Chris Bailey | |
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| Born | 1989 (age 33–34) Red Deer, Alberta, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Alma mater | Carleton University |
| Occupation(s) | Author, consultant |
| Years active | 2013–present |
| Website | alifeofproductivity.com |
Chris Bailey (born 1989) [1] is a Canadian writer and productivity consultant, and the author of The Productivity Project (2016), Hyperfocus (2018) and How to Calm Your Mind (2022).
Bailey was born in Red Deer, Alberta, and raised in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. [2] He first became interested in productivity in high school, after reading David Allen's 2001 book Getting Things Done . [3] He moved to Ottawa, Ontario, to attend Carleton University, graduating from the Sprott School of Business in 2013. [2] [4] Bailey lives in Kingston, Ontario, with his wife, Ardyn Nordstrom. [5]
After college, Chris Bailey took a one-year sabbatical to research and conduct experiments in productivity on himself, documenting his experiences on his blog, A Year of Productivity (later renamed A Life of Productivity). [6] He began the year-long project in May 2013, testing new and old productivity theories through experiments including living in seclusion for 10 days; limiting his smartphone use to an hour a day for 3 months; getting up at 5:30 am each morning; and experimenting with varying-length workweeks, between 20 hours and 90 hours, to find the optimal workweek length. He watched 296 TED talks (roughly 70 hours) in 7 days, and then compiled lists on his blog of 100 things he learned, the 7 characteristics of highly effective TED speakers, and 10 TED talks one can watch in order to be more productive. [3] [4] [7] [8] [9]
Insights and strategies learned from these experiments, as well as from interviews with other experts in the field, were compiled into his 2016 book The Productivity Project, [1] [10] a Canadian nonfiction bestseller [11] and the top-selling nonfiction audio book on Audible.com for the week ending July 15, 2016. [12] The Globe and Mail named The Productivity Project one of the 10 best management and business books of 2016, [13] and Fortune magazine named it one of three best business books of the year. [14] The Mandarin Chinese translation was a bestselling Business Finance book in Taiwan. [15]
The book's main principles involve learning to manage one's time, energy and attention. [1] [16] Among other productivity tactics, Bailey discusses the benefits of finding one's Biological Prime Time (the unique time of day when a person has their highest energy level) and dedicating that time to performing important tasks, [1] [17] through the creation of a daily to-do list limited to the three most important things that need to be accomplished that day. [6] [18] In addition to a "to-do" list, Bailey recommends keeping a "done" list of one's largest accomplishments, adding to it each week and reviewing it every Sunday to gain inspiration for the week ahead. [19] He also advises sitting alone in a room for 15 minutes, allowing the brain to wander, and taking notes with a pen and paper, a concept adapted from cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Levitin. [20]
Bailey has also advised that to be more efficient while watching television, one could simultaneously perform mindless everyday chores around the house, such as doing laundry, working out, or doing the dishes. [21] He suggests delaying coffee consumption until before embarking on an important task in order to fully utilize the resulting energy boost, rather than drinking coffee automatically at the same time each day. [22] He has stated that in the workplace, employers should focus on employees' accomplishments instead of how late they stay at work, to emphasize quality over quantity. [23] Regarding work emails, Bailey advises to keep them brief (three sentences or less), to send them early in the work day, and to wait to reply to gain more insight and give yourself time to put together a succinct and effective message. [24]
At TEDxLiverpool in 2016, he delivered the talk "A More Human Approach to Productivity", encouraging people to set three intentions each day, and focus on achieving those goals. [25]
Bailey's second book, Hyperfocus, was published by Viking Press on August 28, 2018. [26] For the book, he conducted a yearlong research experiment to determine how people can be as productive as possible each day, in a world filled with nonstop technology distractions. [27] The book offers advice on maintaining and controlling focus, determining priorities, and minimizing interruptions in order to increase productivity. It is split into two sections: the first on hyperfocus, or being productive by devoting all your attention to completing a task; and the second on scatterfocus, where you allow your mind to wander, which supports creativity and can help to recharge. [28] [29] [30] Bailey writes that you can increase focus and improve attention span by reducing your time with online access, letting your attention wander, and focusing on building a quality attention span. [31] He recommends methods such as keeping emails brief (five sentences or less; if a response requires more, he makes a phone call), responding to emails in batches, and turning off email notifications. [32] He recommends meditating daily to increase productivity, and setting intentions daily, weekly, and yearly. [33]
Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities - especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves of various demands upon a person relating to work, social life, family, hobbies, personal interests, and commitments with the finite nature of time. Using time effectively gives the person "choice" on spending or managing activities at their own time and expediency. Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects, and goals complying with a due date. Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually, the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Time management is usually a necessity in any project management as it determines the project completion time and scope.
