Hi, I'm Phnam.
Hi, I'm Mardis.
And we're the hosts of Future Future, where two designers talk about the future of everything.
We're in the business of turning science fiction into reality for a better future.
And today, we're going to talk about hyperproductivity.
So Phnam, why do you want to talk about hyperproductivity?
We want to have happy personal lives.
We want to very productive at work.
What we want to do is to do less and achieve more.
And what if our tasks every day were propelling us towards a goal in life, instead of slowing us down?
That's great, Phnam.
But it seems like there are always so many obstacles.
Oh yeah.
So, number one: procrastination.
We're all guilty of it.
A lot of people spend time doing things they shouldn't be doing, or that they should be doing at a different time.
The more time you spend doing something else, the more time you push doing the tasks that you have to do all day.
And that creates this circle of anxiety that says,
"oh, I have to do this but I am too petrified to start,
therefore I am going to do this other thing, like cleaning the entire house."
And to be honest, cleaning your house is actually a really good tool for organizing your mind, getting rid of the chaos and this and that.
But doing it at the last minute, or doing it instead of doing the thing you're supposed to be doing, is not the way to approach it.
So next is the myth of multitasking.
A lot of people probably believed in their young years that they could do a lot of multitasking.
That's actually not what's happening.
What's happening is that you're doing small sections of many different things, and your brain is seeing it as multitasking.
And it might work for some people. But for the most part you're actually not achieving anything.
So we have messaging apps. We have emails.
We have all these different distractions.
And managing those is really, really difficult and takes us off our track.
You get to control that.
Perhaps there are a couple of days in the week where you set up all your email responding time
and all your meetings, and the rest of the time you actually get to be productive for yourself.
What's Elon Musk say?
Oh yeah, he says that if you feel like you're not being helpful, or you cannot learn anything from a meeting, you should walk out.
It's extremely polite to walk out.
And I agree with that!
When company cultures force you to have meetings upon meetings - or worse - meetings about meetings, that's exhausting.
People just sit there doodling on their piece of paper or on their laptop and not really listening, and definitely not being productive.
So as much as you can influence the company you work for,
please tell them to stop doing that.
And I think one of the other big things is:
somehow people are trapped in these meetings all the time and they feel the need to speak.
They're asked to talk.
And honestly sometimes they have lots of good things to say.
Sometimes they don't. But they still feel the need to talk.
And when they do, it's almost like...I feel like they're somehow [trying to] justify their job.
So think of all those Renaissance people from the past.
People like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci who were anatomists.
They were painters.
They were engineers.
They could do all of things in one lifetime.
And they're humans like us.
So we have the ability to do those things as well.
What's so extraordinary about them is that they were very focused.
They were focused on one discipline, and then they moved on to some other one, then they came back to that one.
And then they went all the way.
They were not interrupted every five minutes by an Instagram post, right?
They created things that nobody else has ever touched before.
And that's why we remember them today.
So can we apply good practices to what we do every day?
For us here at Nonfiction, what we do is we don't hire people to stay late and work extra hard just to justify their position.
They work really well, they are very efficient, and get their job done.
Next is you have to make good decisions very fast.
Use your gut feeling.
Cut to the chase.
And don't waste other people's time just because you need to go through a very specific methodology.
If you feel it's good, just do it.
And we make checklists.
We make checklists all the time.
So, I have a checklist that - you know, let's say has five to ten things - that I go down.
I put it on a post it, and I slap that post it on my laptop.
So, I'm working on my laptop...I see it all the time and I can check it off one by one.
And not only is this super satisfying, but it keeps everyone else around me really happy
because I'm getting things checked off my list.
And don't forget, these checklists have to be realistic.
Don't put something down on your daily checklist that can't be done for weeks.
Not only is it unrealistic, but it's going to be kind of depressing at the end of the day when you don't have everything done.
So one good practice about hyperproductivity is to be present.
Be here when you're doing it.
Don't think about the next thing or what you've done in the past.
Being present and really getting into the state of flow, and being surrounded by people who are in the same state
can be very productive working together and coming out with an outcome that can be used for the next step.
One of our key tips is getting out of the office.
Travel. Explore different cultures. See how people think.
Become a little empathetic to everybody's situation.
And when you bring that back into the office, that helps your communication with all the different people you have to work with.
Yeah, and related to that: you have to take real evenings.
You have to take real weekends and real vacations.
Don't bring your laptop on vacation.
Don't bring your work phone.
Don't be available or on call.
Enjoy yourself! Turn it off!
When you come back from real vacation, your mind is just expanded and you think differently.
You feel refreshed.
You inspire others to think that way.
So another key thing is moving spaces or changing your environment.
Stepping outside for a minute.
You know, if you have a garden or a garden space, go outside and walk in fresh air.
Maybe you just go down to the coffee shop for a quick coffee, and come back.
It allows your mind to relax and then recharge for the next event.
One of the ways we do this is without physically moving is...we put on headphones!
And we listen to music.
Finding what works best for you that really gets you into that flow state.
A little secret that we do around the office: we actually put headphones on and not always listen to music.
Because sometimes you don't want the distraction of music, but you do also not want the distraction of other people bothering you.
So when people see that they have headphones on, they're going to leave you alone for a little while.
So last but not least: STOP SAYING, "I'M BUSY."
So seriously. Everybody says, "I'm busy." Everybody and their mother.
And it's actually kind of tragic, because maybe you have too many long term goals on your short term goal list.
There are a lot of different problems.
Nobody wants to hear you're busy because honestly it sounds like you're just not getting anything done.
And you don't want to advertise that, right?
So with that, we want to thank you for joining us on this journey today, and we look forward to seeing you next time.
Bye!
Bye.