Energizer Bunny - Review: Extreme Productivity by Robert C. Pozen

Review: Extreme Productivity by Robert C. Pozen


My dad jokes that his father was an energizer bunny - always doing something. My dad's jokes are not unfounded; I swear my grandpa didn't sleep - he would just occasionally settle down for an afternoon whirr in front of the history channel. 

Honestly, I aspire to be like my grandpa - I love being busy. I love having a number of things on my plate at any given moment. I feel like the busier I am, the better I am at getting it all done, but when I have one project languishing on my plate, I just stare at it and push it around unappetizingly with my fork. To use a term coined by my friend Elle, I like to "GSD" - Get Shit Done.

As such, I am extremely drawn to read books or blog posts about how to be more productive, how to be more organized, and how to be a better leader and delegate. Basically, anything that tells me how to get more shit done.

I recently read Robert C. Pozen's book "Extreme Productivity" and have found it enlightening yet confirmatory. Enlightening because Pozen touches on a few things that I had not yet thought of to incorporate into my GSD strategies, but also confirmatory because...well damn, I already do most of what he talks about. 

To give some context about why Robert C. Pozen seems to know what he is talking about and why anyone should take his advice, the dust jacket says it all:

"Robert C. Pozen taught a full course load at Harvard Business School while serving as a full-time chairman of a global financial-services firm. He's written six books and hundreds of articles, raised a family with his wife of more than four decades, and served on many boards of local charities and public companies." (emphasis mine)

Pozen is a guy that Gets Shit Done.

So what are (some of) his secrets? (I'm not going to share them all with you because I think you should read his book)

Secret #1: Make sure your daily to-do list is aligned with achieving your highest priority objectives and career goals.

Secret #2: Figure out what the final product needs to be first - and then work towards it. 

Secret #3: B+ work is good enough for low priority tasks. This way you have more time to focus on high priority tasks.

Secret #4: Only Handle it Once. When you receive it and read it, deal with it and move on. Don't postpone it, or you'll have to read it again.

Secret #5: Make sure your daily schedule allows you time to think and work on those high-priority objectives. If you don't schedule it, it won't happen.

Secret #6: Avoid meetings whenever possible.

Secret #7: When you are running a meeting, provide presentation materials 2 days ahead of time for attendees to review. Spend 10 minutes presenting a general synopsis of the materials and then launch into discussion.

Secret #8: Allow employees to "own their own space". "After setting clear goals for a project, give your employees broad discretion to decide how best to achieve these goals - and then get out of their way".

Secret #9: Manage your boss by matching your mode of communication with your boss' mode of communication.

Secret #10: Stick to your personal Code of Ethics. "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it" (Warren Buffet).

Aside from these secrets, Pozen has many, many other pieces of advice - like how to read and write more effectively. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes to GSD.

-Heather