Focused improvement in the theory of constraints is an ensemble of activities aimed at elevating the performance of any system, especially a business system, with respect to its goal by eliminating its constraints one by one and by not working on non-constraints.
Information overload is the difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information (TMI) about that issue, and is generally associated with the excessive quantity of daily information. The term "information overload" was first used as early as 1962 by scholars in management and information studies, including in Bertram Gross' 1964 book, The Managing of Organizations, and was further popularized by Alvin Toffler in his bestselling 1970 book Future Shock. Speier et al. (1999) said that if input exceeds the processing capacity, information overload occurs, which is likely to reduce the quality of the decisions.
Distraction is the process of diverting the attention of an individual or group from a desired area of focus and thereby blocking or diminishing the reception of desired information. Distraction is caused by: the lack of ability to pay attention; lack of interest in the object of attention; or the great intensity, novelty or attractiveness of something other than the object of attention. Distractions come from both external sources, and internal sources. External distractions include factors such as visual triggers, social interactions, music, text messages, and phone calls. There are also internal distractions such as hunger, fatigue, illness, worrying, and daydreaming. Both external and internal distractions contribute to the interference of focus.
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a personal productivity system developed by David Allen and published in a book of the same name. GTD is described as a time management system. Allen states "there is an inverse relationship between things on your mind and those things getting done".
Hyperfocus is an intense form of mental concentration or visualization that focuses consciousness on a subject, topic, or task. In some individuals, various subjects or topics may also include daydreams, concepts, fiction, the imagination, and other objects of the mind. Hyperfocus on a certain subject can cause side-tracking away from assigned or important tasks.
Robert Charles Pozen, known as "Bob", is an American financial executive with a strong interest in public policy. He is the former chairman of MFS Investment Management, the oldest mutual fund company in the United States. Previously, Pozen was the President of Fidelity Investments.
In information technology, a notification system is a combination of software and hardware that provides a means of delivering a message to a set of recipients. It commonly shows activity related to an account. Such systems constitute an important aspect of modern Web applications.
Attention management refers to models and tools for supporting the management of attention at the individual or at the collective level, and at the short-term or at a longer term.
Edward McKey Hallowell is an American psychiatrist, speaker, New York Times best-selling author and podcast host. He specializes in ADHD and is the founder of the Hallowell ADHD Centers. Hallowell is the author of 20 books, including the Distraction series, co-authored with Dr. John Ratey.
Merlin Dean Mann III is an American writer, blogger, and podcaster.
Dave Crenshaw is an American author, public speaker, small business and time management expert. His books The Myth of Multitasking: How "Doing It All" Gets Nothing Done and Invaluable: The Secret to Becoming Irreplaceable have been referenced for teaching by some universities.
IQTELL was a productivity app that allowed users to manage email, tasks, projects, calendars, contacts, Evernotes and more in a single app. IQTELL was available as a web app, as well as an iOS and Android app. All user information was automatically synced between all devices. iOS and Android apps supported offline access. The app could be used to implement concepts and techniques described in the book Getting Things Done by David Allen.
Calvin C. Newport is an American nonfiction author and associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University.
Inbox by Gmail was an email service developed by Google. Announced on a limited invitation-only basis on October 22, 2014, it was officially released to the public on May 28, 2015. Inbox was shut down by Google on April 2, 2019.
Acompli is a discontinued mobile app that allowed for user interaction with email messages as well as management of multiple email accounts in one programme. In addition, the tool also organized one's calendar and shared files. This application provided for integration with cloud storage platforms such as Dropbox, OneDrive, and iCloud; it also carried support for Microsoft Exchange and Gmail. Acompli launched on 24 April 2014. The startup company, which had $7.3 million in funding, was led by CEO Javier Soltero, J.J. Zhuang (CTO) and Kevin Henrikson.
Ron Friedman is a psychologist and behavior change expert who specializes in human motivation. He is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, CNN, Fast Company, and Psychology Today, as well as the author of the best-selling non-fiction book The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace.
A bullet journal is a method of personal organization developed by designer Ryder Carroll. The system organizes scheduling, reminders, to-do lists, brainstorming, and other organizational tasks into a single notebook. The name "bullet journal" comes from the use of abbreviated bullet points to log information, but it also partially comes from the use of dot journals, which are gridded using dots rather than lines. First shared with the public in 2013, it has become a popular organization method, garnering significant attention on Kickstarter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Timeblocking or time blocking is a productivity technique for personal time management where a period of time—typically a day or week—is divided into smaller segments or blocks for specific tasks or to-dos. It integrates the function of a calendar with that of a to-do list. It is a kind of scheduling.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals is a 2021 non-fiction book written by British author Oliver Burkeman.
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