The Future of Productivity
Phase 3
I think it’s fair to say we’re all a little concerned at this point.
With the rise of AI, the unprecedented inflation rates, the layoffs, and the rising demand for tangible productivity in a world drowning in noise, we all tend to ask the same questions.
How do we prepare ourselves for a future that no one can agree upon? How do we find more when we’re already at the end of our rope? How do we find blue oceans of opportunity when they all seem to be closed in by a constant red tidal wave? What can we do to secure a better future and thrive in light of the increasing uncertainty, demand, and struggle?
I’m not going to tell you where to direct your career.
But know this:
The key to your future is you.
You, learning the skills required to rise up to the new demands.
That’s your next level.
So take a minute to raise your ambition:
Imagine where your life could be in the next 5 years if you knew you could handle the learning curve, the uncertainty, and the new demands.
Imagine where you’d be in the next 6 months if you transformed your vision into action.
Imagine achieving your next level of output, with a greater sense of joy, engagement and confidence.
There’s another level for you. Sometimes we don’t see it, because we’re caught up in the noise.
But that doesn’t mean the potential isn’t there.
These skillsets are the unlock.
Your Reality
Before moving forward, however, it’s important to acknowledge where you are, and what’s going on around you, so you’re able to make informed decisions about your future.
If you make the decision to learn these skills, you will significantly alter the course of your life.
Life is short.
So take it seriously.
Look at your personal life, your career, your family dynamics, your health, your finances, the economy, your business, the stock markets, (it’s everywhere).
In one way or another, you can find this 3 phase pattern in pretty much any crisis you’ve faced.
Each phase represents a distinct collective mindset and coping mechanism in response to external pressures and upheavals. Phase 1 is about survival, Phase 2 is about stability and balance, and Phase 3 is where we start to thrive again by capitalizing on the lessons learned and the new skills acquired.
Note: This will seem obvious, but Phase 3 only goes well if you actually change. Without the adaptation of learning and acquisition of new skills, you will stay at your current level. (Not to worry though, we’ve got you covered—keep reading).
This plays out not as a linear path but as a cyclical journey where individuals and organizations oscillate between these states, propelled by economic, societal, and personal forces.
1/ Survival
This phase is characterized by an initial reaction to crisis or change, where the primary concern is for security and stability. Individuals in this phase seek certainty in the face of uncertainty and are often driven by fear and a desire for protection.
Immediate reaction to crisis or change.
Seeking certainty amid uncertainty.
A protective and closed mindset in response to fear.
Example: Historical and psychological research supports the notion that humans have a fundamental need for security and stability. This is why we saw all these people shifting into protection mode and stocking up on food and toilet paper during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this aligns with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where physiological and safety needs come before all others.
2/ Recovery
As individuals start adjusting to the new normal, there's a shift towards wellness. This phase is about coping with stress, embracing change, and seeking to maintain physical and mental well-being.
Adjustment and coping with the 'new normal'.
A focus on well-being and mindfulness.
Seeking control through self-care and wellness practices.
Example: The increased interest in mindfulness, mental health, and wellness during the pandemic years is a testament to this phase. Apps for meditation and fitness saw a significant rise (30-115%) in downloads, and companies began to prioritize employee well-being programs to address stress and burnout. The wellness industry grew by nearly 14% from 2019-2022, according to Global Wellness Institute reports.
3/ Performance (You are Here)
The final phase is where individuals and teams move beyond merely coping to drive performance, productivity, and growth. This phase is characterized by ambition, mastery, and the pursuit of goals, recognizing the opportunity within change.
Moving beyond coping to driving growth and productivity.
Emphasis on ambition, mastery, and high achievement.
Recognizing and leveraging the opportunity within change.
No example necessary.
It’s already here.
According to the latest World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report,
44% of worker skills will be disrupted over the next 5 years
60% of employees will require new skills training.
42% of business processes, and up to 65% of information and data processing will be automated by AI by 2027
Empathy season is over. The “year of efficiency” is here, as Mark Zuckerberg put it.
The standards are changing.
And the only way to prepare is shifting into a higher gear and skilling up.
The demand has risen.
Rise with it, or be left behind.
I understand that at this point, we’re not painting a very pretty picture. And I’m ok with that.
This reality is a little harsh right now. The performance phase is quite impersonal. It’s a ruthless game that chews up and spits out those who can’t produce.
And the players that will come out of this game—alive and thriving—will be the ones who can:
1/ Cast a vision beyond their current circumstances and coordinate strikes within time to manifest that.
be willing to see things differently.
see beyond the confines of circumstance.
