The Productivity Project

Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy

By: Chris Bailey

Narrated by: Chris Bailey

A fresh, personal, and entertaining exploration of a topic that concerns all of us: how to be more productive at work and in every facet of our lives.

Chris Bailey turned down lucrative job offers to pursue a lifelong dream—to spend a year performing a deep dive experiment into the pursuit of productivity, a subject he had been enamored with since he was a teenager. After obtaining his business degree, he created a blog to chronicle a year-long series of productivity experiments he conducted on himself, where he also continued his research and interviews with some of the world’s foremost experts, from Charles Duhigg to David Allen. Among the experiments that he tackled: Bailey went several weeks with getting by on little to no sleep; he cut out caffeine and sugar; he lived in total isolation for 10 days; he used his smartphone for just an hour a day for three months; he gained ten pounds of muscle mass; he stretched his work week to 90 hours; a late riser, he got up at 5:30 every morning for three months—all the while monitoring the impact of his experiments on the quality and quantity of his work.

The Productivity Project—and the lessons Chris learned—are the result of that year-long journey. Among the counterintuitive insights Chris Bailey will teach you:
· slowing down to work more deliberately;
· shrinking or eliminating the unimportant;
· the rule of three;
· striving for imperfection;
· scheduling less time for important tasks;
· the 20 second rule to distract yourself from the inevitable distractions;
· and the concept of productive procrastination.
In an eye-opening and thoroughly engaging read, Bailey offers a treasure trove of insights and over 25 best practices that will help you accomplish more.

Critic reviews

"Chris Bailey has tackled the daunting task of personally experimenting with any and every technique you can imagine that could positively affect your productivity. His dedication to the project and his intelligent conclusions, combined with his candor and articulateness, make this a fun, interesting, and useful read!"
— David Allen, author of Getting Things Done

"Chris Bailey might be the most productive man you’d ever hope to meet."
— TED Blog

"Here's a book that promises, in the title, to pay for itself. And, the truth is, it will, in just a few days. And you'll even enjoy the journey."
— Seth Godin, Author of Linchpin

"Chris has written the ultimate guidebook for setting your life on fire. Read it, and you’ll not only get more done, you’ll feel better about it too."
— Laura Vanderkam, author of I Know How She Does It

"So often we get stuck just doing what we have always done, even if it's not really working. This book helps you cut through all the productivity advice out there to find and test what really works for you."
— Shawn Achor, positive psychology researcher and New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage

"The Productivity Project is well-written, fun, practical and useful all at the same time. I loved this book. It's practical Buddhism at its best!"
— Marshall Goldsmith, bestselling author of Triggers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

"Chris doesn't just want you to be more productive. He wants you to live a better life. This book is a two-hour ticket to not only becoming more productive, but becoming genuinely happier."
—Neil Pasricha, author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation

Interesting, but kind of douchey

While the main premise is well developed and very interesting, the author's persona feels douchey in his narration, particularly in the thousand times when he refers to his girlfriend and tries to make bro jokes involving Mila Kunis. I might not be the target audience for this kind of author (woman, 30 y.o.).

If you ignore this, the content is well explored and useful, and might even help you with being more productive in your life.

Sometimes you get more than you expect.

If you could sum up The Productivity Project in three words, what would they be?

Wise, witty, useful.

What did you like best about this story?

Mr. Bailey's writing and delivery made what could have been a very tedious subject a delightful experience.

Which scene was your favorite?

Probably Mr. Bailey's failed experience with food.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did.

Any additional comments?

I will definitely look for more from Mr. Bailey.

A great book, with a lot of good points

The book is good and very informative, with challenges to help you apply what is discussed. I haven't implemented a lot of them yet because I wanted to read through the book once over and then listen again with the aim to complete the challenges. I plan to buy the paper back so that I have a written form of the information presented, but the audio is still great! I will post an update in a few months when I've had time to implement the methods presented in the book

productivity hacks! - perfectly laid out

unbelievable this first time author was able to put together such an awesome book on productivity

I will definitely share this book with my kids when they are older - it WILL make their lives better!

Chris Bailey is a great writer and story teller. He makes the content interesting and easy to digest.

If Chris were a subscription, I would subscribe to him. I look forward to his other book Hyper Focus.

Full of doubt, but not anymore.

This was the best book I've read on Productivity.

I would recommend this to anyone that wants more out of anything. Albeit personal or professional this has been instrumental in my success.