My Most Productive Week Ever, and How You Can Replicate This

How do you define your productivity?

Is it about getting a lot of things done?

Like my week below?

Teamweek screenshot of one of my recent work week

If you count the number of tasks I’ve accomplished, clearly that was a productive week, right? On some days, I’ve done more than 20 tasks.

I was able to accomplish all that because I’ve been in True Momentum for almost a month now.

23 Key Principles For Building True Momentum And Becoming Unstoppable

Well, the truth is, I had a way more productive week this week:

That doesn’t sound as productive now, does it?

Here’s the thing: 20% of my time this week was spent on my productive activities, and the remaining 80% of my time was spent on my own self-improvement and reflection.

I call this The Self-Development Week.

The Self-Improvement Week

Why Do You Say This Was Your Most Productive Week Ever?

The simple answer: Clarity. A sense of direction. A sense of purpose.

In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill asks: “What is your CHIEF AIM?”.

Here it is, rephrased in a simple question:

Why do you do what you do?

I didn’t have a proper answer to that question. I’m willing to bet you don’t either. And don’t lie to yourself!

Why are you doing your 9–5 job?
Why are you working on your own startup/for yourself?
What do you hope to gain, or give back by doing what you’re doing?

I went through a few iterations myself this week. Amongst the things I’ve realized is this:

It’s not about me

I realized that in the short term, things revolved around “learning” for me. In the long-term, it’s all about helping others.

In 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey, calls this interdependence:

If I am physically interdependent, I am self-reliant and capable, but I also realize that you and I working together can accomplish far more than, even at my best, I could accomplish alone.

If I am emotionally interdependent, I derive a great sense of worth within myself, but I also recognize the need for love, for giving and for receiving love from others.

If I am intellectually interdependent, I realize that I need the best thinking of other people to join with my own.

Photo Credit: 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People

My Chief Aim

By reading and understanding Think and Grow Rich and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I came to the following chief aim for myself:

Help people thrive in the 21st century

That is my sense of direction. That is the clarity I’ve been looking for.

After having traveled the globe and volunteered many times abroad, I understood that life is about giving back.

And growing up, I’ve always challenged the thought that you need to focus on only one area to be successful.

I consider myself a polymath, especially since I decided to learn 3 new skills a month 7–8 months ago now.

As Michael Simmons said:

[…] nearly everyone should become a polymath in a modern knowledge economy.

And Robert Greene:

“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.”

See how they use the same ideas:

polymath = those who learn more skills, future = a modern knowledge economy

The 21st century is ripe with technological advances that will make a lot of jobs and skills irrelevant.

I want to be part of the solution for not only making people “succeed” in such a knowledge economy, but most importantly, thrive.

I agree with Michael Simmons and Robert Greene about learning more skills to stay relevant and thrive. And that will be one aspect of me helping people thrive in the 21st century.

My Current Situation Vs My Chief Aim

I write on Medium, Thrive Global, Thought Catalog, and more. I also write books. I write both non-fiction and fiction. I build video games. I build software. I sell Viking clothing and accessories. I take semi-professional photos.

Now how does that all relate?

It certainly doesn’t seem to relate at all at first glance.

And part of this is what prompted me to do a self-improvement week this week.

How can I make this all fit together? How can I make all those things work toward my chief aim?

I’ve been wasting so much time grinding at these projects, with no real purpose behind them.

That was incredibly UN-productive.

All those tasks done in the screenshot from above? Useless without clarity. Without a chief aim.

There’s nothing more productive than aligning what you’re doing with your chief aim.

It bears repeating, being aware of your chief aim and working towards it with everything that you do is of utmost importance for your productivity!

Remember: productivity is not about getting things done, it’s about getting the right things done.

So how do all my productive activities all come together?

The first step for me was to break everything down to the skills level.

What does each of these projects bring me in terms of knowledge? Here’s what I came up with:

Things I learned, am learning, or will be learning by doing all my projects.

Hopefully this screenshot shows you the power of being a polymath.

Remember that quote from Robert Greene:

“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.”

Imagine now that the list above applies to you.

How would you combine them in creative ways to achieve my chief aim: Help people thrive in the 21st century.

I hope you can find a few solutions.

I certainly did find my solution.

If you’re interested in knowing about it, feel free to sign up for my newsletter at dannyforest.com, I’ll announce it at the end of next month.

But you see my point, right?

What have you learned, are learning, or will you learn to accomplish your chief aim?

Once you’ve answered that, you’ll have the map to your territory.

Go through that exercise.

Be aware of your the things you know, the things you want to know. Write them down.

Mix and match in creative ways. Write the things you come up with.

Feel the power of that exercise!

But it’s important to remember to think about the interdependent concept above, repeated here:

I also realize that you and I working together can accomplish far more than, even at my best, I could accomplish alone.

Don’t forget that when you plan your strategy for achieving your chief aim!

Conclusion

In this article, I’ve shown you how, by taking the time to reflect on yourself and your self-improvement, you are actually more productive than if you would keep grinding day-to-day.

I’ve shown you that being a polymath will help you in achieving any chief aim you set yourself.

I’ve also shown you one of the strategies I’ve used to figure out how to achieve your chief aim.

But this is only the beginning.

I want to help you further.

In a future article, I’ll write about EXACTLY what I’ve done during my self-improvement week. I’ve only shown you 1 of the 23 pages I’ve written. And it’s not even the most powerful one!

I’ll explain, in details, which strategy I’ve used to make the most out of my most productive week ever.

If you liked this article, you won’t want to miss the other one.

Let me help you be on the right path for yourself. I do not know all the answers — and never will — by I trust in the learnings I’ve made during that week.

Follow me here, and sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know about my solution to help people thrive in the 21st century, but most importantly about learning how you can set yourself up for the most productive week of your life!

You can do this!

Thanks for reading! :)