2/ Capture time and put it under their control to produce tangible results at the levels of quality and consistency required to thrive in this economy.
coordinate time with precision.
produce.
3/ Harness the full powers of the human mind to unlock unparalleled creativity, solve complex problems, and navigate life's challenges with resilience and clarity.
master your mind.
do hard things, and do them well.
master the basics with discipline.
you will find bliss & freedom on the other side.
we’re all designed for peak performance, yet few claim it, because they surrender to the noise of the world around them.
The Gap
As nice as that may sound, there’s a gap between this external demand and the internal day-to-day reality of most humans right now:
our minds are programmed for distraction
our hours are ruled by randomness
our days are run by the world’s agenda
our work is filled with things that don’t matter
This change should be simple, yet it’s quite obvious we’re still not getting better.
Don’t expect to feel confident in your future when your days are run by randomness.
I’m breaking these gaps down into 3 core issues. There are more, and we’ll get to them in the future. But for now, we need to understand the fundamental problems that are running our lives in circles.
1/ Distraction
No amount of stimulants can cure a distracted mind.
Our Minds are Perpetually Distracted.
Distraction isn't just an inconvenience; it's an epidemic eroding our mental landscape. Imagine this: You get up early to follow your New Year’s routine, ready to tackle that passion project you've been dreaming about for the last three years. Coffee in hand, self-help wisdom fueling your ambition, you sit down... only to find, three blurry hours later, you've achieved nothing but a digital hangover from tab-switching and a deep dive into the void of your devices.
It sounds dramatic because it is. According to a startling 2015 study by Microsoft Corp, our attention span has plummeted from 12 seconds in 2000 to just 8 seconds. That's right, we're being outpaced by goldfish in the focus department.
Garbage in, Garbage Out.
The numbers don't lie:
On average, we're spending 3 hours and 15 minutes glued to our phones daily, with the top 20% of us surpassing the 4.5-hour mark.
We check our phones 58 times a day, dedicating over 37.5 minutes of our workday to these brief encounters.
This constant context-switching is a killer for productivity. Victor M. González and Gloria Mark from UC Irvine uncovered that, on average, we flip tasks every 3 minutes. But it's the aftermath that's truly damning—70% of our screen time sessions last under 2 minutes, yet half start within 3 minutes of the last. Our brains are in a perpetual loop of distraction, expecting interruption at any moment.
Switching tasks might seem benign, a necessary evil of the modern age. Yet, this habit is anything but harmless. The American Psychological Association highlights that frequent switches can slash your productive time in half—context switching doesn't just shift your focus; it devours it.
Switching contexts does two things 1) it forces your brain to take on a new set of mental control settings, and 2) requires your brain to “de-load” its previous control settings. This work creates a kind of attention residue that gradually builds through the course of the day, and hinders our cognitive performance.
With phones, it's not just the switching. We're always expecting to be interrupted. A study in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research found that even a switched off smartphone can make us less focused. Simply having your phone near you can make it harder to work well, because you’ve conditioned your brain to anticipate that interruption.
Our attachment to digital multitasking and the illusion of "staying connected" is fracturing our capacity for concentration, creative thinking, complex problem solving, and ultimately our long term performance. Every red bubble, every impulsive check isn't just a momentary diversion—it's a brick in cognitive wall between us and our horizons.
2/ Drama
In the chaos of the digital age, our lives are increasingly commandeered by the demands and distractions of others. This isn't just about being busy; it's about the fundamental misdirection of our attention and energy towards agendas not our own.
“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.” — Greg McKeown
Think about this: a knowledge worker typically enjoys up to 40 minutes of uninterrupted focus at a time. Yet, stats show that we check emails or instant messages every 6 minutes, surrendering nearly half of our waking hours to the whims of others’ communications.
Our days fragment under this relentless barrage:
Over 40% of our day is spent juggling communication tools, diluting our attention across a spectrum of demands.
A staggering 17% of us can't sustain 15 minutes of focused time without succumbing to communication interrupts.
Even more disheartening, regaining our focus after such interruptions takes a whopping 23 minutes on average, exacerbating the cycle of inefficiency.
This constant interruption isn't just a nuisance; it's a significant drain on our productivity. The knowledge worker averages around 2 hours and 48 minutes of actual productive time each day. The rest of that is filled with shallow, reactive work, responding to emails, multitasking, taking breaks, talking with coworkers, and other nonsense time that adds to the gap between us and the demand.
