Marc Andreessen’s guide to personal productivity
Don’t keep a schedule
• Refuse to commit to meetings, appointments, or activities at any set time in any future day
• You can always work on whatever is most important or most interesting, at any time
Maintain only three lists:
1. Todo List: must-do commitments
2. Watch List: follow-ups and reminders
3. Later List: future possibilities
• If it doesn’t go on one of those three lists, it goes away
Daily planning system:
• Create a 3x5 card each night with 3–5 key tasks for tomorrow
• Use the back as an “anti-todo list” to record accomplishments
• Each time you do something, you get to write it down and you get that little rush of endorphins
Practice “Structured Procrastination”
• Never fight the tendency to procrastinate—instead, you should use it to your advantage in order to get other things done
• While you’re procrastinating, just do lots of other stuff instead
Deploy “Strategic Incompetence”
• The best way to make sure that you are never asked to do something again is to royally screw it up the first time
Email management:
• The problem with email is that getting an email triggers that same endorphin hit
• Check email only twice daily
• Process to empty inbox each session
• Use only three main folders: Pending, Review, and Vault
Communication:
• Don’t answer the phone; let it go to voicemail
• Use headphones as a barrier to interruption. People feel much worse interrupting you if you are wearing headphones than if you’re not
Decision making:
• Only agree to new commitments when both your head and your heart say yes
• If you’re not doing something you love with the majority of your time, and you have any personal freedom and flexibility whatsoever, it’s time for a change