Top 10 Neil Strauss Productivity Secrets for Insane Success

How to get the most out of your time, and how to use it?

5 min readApr 21, 2020

“Believe me, it takes a great man and one who has risen far above human weaknesses not to allow any of his time to be filched from him, and it follows that the life of such a man is very long because he has devoted wholly to himself whatever time he has had… Everyone hurries his life on and suffers from a yearning for the future and a weariness of the present. But he who bestows all of his time on his own needs, who plans out every day as if it were his last, neither longs for nor fears the morrow.”- Seneca (On the shortness of life)

Tip #1: Know What Your Time is Worth

Your hourly time worth = (Earnings for the year / 1760 ) x 3

If you planning to go to a meeting or dinner that you don’t want to go, know how much it actually costs your time

Tip #2: Don’t be Reactive with Your Time

Most of us are reactive to phone calls, texts, emails, and status updates, we reply to them the second we get them. Instead, we should be in control, and train people to respect our time.

Tell people, “ I take texts and emails only between these hours every day. You should expect no response from me outside this time period.”

Tip #3: Train People to Respect Your Time

Arrange all meetings, phone calls, and interviews on Monday. Then you’ll have the rest of the week to do Deep Work
Hard Outs vs Soft Outs. If you’re going to a meeting, date, dinner, you don’t want to spend your whole day doing it. A soft out is “I can’t stay long, I have to get up early tomorrow.” A hard out is “ I have another call at 9:20 (be specific with the time).”

Tip #4: Host Weekly Dinner Parties

We only have 7 days a week, but we have so many friends that we want to catch up with. Instead of spending every dinner with a friend, bring them all together by holding weekly dinner parties. Invite 6–10 of your friends that you want to keep a connection with to a 2.5-hour weekly dinner. Find a restaurant with big tables, and set menus. If you really like a more personal meetup with them after dinner.

Tip #5: Don’t Do Lunch Meetings

Don’t do work lunch, it’ll waste your entire day. Instead, do phone calls, ask them to come over, or invite them to the dinner party.

Tip #6: Automate Your Maintenance Tasks

Change your maintenance tasks into rituals, so you spend less time thinking about them.

An example is to fix your menu- Every meal from Monday to Friday, fix what you would eat. And have restaurants deliver directly to your door. If you need to have a meeting with people at a restaurant, go to the same restaurants and order the same food.

Tip #7: Create a Schedule & Stick to It

Every night, write down what you need to do the next day
Make a weekly schedule. Be specific to what you do every hour of the day. It’s important to make a schedule so you know when you’re on or off it
Never check your email in the morning
Have an unplugged time each day for deep work. You can give your phone to someone until the plug-in time
Have autoresponders on email and text to avoid being reactive. And you respond to them all at once later on. You will not lose friends, and they will just respect your schedule

Tip #8: Make Lists

Write down what you have to do, as soon as you have to do it. Categorize them into 3 lists:

‘A’ Tasks: Do right away
‘B’ Tasks: Do this week
‘C’ Tasks: Do sometime later

Do the toughest things on your list first, otherwise, you’ll just react to small and unimportant stuff

Tip #9: Link What You Do with Your Time to Your Life-Term Goals

Ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing right now bringing me closer to my goals?”

The Internet is just a distraction and an excuse for procrastination. Be specific to how you use it.

Tip #10: You Don’t Need to Take Care of Everything Yourself

Outsource or hire other people who can do 80% as well as you, to take care of some tasks.

Do the math: If I give my assistant ___ amount of salary, I can free up that time to make an extra ______ amount of money.

Tip #11: Use “Net Nanny”, “Freedom” or “Stayfocused” to Curb Unnecessary Internet Use

You can set the time period where you have no access to the internet.

Tip #12: Narrow Your Avenues Of Communication

Narrow down to 1 communication platform, it can be just email, text or phone.
Create different email addresses and/or phone numbers for people based on their connection with you. Remember: As long as everyone’s taken care of, they don’t need to be taken care of by you. Neil has 3 emails: 1) For readers, handled by an assistant and only look for business opportunities. 2) For everyone, also handled by an assistant, but he’ll check once a week. 3) Personal email for family, closest friends, and working partner, only handled by himself.

Tip #14: Do Something Physical and Active Every Day

Tip #15: Keep A Log for 3 Days and Analyse How You Spend Your Time

Other Tips

Listen or learn while driving
“My-speed” by Enounce allows you to watch movies at 2x with proper audio pitch adjustments
Turn off pushed-notifications on your phone
Give your social media account’s password to a friend. And use it for a limited time.
Shop online for everything. Including farmers market’s vegetables dropped off at your front door.
Ipad for social and email, and laptop for long-form tasks. Ipad organizes email chains more effectively than Outlook.
Require an agenda for all meetings, and email to all the participants beforehand. Announce how long the meeting would take (usually less than 30 mins), and what needs to be covered, then blow through it. Don’t wait for people if they’re late. Be clear which part of the meeting you really need to be involved in.
If you need private time, tell people you need ___ amount of time for meditation.
Read book summaries in the comment section on Amazon first, before you consider buying the book
Discuss with your spouse on how to spend less time on special dates or festivals. e.g. Limit the options for birthday presents (like Book, CD, or a small present), Buy a smaller tree for X’ mas to limit the decorating time
Know what causes you stress, and find a way to relieve it.

The goal of time management is not to fit more work in, but to fit more enjoyment of life in. Time should slow down for you, and speeds up for others.

Comment below with your favorite time management tip. And give a clap if you’ve enjoyed it.

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Cheers,

Jason Kwan