The Lazy Guide to Productivity

Hard-working doesn’t always translate to productive & successful. Sometimes, laziness is the best path to progress and achievement.

Sound contradictory? For years, productivity and executive impact experts have encouraged us to focus on what’s important, not just what’s urgent. No less than Peter Drucker, in The Effective Executive, was among the first to note that much of our time as knowledge workers will naturally be pulled into a variety of urgent but not necessarily important time sucks, and that only careful consideration of what’s most important in our work – then focusing intently on getting those few things done – is the best path to productivity and success.

So, as Leo points out this week, focusing on just three things each day (rather than the pages and pages of to-do’s that most of us carry around) can have an effect both on our productivity and our peace of mind.

Call it lazy if you want, but knowing the night before exactly what needs to get done the next day (just 2-3 important things), then focusing early in the day on getting those things done can have an incredible impact. Give it a try for a week and see what happens.

More on being productive and lazy at the same time from Leo here.

Photo Credit: The Lazy Environmentalist