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:
Much of the work we do is of questionable importance and conducted at low efficiency. […] If we instead identify only the most important tasks […] and tackle them under severe constraints, we’d be surprised by how little time we actually require.
The précis of the fixed-schedule productivity system, as used by author Jim Collins:
Fix your ideal schedule, then work backwards to make everything fit […] around your needs. Be flexible. Be efficient. If you can’t make it fit: change your work. But in the end, don’t compromise.
Some of you may recognise this: Cal suggested something very similar last year, but on a grander scale.
Fix the lifestyle you want. Then work backwards from there.