Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Keys to Productivity

People often ask me how I accomplish so much. My key principles:
  • Before making most decisions, whether it's to support amnesty for illegals or whether I should see a movie, I consciously assess the risk-reward ratio of doing it, including the opportunity costs. In assessing that," I usually think broadly: "What are the risks and rewards for the world?" But I do that thinking very quickly, which leads me to my next principle:
  • I rarely ruminate; I take low-risk actions. I usually learn more by trying something than by more-than-brief thinking about it.
  • With every task I'm doing, I ask myself, NOT is this the fastest way, NOT is this the best way, but is this the most time- and cost-effective way? So, for example, I am aware that this post would have been better if I took the time to provide an excellent example for each bullet but, especially because I'm so busy these days, rather than not post it at all, I wrote this in the most time-effective way possible.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How do you justify seeing movies at all?

Marty Nemko said...

It's only justifiable as a needed break. At some point, if you don't take breaks, you put yourself of risk of dying prematurely and thus can be of no help to anyone.

 

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