Yielding to the noise doesn’t merely distract; it disrupts, diverting us from our goals and aspirations. Each ping, each notification, is a vote for a life fragmented by the agendas of the world. The effect cumulates in a diluted mind and a drift from the pursuits that actually matter.
3/ Doubt
The Judgment-Comparison Vortex
Our engagement with technology is shaping us in ways more profound than we realize. It's not just about distraction or the drama of others' demands; it's about how these interactions subconsciously lay the soil for self-doubt, delay, and discouragement. These aren't just fleeting feelings; they're cementing into our default state, undermining our ability to pursue our goals with true clarity.
Every interaction with our devices, from the mindless scroll through social feeds to the ping of a new notification, serves as a micro-judgment.
To click or not to click?
To engage or pass by?
These seemingly benign decisions are training grounds for judgment and comparison, subtly yet significantly shaping our mindset.
This constant comparison does more than distract—it conditions. It trains us to apply the same merciless scrutiny to ourselves that we do to everything we see online. We begin to measure our worth, our progress, and our success against an endless stream of others' curated highlights, oftentimes without even realizing it. Those thoughts and comparison constructs land outside the realm of our conscious reality, (hence the term “mindless scrolling”). You’re not thinking about it, you’re just scrolling, checking, swiping, until you get sick of it or some other interruption captures your attention.
Our brains are endlessly adaptable. This constant flow of consumption slowly reconditions our mind for a closed point of view. More and more of our day-to-day thoughts and feelings stem from this narrowed field of vision.
We’re silently being embedded with subconscious standards and norms for thinking, being, and relating in the world.
These transactions often escape our notice, until we’re at such a cognitive disadvantage that our energy spirals into a dark loop of doubt, delay, and discouragement.
And at that point, they’ve stolen your fire. The program has stolen your mind, colonized your thoughts, and drained your attitude.
Energy exists where you focus it in the moment.
Thus, we feel more doubtful and judgmental of ourselves and others, having been quietly conditioned with a closed point of view through constant judgment and comparison.
This leads to a life void of the creative thinking and strategizing required to succeed.
The Shift
At this point, it may seem like all I’m doing is telling you how screwed the human condition is right now—which isn’t entirely false. However, the power is in your hands. Awareness is the first gate to lasting change.
We must become vitally aware of our current problems to accept our current reality, chart a path forward, and take action.
At some point, a conscious individual wakes up from their drift and decides that no more will their life be ruled by the shallow distractions and interruptions of this world. No longer will they surrender their dreams to every weak impulse that lands on their conscious field.
It’s not that they ignore their feelings, avoid them, or run them over.
But they have made the conscious decision that those feelings, impulses, and interruptions will not take precedent over their vision for an extraordinary life anymore.
If we don’t learn the mental toughness and resilience to push through the low grade feelings of self-doubt, overwhelm, stress, and frustration, we can never fully focus our time and attention on the things that actually matter right now.
At some point, the 1% simply ask, “ok, what matters now, and what am I going to do about it?” They don’t let their feelings of insecurity override their drive for growth, because they have a vision that transcends and precedes their immediate impulses or feelings at any given moment.
If we don’t learn to consciously step into a higher (generative) drive that propels us into a role of service, leadership, and high performance, we allow our lower impulses for immediate comfort and safety to trample our higher drives for impact and creative mastery. We short circuit our potential.
We must learn to hone our minds on the few things that actually matter, in spite of the disruption. We must train ourselves to tune out the noise. To condition a higher capacity for stress, risk, challenge, and ultimately, flow.
They’re ok with saying no. The producers don’t feel the need to please everyone’s immediate whim and false emergency for their lives, because they know what outputs matter to them and the other 99 things that don’t.
Their time is not ruled or governed by the agendas of everything and everyone around them.
They do not give up mental real estate to the every blaring distraction or shiny object that rolls their way. They design distraction out of their life.
The 1% leading the future amidst the chaos are masters of their fate because they own their time.
They don’t ask, “do I have enough time?”
They simply ask, “what is required of me here in order to manifest this vision?”
No more will the shiny objects, false emergencies, and noises dictate your life’s direction.
Master These Skills to Thrive in Phase Three
We’re going to go deep on each of these skills in the upcoming weeks, but this is your roadmap to outperforming your competition and surpassing the demands of phase three.
1/ Master Your Attention
Stop chronically multitasking. start there, feel better. master the art of single tasking. every time your butt hits the chair, your brain asks the question: “what is my intention here? what is the one thing that matters right now?” then set a timer, and do nothing but that one thing until the timer is up.
Take small breaks. Even 2 minutes to transition between one task and the next to focus on your breathing can give you enough time to clear the cognitive load and recalibrate your mind efficiently to what matters next, instead of carrying that attention residue into your next task.
