup of good coffee, or make sure you have access to enough food of the right
type to maintain energy, or integrate light exercise such as walking to help keep the mind clear.” - Cal Newport
“If you don’t produce, you won’t thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are.” – Cal Newport
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Productivity Principle: Work = Time * Intensity
Inspired by the book Deep Work by Cal Newport
Quality of Work Produced = (Time Spent) * (Intensity)
You could spend 4 hours getting a task done in a semi-distracted state, or you could do the same amount of
work with 1 hour of intense focus.
“(T)he common habit of working in a state of semi- distraction is potentially devastating to your performance. It
might seem harmless to take a quick glance at your inbox every ten minutes or so…(but) that quick check
introduces a new target for your attention…The attention residue left by such unresolved switches dampens
your performance.” - Cal Newport
Transitioning between tasks, meetings, or projects creates attention residue. Glancing at an email, text, or social feed creates attention
residue. Attention residue accumulates in a semi-distracted working state and reduces your ability to focus intensely. The more you
fracture your attention, the longer it takes to produce high-quality work.
Your ability to focus intensely increases when the likelihood of being distracted is diminished: phone on Airplane Mode, no
internet access, no TV playing in the background, no tempting foods nearby, no one to talk to, and no nearby conversations
to eavesdrop in on. Even if you aren’t focusing on a distraction, some part of your attention will be consumed by it.
The ideal environment to work intensely is an environment SO BORING that it makes work seem compelling.
But I can’t get away! Then put on headphones or book a conference room for an hour. When a meeting gets cancelled, go
to a nearby coffee shop. When you put the kids to bed, escape to a quiet part of the house. There are more ways to isolate
yourself and experience intense focus than you may think…
But I can’t go offline! You won’t lose a client or a friend if you go offline for 1 hour.
But I need to be with my team! You can work intensely with other people, but make sure that you collectively work to eliminate
distractions and direct your focus to a common reference point, like a whiteboard.
Ask yourself:

How would I rate my work intensity on a scale of 1-5?
1 being constantly distracted, and 5 being unable to maintain the intensity for longer than an hour without needing to take a break.
1

2
3
4
5
What could be reducing my ability to focus intensely?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Where can I go to achieve absolute focus?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The goal: “concentration so intense that there is no attention left over to think about anything irrelevant.”
– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, psychologist and author of Flow
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com
Insights from The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry
“Call yourself anything you want, but if you’re responsible for solving problems, developing strategies, or
otherwise straining your brain for new ideas, I’m going to call you a creative — even if you ended up being one
accidentally.” – Todd Henry
To create on-demand and experience sustained brilliance in our work, we need to fight off the
3 ‘Creative Assassins’ that naturally take over our lives:
Dissonance
Our compulsion to resolve tension and
detect patterns can lead us astray when
trying to do creative work.
“We make things very complex in order to
mask the reality that, deep down, we’re
confused about our true objectives. Some
of us (myself included) use unnecessary
complexity as a mask for insecurity. (If we
aren’t certain we can nail the project, we’ll
at least confuse the heck out of them and
show them how smart we are.) This is a
waste of creative brainpower and does
nothing to get us closer to our objectives.”
– Todd Henry
Spotting Dissonance:
 Unnecessary levels of complexity
(spending most of our time
maintaining complicated
systems)
 Unclear objectives (don’t know
what winning looks like)
 Forgetting ‘why’ we are doing
the work in the first place
Fear
Our intense fear of social exclusion kills
our creativity.
“We might fear losing our job, but more
often we’re concerned about being
perceived as inadequate or ineffective.
We’re afraid that no one will want to work
with us on future projects. We’re worried
about our reputation.” – Todd Henry
BUT…
“The consequences of never taking creative
risks will be significantly greater than some
of our peers thinking we have poor taste. A
lifetime of mediocrity is a high price to pay
for safety.” – Todd Henry
Noticing Fear:
 Fear of deviating from the
status quo and being kicked out
of the group
 Fear of standing out and being
judged by others
 Fear of not being able to sustain
success and being mocked
(making us wonder: What’s the
point of trying?)
Escalating Expectations
Creativity requires a gradual accumulation
of ideas. It needs a series of poor ideas to
be accepted before great ideas can be
found. However…
“We allow comparisons to affect our
current creative engagement…we begin
closing off potential executions and helpful
thoughts because we deem them “not
useful enough” in accomplishing our
escalated expectations. Doing this too early
in the creative process can seriously derail
brilliant ideas and prevent them from ever
seeing the light of day.” – Todd Henry
Noticing escalating expectations:
 Clinging to a previous success
 Giving ourselves impossible
deadlines to impress
management and peers
 Comparing ourselves to our
heroes (the immensity of their
work paralyzes us)
Re- F.R.E.S.H. each week to hold off the ‘Creative Assassins’
ocus
Maintain your focus on the BIG 3: “The Big 3 is best described as the three most important ‘open loops’ in my life and work. They
are the three most important items that I’m still looking for critical insight on.” – Todd Henry
elationships
Expand your creative thinking by meeting with experienced folks: “When you approach your relationships with purpose, you will
be able to draw on many lifetimes’ worth of experience for insight and inspiration.” – Todd Henry
nergy
Creative thinking is energy intensive. Build daily rituals for sleep, exercise, and healthy eating to remain fully charged. “To make
the most of your day, you need to establish practices around energy management.” – Todd Henry
timuli
Carefully choose what you read and watch in your off-time: “If you want to regularly generate brilliant ideas, you must be
purposeful about what you are putting into your head.” – Todd Henry
ours
Your schedule is evidence of your priorities. “You need to ensure that the practices that truly make you a more effective creator
are making it onto your calendar.” – Todd Henry
Nathan Lozeron
www.ProductivityGame.com