Letters Remain

Category: productivity

  • Fixed-Schedule Productivity: Fix the Schedule, Don’t Compromise

    In a guest post for I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Cal Newport of Study Hacks discusses fixed-schedule productivity: a productivity system whereby you set a schedule of work (and play) between certain hours and stick to it ruthlessly. Tim Ferriss aficionados will note that this system relies on a premise that Ferriss heavily depends…

  • On Meetings

    Contemplating how to lead without meetings , The Washington Post asks three equally qualified people for their views on them. Daisy Wademan Dowling, executive director of leadership development at an unnamed Fortune 500 company, responded with the following: The real reason leaders end up in too many meetings? Because it’s flattering: having your presence “required”…

  • The Seven Wastes

    One of the principal goals of the Toyota Production System (TPS) is to identify steps that add value (and those which do not) and then design out waste. Muda is one of the three types of waste (the other two being muri and mura) and the one that has been given the most attention since the TPS…

  • A Guide to Speed Reading

    The PX Project is a single 3-hour “cognitive experiment” designed to increase your reading speed. Average increases using the technique are apparently in the region of 386%. The technique seems to involve three steps: Minimize the number and duration of fixations per line. Eliminate regression and back-skipping. Use conditioning drills to increase horizontal peripheral vision…

  • The Five Whys

    Five Whys is “a question-asking method used to explore the cause/effect relationships underlying a particular problem. Ultimately, the goal of applying the 5 Whys method is to determine a root cause of a defect or problem”. Developed by Taiichi Ohno–one of the inventors of the Toyota Production System–the oft-cited example is as follows: My car…

  • The Cult of Done

    The Cult of Done Manifesto is a compelling list of ‘rules’ for getting things done. I think the premise of The Cult of Done is: to do; to be unconcerned with failure; to learn from outcomes, be they good or bad. I particularly like the Rubix Cube manifesto poster. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and…

  • The Personal, Printable CEO

    Freelancer David Seah realised that he needed a novel system to keep himself productive, efficient, and continuously developing. Borne from this need he developed The Printable CEO system: The Printable CEO was born from a desire to focus my time more productively. For me, that means things that make my freelance practice sustainable and fun. The…

  • Daily Routines

    Like many others I’ve recently been captivated by the Daily Routines blog—a look at the everyday customs of a variety of successful people. A common motif is that the majority of these people wake early and look after their bodies (typically through exercise); though I feel these recurring elements are common because of something else:…

  • 10 Tips for Achieving Intense Productivity

    RSD’s Tyler gives us some tips for achieving periods of intense productivity by avoiding the ‘garbage in, garbage out’ problem (plus some comments): Remove the Internet from your house A bit extreme for me, but limiting its use is undoubtedly a good idea. Remove television from your house I don’t watch ‘broadcast’ TV anyway: it’s…

  • Randy Pausch Lectures

    By now I’m sure everyone has watched, listened to, or at the very least heard of, Randy Pausch’s lecture Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams which he gave at Carnegie Mellon University a year ago today (the lecture is more commonly referred to as The Last Lecture). Since then I’ve watched two more speeches by Pausch…