2/ Master Flow State Triggers
Concentration. The most boring, lost art of all time.
Eliminate all external interference if you want to accomplish anything meaningful.
Design a conducive environment for focus: this typically involves clearing anything from your visual field that can make a pull on your attention.
3/ Master Goal Setting
The #1 mistake with goal setting is most people set goals they know they can achieve, and their subconscious mind knows it. Struggle is required for progress, and according to the neuroscience, your objective should feel around 15% outside your current capability. This is the range that provides enough challenge to stimulate full engagement, without completely overwhelming you and making the process entirely miserable. There’s a certain “Goldilocks Zone” where you’re challenged just enough to stay alert, but capable enough to enjoy the process and experience the mastery.
4/ Master Your Output
Cultivate a lifestyle of depth. It’s begins with embracing boredom instead of constant stimulation. It’s not fancy. It simply works.
Create time for solitude every day.
Design blocks of time for the top one to two things that must happen that day in order to move the needle forward. Ideally, these are the first things you’re doing in the day.
5/ Master Vision
Nothing matters if you can’t stack consistent output across the major (high leverage) moves that matter to achieve your goals in your industry. Identify key milestones, whether launching a business, writing a book, or starting a family. Seek out mentors or role models who have achieved what you aspire to. Study their path closely, noting the critical distinctions and actions that led to their success. Implement these high-impact strategies in your plan, adapting them to fit your unique context and strengths. The aim is to emulate proven methods, tailoring them to accelerate your progress efficiently.
6/ Master Key Skills
Meta Learning: There are two levels to this, one is developing your core meta skills, and the other is identifying key skills required to dominate your industry. Underlying both is applying research-backed techniques to accelerate your growth across both meta skills and key skills to purely out-learn everyone else in your field. This will be an exciting letter.
Find your key skills. Where do you want to be in 10 years? What do you want to create? What do you want to build? Find the key skills required, and map out a learning curriculum. Invest early. If it truly matters to you, invest earlier. The ones who adapt to new demands first are the ones who invest in their next level early on in the game. Start now.
7/ Master Mental Toughness
Do something you specifically don’t want to do every day. It will dramatically increase your discipline and willpower. The Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex (aMCC) is a core system in exerting willpower, particularly when engaging in undesirable tasks. The aMCC becomes activated when you partake in behaviors that you would rather avoid. Build it.
8/ Master the Energy Factor
Drink half your bodyweight in ounces of water.
Eat your bodyweight in protein.
Get 5-10 minutes sunlight within 30-60 minutes of waking.
Get sufficient amounts of “dark” in the evening by turning off overhead lights, dimming lights, and turning off devices.
Take a 20-30 minute break 8 hours after waking, when your body is at its circadian energy dip for the day. This is a great opportunity to insert a NSDR routine, meditation, or silent walk into your day (go without your phone).
Take 2-5 minute breaks every 50 minutes at work, without a device or distraction (just breathing, meditating, walking, stretching, getting water, etc.). Your brain will thank you.
9/ Master Real Connection
Your weekly ritual should include uninterrupted time with your significant other, friends, or a community you’re a part of. I feel like I shouldn’t have to say this, but more and more people are neglecting this with the rise of our remote world. It’s more important than ever to A) develop real ties to real humans and B) learn how to connect with real humans so you can make your impact in the world.
10/ Master Your Time
Amid all this runs one simple truth: If it’s not in your calendar, it’s a dead dream. Without learning how to weaponize your hours, days, weeks, and months, you cannot get anywhere. Without systems that set your days and weeks up for precise progress, you will forever be stuck in the crowd of victims to time. Consistent progress requires systems that set your life up for focus, flow state, peak output.
The rulers optimize their time for prolific quality output, achieved by deep, concentrated, continuous effort. They stack their time toward activities and tasks that move the needle in their business and life, with systems and routines aligned with their vision for the future.
Think about it: How many people at the top 1% of their field got there by randomness?
The 1% arrived at the top because they stopped letting the world dictate their direction in life.
You own the first 2-3 hours of your day, minimum. Schedule them toward the outputs that matter most.
Mastering your future begins with mastering your time.
This discipline gives you the freedom to architect, master, and own your life.
We all say we want a better future, but few do the work to learn the skills, capture the time, and wield it to build something that actually matters.
We’re building a different future because we’re simply tired of losing days to the noise.
Reality will always be uncertain, messy, difficult, and painful.
We just choose to cut through the noise and take control.
And it starts with our time.