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1/ What’s really needed in the medium term in the productivity field is a “Google Maps for productivity”
2/ Think about the maps experience: you put in where you want to be, and hundreds of factors are completely abstracted away and distilled into one optimal path, which is then doled out to you one simple instruction at a time
3/ You can see and adjust some of those factors if you want, but the default path is really very good. It frees you to focus on higher order activities: conversation, learning (podcasts/radio/audiobooks), or just thinking
4/ Now imagine if you could do the same with your day: input a statement on what you want to be true by a certain time, and then be shown the best path to get there, with options to add constraints or preferences
5/ For ex: “The team understands the project specs and has a well-documented resource to refer to throughout the project.” Such a statement contains dozens of possible parameters. Wording will be key
6/ The app might factor in your calendar (how many work sessions, how long, at what times of day), your energy levels (based on activity data, diet, self-tracking), your location (access to what level of connectivity, propensity for focus vs interaction, noise and distractions)
7/ There might be options akin to the “transport mode” in GMaps: do you want heavy lifts, short sprints, solo work, group work, pomodoros, on-site, off-site?
8/ There might be options for “path type”: do you want soonest completion (if your kid has a baseball game you want to get to), or least effort (if you’re getting over a cold), or most leveraged (to take calculated risks), or most conservative (to minimize risk)
9/ You might ask it to avoid certain things: long meetings, phone calls, open office spaces, certain people, certain projects, certain parts of the building, scheduling heavy lifts in the afternoon, morning meetings, etc.
10/ You might ask it to seek certain things: high growth departments or projects or products, growth and learning opportunities, coaching and mentorship, deep work sessions, projects most likely to lead to career advancement, etc
11/ You might add “stops,” things you want to to or focus on completely outside the usual algorithm, trusting that it will adapt and make the best use of resources under those constraints
12/ Speaking of constraints, such an app could systematically identify your current bottleneck, based on whichever metric you’re optimizing for: income, freedom, excitement, fulfillment, creativity, career advancement, contribution, effort, free time, etc
13/ This all sounds fanciful but Google Maps does it all, with remarkable consistency and accuracy. And the more ppl use it the more accurate it gets, because it can average out the effects of even unpredictable things like traffic and weather
14/ I think the key sign of success is surprise: getting an optimal path that makes no sense to a human, but has a deeper logic that you learn to trust over time. Even my parents now insist on checking Maps even for local, familiar trips
15/ Imagine inputting “The client project is delivered successfully according to contract” and getting back “Tale this online course immediately” or even better, “Go to the desert this weekend and do ayahuasca”
16/ Creating such an optimal path today requires a LOT of work: basically doing a weekly review, gathering/processing/organizing open loops from email, calendar, pieces of paper, meetings, notes, etc. It takes a precious heavy lift, leaving one less for doing value-added work
17/ Task managers have reached a highly refined state of evolution, but if anything that’s a sign that they’re ready for disruption. It will be very difficult for small companies to add that level of intelligence to their products
18/ This leaves big tech, but their challenge is that they have to serve everyone. At least in the early days this kind of tool will be professional or industry or role-specific, so it’ll be hard for them to justify investing in it
19/ But I think all new productivity tools have to measure themselves against this ideal now. Are you abstracting away detail, distilling core intentions, removing steps between the user and their purpose?
20/ The biggest shift in the last 20 years has been the dissolution of almost all constraints on where, when, how, and why work can be performed. I could literally write a book on my phone right now sitting in the airport. But just because I can, should I?
21/ Constraints never disappear, they only move. I think they’ve moved to the internal world of emotions, beliefs, narratives. But understanding and shaping those things requires a LOT of resources and time, and we’re stuck clearing our inboxes
22/ Effectiveness will increasingly require offloading those low-level tasks to computers, and then reinvesting the surplus mental bandwidth into personal growth and development. Both are equally important. Personal growth is resource intensive
