Productivity, procrastination, and your life's work

Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.

1: Marc Andreessen on Productivity

Marc Andreessen wrote a guide on being more productive.

Here are a few big ideas:

1. Don’t Keep A Schedule — Liberating yourself from a fixed schedule allows you to work on what’s most important or interesting at any time.

2. Keep Three Lists — Maintain a To-Do List for essential tasks, a Watch List for items to follow up on, and a Later List for everything else.

3. Structured Procrastination — Procrastination is an opportunity to tackle other lower-priority tasks. Something is better than nothing.

4. Manage Email Intelligently — Limit checking your email twice a day. Organize emails into folders. Prioritize emails in the “Action” folder.

5. Full Body Commitment — Only agree to new commitments when both your head, heart, and gut say yes.

Source: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity

2: Mike Krieger on Prioritization

“We used this phrase religiously at Instagram, ‘Do the simple thing first.’

We applied it to both the business and technology sides. You don’t have to invent everything. Choose great open-source solutions and learn from others. The world isn’t better served by reinventing the same technology.

You’ll win by differentiating on the data you collect or provide and the service you build with those technologies.”

Source: How to Build A Great Product

3: Patrick O'Shaughnessy on Life’s Work

As founders, our ultimate goal is to build something that both fulfills us and benefits others. Patrick O’Shaughnessy nailed the definition of Life’s Work:

• “A LIFELONG QUEST” reflects the reality that work isn’t about a series of accomplishments, which ultimately ring hollow. Asimov wrote “Past glories are poor feeding”

• “TO BUILD SOMETHING FOR OTHERS” is a reminder that work is about service— making others’ lives better. The poet David Whyte wrote, “The authentic watermark running through the background of a life’s work is an arrival at generosity.”

• “THAT EXPRESSES WHO YOU ARE” reminds us that it’s not sustainable to be something you aren’t. The best work comes from people expressing themselves in a way that embraces what makes them different.

Patrick offers 4 questions to triangulate your life’s work:

1. Where do you feel great resistance or fear?

2. What do you do that looks hard to others but feels easy to you?

3. What would you keep doing no matter how much money you had?

4. What’s the weirdest thing you spend a lot of time on? Or, what’s a passion you’d be embarrassed to admit publicly?

Source: My Definition of Life’s Work by Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Best of The Week

See you next Monday,

- Jay + The Z Fellows Team

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