Chat GBT Founder, Sam Altman, On Productivity

 Original - click on the picture. 

Elaborated: 

What you work on:

• Direction matters more than speed — picking the right thing to work on is most important.
  • Or look at it like this: “You should focus relentlessly on something you’re good at doing, but before that, you must think hard about whether it will be valuable in the future.” — Peter Thiel
• Develop strong independent beliefs about the world.
  • Things to consider: Which industries serve humanity most - hinder humanity most — what to invest your time and money on — how to overcome societal peer-pressure & expectations not grounded in facts or relevance for the individual — how to raise compassionate & strong children - -why we fear death — how politics work.
• Leave enough time in your schedule to think about what to work on.
• Delegate based on what people like to do and are good at doing.
  • Delegation is a skill — ask a colleague to do (for you) something they enjoy - and they won’t even notice you’re delegating.
• Consider a major job change if you don’t like what you’re doing for a long period
  • Not for the lazy and emotionally unstable. First give your very best effort and then decide if it’s not your kind of job - otherwise, the job is not the issue, but yourself - busy looking for shortcuts that don’t serve the goal. Liking every post about ‘working smart’ when you’ve never really given your all in any task.
• Surround yourself with smart, productive, happy people who don’t belittle your ambitions.
  • Not for the lazy — no use looking for smart & productive people if you yourself have no worthy goal.
• Compound growth works in careers, small gains over 50 years create massive differences.
  • Another way to look at it: “You don’t need to be the fastest learner, you need to make your mind about the few things that you really want to do, and execute with a much longer timeframe than most people. There isn’t much competition left after the first few years. After a decade, it almost feels lonely.” — Orange Book

Prioritization

• Three key pillars:
  • Get the most important shit done – Dedicate 2–3 focused hours daily to your highest-impact projects.
  • Don’t waste time on stupid shit – If something feels like a waste (e.g. forcing yourself through a boring movie or pointless meeting), trust your gut & leave.
  • Make lots of checklists – Use to-do lists to offload your brain. Whether it’s a high-stress week or a slow day.
• Use written lists for yearly, monthly, and daily goals.
  • To build a house, you need bricks. Identify the "bricks" of your big life goals and make sure you're laying one every day.
• Re-transcribe lists frequently to force thinking about priorities.
  • Example: You have 10 things on your to-do list for the week. By Wednesday, new demands have likely surfaced. Take time to review and rewrite your list — are these new tasks truly moving you forward, or are they just distractions?
• Avoid most meetings and conferences due to huge time costs.
  • The worst thing you can do is fail to ask this simple question to your boss: “Do I really need to be in this meeting.” — Asking intentionally tells them you value your time.
• Keep 10% of schedule open for chance encounters and new ideas
• Schedule meetings for 15-20 minutes or 2 hours, not the default 1 hour.
• Value your time appropriately - don’t spend hours to save small amounts of money
• Focus on optimizing your year, not your day.

To be Continued: