This episode is about what it is I’m trying to do with attention compass. And why I hate current productivity “help”.
I developed this AC stuff. I didn’t discover it. I didn’t invent it. These are the principles, and they produce specific results. I make no bones about the fact that a lot of people went before me did a lot of really good thinking about productivity.
AC is derived from Stephen Covey, from David Allen and from a lot of different folks who thought a lot about this and who are well regarded in what’s going on.
This ain’t magic. I’m not some genius, brilliant dude. I just got tired of being told mindset things. “You’re just thinking about it the wrong way”, and “change the way you think about it”
I love Covey. I love the seven habits, but you gotta take what he says and then figure out how to implement against that. It’s not magic, it’s not secret sauce. That’s one of the great things about David Allen – he’s not playing around. He says, “Look, you got a piece of paper in your hand, do this with it.”
The principles are important. I’m an academic and a scientist, and so I want them to be true, but at the same time, it’s got to be actionable advice.
The headline here is stop wasting time and causing yourself a whole bunch of anxiety by listening to people who are giving you less than helpful input.
If you want different results, then you have to DO differently, behave differently.
Some stuff I tried that didn’t work – day-timer and GTD. These were my first attempt at having my stuff where I needed my stuff to be, but continued to thrash so I kept trying.
I still want to keep up and I get intrigued. Here’s what I see when I look out into Productivity Advice land.
The pinnacle of productivity advice c. 2025
“Top 10 productivity tips” – anonymous.
work from rest, not for rest
take regular breaks daily
tackle the biggest tasks first
designate time daily for emails.
keep the main thing, the main thing
keep your energy level high.
Prepare the night before
win the first hour, win the day
protect your margins.
engage in activity stacking
Problem: Everybody’s heard that, and apparently most people are still not able to do it.
Three problems with the productivity industry
One – people say all the same things over and over
Two – it’s not actionable, it’s not doable
Three – most of the advice is about mindset
Attention compass is really fundamentally different.
There’s a workflow that will get you on top of this stuff,
I want to educate you a little bit on how your brain works with information tasks.
I’m going to bring you Information Systems level understanding of information storage, information use, and the value of information in your work and life. What do we do about and with information?
I’m going to bring you a software developer’s knowledge about your information tools.
If you don’t buy what I’m saying, do an experiment.
The rules of productivity are pretty simple
Reuse everything you can. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
Focus, don’t thrash simple.
The problem is the interference that we get from our culture’s (incorrect) view of dealing with information and communications and the existing tools.
Athleticism as a metaphor for attention
Other good habits flow out of that ability.
All these tips are great – do you have the ‘athleticism’ to address them?
I think a lot of people are worn out by all this information. Don’t give up.