Work Smarter, Not Harder: Sam Altman's Guide to Effective Productivity
Summary of My Recent Reviews on Life and Work #3
I began following Sam during his YC period, initially because of his interview with Elon Musk at the Tesla factory seven years ago, followed by his blog.
Productivity and time management has always been a topic of interest for him, which he has shared about in his blog and interviews. This weekend, as I reflected on my recent life and work time allocation and efficiency improvements, I revisited Sam's articles and my own notes on improving work efficiency. I'd like to share a few points that have been helpful to me on my journey.
The Right Mindset
Compound. It's about having a mindset of continuous iteration and optimization. A small increase in productivity, compounded over 50 years, can yield significant results. So it's worthwhile to seek ways to optimize productivity. If you can accomplish 1% more or improve by just 1% each day compared to someone else, the compounded difference becomes substantial. Charlie Munger has expressed similar ideas.
Utilize tools and be willing to invest for efficiency improvements. The former is well illustrated: once you start incorporating GPT into workflows, you'll find it hard to break away. Regarding the latter, when I realized the value of my time per hour, I became more willing to invest in tools that save me time.
Try to surround yourself with smart, productive, happy, and positive people, and avoid the opposite. You also need to make yourself good enough to attract excellent people around you.
What You Choose Not to Work On
Be ruthless about saying no to stuff, and doing non-critical things in the quickest way possible.
The most impressive people I know have strong beliefs about the world, which is rare in the general population.  If you find yourself always agreeing with whomever you last spoke with, that’s bad. You will of course be wrong sometimes, but develop the confidence to stick with your convictions. It will let you be courageous when you’re right about something important that most people don’t see.
I’ve learned that I can’t be very productive working on things I don’t care about or don’t like.  So I just try not to put myself in a position where I have to do them (by delegating, avoiding, or something else).  Stuff that you don’t like is a painful drag on morale and momentum.
Prioritization
The right goal is to allocate your year optimally, not your day or your next hour.
I make sure to leave enough time in my schedule to think about what to work on. Otherwise, it's just a waste of time.
I create to-do list frequently, and I re-transcribe lists frequently, which forces me to think about everything on the list and gives me an opportunity to add and remove items. When you see unfinished tasks, you shouldn't feel discouraged; instead, you should feel happy.
Keep your calendar as free as possible to allow for chance encounters and exposure to new people and ideas. Having an open network is valuable; though probably 90% of the random meetings I take are a waste of time, the other 10% really make up for it.
I have different times of day I try to use for different kinds of work. The first few hours of the morning are definitely my most productive time of the day, so I don’t let anyone schedule anything then. I try to do meetings in the afternoon. I take a break, or switch tasks, whenever I feel my attention starting to fade. I usually have a session for energy replenishment in the afternoon. The idea is to design your day in a way that optimizes your productivity. There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution; what truly matters is the mindset. Each individual must discover and design their own way.
As always, thanks for your reading and I hope you enjoy it. Stay safe and see you next time.
Thanks Leo for this great article.
About prioritization, I like the rule of 3 from Steve Jobs. The team (or yourself) come up with 10 ideas of what you need to work on. Then rank them by importance and choose only the top 3!