This productivity hack will stress you out (But it’s DEADLY-effective)
part 2 in the 2-step productivity system outlined by the founder of Priceline
This is part 2 in the 2-step productivity system outlined by the founder of Priceline.
Part 2 is stressful because it forces you to ignore what comes natural to you (see below).
You can read part 1, here.
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Here’s a summary of part 1:
The first step is to write down each task you do into 1 of 4 boxes:
A time, B time, C time, and D time.
D time = 80% of action that drives 20% of results.
This is the classic Pareto Principle.
C time = 20% of action that drives 80% of results.
The 20% from the classic Pareto Principle.
B time = 4% of action that drives 64% of results.
In the classic Pareto Principle, 20% of actions drive 80% of results.
This just extends that one step further.
So 4% of actions (20% of 20%) = 64% of results (80% of 80%).
A time = 1% of action that drives 50% of results.
This is the same calculation as above, but one more time.
So 1% of actions (20% of 4%) = 50% of results (80% of 64%).
You can read Part 1 here if you’d like.
Most productivity articles would simply say, “now that you’ve organized your tasks, just work on the most. important things”.
But there’s no how — there’s no direction.
So here in part 2, we’ll break down how you should structure your calendar based on the tasks you’ve outlined above.
PART 2: How to organize your calendar:
Break your week into 2 sections:
1. Focus days
2. Push days
Each week, plan 2 focus days.
These are days where you ignore C and D time tasks and focus solely on A and B time tasks.
This is doing the most important, and ignoring the “urgent”.
this is what is so stressful about this. system.
As a high performer, it’s in our natural to try to “do everything”.
So by intentionally ignoring the urgent for the important, you actually work against your nature.
The other 3 days are what we call Push days.
These are days where you do the things you have to do (make calls, go to meetings, do admin stuff, etc).
However, you want to make one more change.
On the push days, schedule in 2–3 hours of time to work on A and B tasks.
This way you’re always progressing the A and B tasks, while not neglecting the C and D tasks that are required.
I highly recommend having your Focus days be Tuesday and Thursday.
This means your push days would be on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
This allows you to have Monday to get caught up, Wednesday to take care of anything you missed on Tuesday, and Friday to take care of anything before the weekend.
