The Secrets of Being Productive in Live and Business
By Charles Duhigg
2016
Random House
ISBN:978-0812993394
Digital Galley from NetGalley.com
Release Date: March 8, 2016
I really enjoyed Duhigg's earlier book, The Power of Habit, which was well-researched, accessible, and entertaining. So when I saw this one come up as an available option on NetGalley, requesting a copy was a bit of a no-brainer. I was actually pretty excited when I got approved, since I figured it would be a pretty popular choice.
In Smarter Faster Better Duhigg turns his attention to the science of productivity, and tips for thinking processes and ideas that can take your work to the next level. He cites Atul Gwande in the Introduction as a model for prolific producitivity, and with that had me sucked in from the beginning.
This is a very readable book, and very clearly intended for a general audience. Even when Duhigg is talking about the science that backs up his assertions, he does so without feeling the need to go into too much detail about methods, so if you're seeking that level of detail, look elsewhere. That being said, I found this an enjoyable, quick read, and felt that it brought home some ideas in ways that were accessible.
One of the most powerful ideas for me was introduced in the last chapter. Interestingly, Duhigg uses as an example the impressive turn-around of South Avondale Elementary School, which is less than 2 miles away from where I sit as I write this, and is the school that a child living in my house would attend. The core idea is one similar to something that I have been advocating with my tutoring students for a number of years: information is only internalized if one manipulates and uses it right away. Duhigg calls this process, that of taking information and forcing effort-full engagement, "disfluency." And points out that sometimes it requires the counterintuitive step of taking information from the representation that is most comfortable and clear, and translating it into another form. Interestingly enough, reading this chapter helped me see how the tactic that I use often (and I think well) when studying myself, and in helping other students study and designing board-prep plans, could be applied more broadly to other areas of my thinking, especially in terms of manipulating information as I read. (Of course, this very activity, the act of sitting down and writing deliberately about a book is a form of disfluency, forcing me to think more deeply about what I have just read than I might have otherwise. It is a form of disfluency that I know is effective, since I certainly remember the books that I write about better than those that I don't, and I am better able to talk about books that I have read lately if I am blogging regularly.)
In the spirit of disflunecy: Here's a summary of the core ideas in the other chapters.
1.Motivation - Marines are badass. Creating a sense of control will both help you to maintain motivation and help to create a "bias towards action" (which is a phrase I have personally been repeating in my mind when I've been tempted to procrastinate over the last few days.) It helps to have big picture reasons for the things that you are doing, and the reflect on those when things are challenging.
2. Teams - Google is cool. The most important characteristics of teams are culture-based, and a sense of ownership and a feeling of openness to risk and flexibility, which come together in something called "psychological safety" is essential.
3. Focus - Airplanes are scary. Focus is good, creating stories that you tell yourself about what you expect can help you anticipate situations and identify problems more readily, too much focus or getting trapped in a single cognitive structure can be (very) dangerous.
4. Goal Setting - Israel should have seen the Yom Kippur War coming. SMART goals are good, but can keep you trapped in small picture ideas, the best structure combines SMART goals with large ambitious ones that force transformative thinking.
5. Managing Others - There used to be a very uncomforting amount of debauchery going on in auto plants. Somewhat similar to teams, give people flexibility and autonomy, recognize that each person is an expert in their own area is essential.
6. Decision Making - Annie Duke is good at poker. Probability is hard to understand, but not so hard that you can't help your brain get good at it, and probably worth it, but even if you do that, your accuracy will depend on your base assumptions.
7. Innovation - Frozen almost sucked. Claiming things and making them personal is important. The highest impact creativity most often comes from novel combinations and pulling together ideas from different fields. Some stress is necessary.
8. Absorbing data - See above. There are good stories coming out of the Cincinnati Public School System, so my taxes aren't entirely wasted, even though they gave me a parking ticket today.
Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot, and I think that some of the ideas, if I can make them cognitive habits, will be a help. It's a quick and simple read, so you can probably get as much benefit as you are going to from an audiobook or a quick tour of a library copy, but if you're glad that you bought The Power of Habit (I gave my copy away) then by all means, buy this too.
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