TED’s guide to everyday life offers a wealth of tips and strategies to boost productivity. Chris Bailey, who runs the website A Year of Productivity, has watched 70 hours of TED Talks in a single week, stating that picking a TED Talk is like picking a song. Bailey might be the most productive person, as he committed to a year-long project in May of this year.
To improve productivity, it is essential to observe oneself and look for key indicators of flow, such as losing your sense of time or feeling overwhelmed. Productivity expert Chris Bailey suggests setting your intentions every morning and identifying your goals.
David Allen, a productivity guru and coach, discusses “Stress-Free Productivity” at TEDxClaremontColleges. He suggests focusing on fewer tasks at the same time and working at a more natural pace, not just full intensity. The Way We Work is an original video series where leaders and thinkers offer practical wisdom and insight into how to adapt and thrive amid changing circumstances.
In summary, these seven TED talks challenge preconceived ideas around productivity, refresh your drive, and inspire you to achieve more. By focusing on observing oneself and focusing on the key indicators of flow, you can improve your productivity and achieve more in your life.
📹 How to Get Your Brain to Focus | Chris Bailey | TEDxManchester
The latest research is clear: the state of our attention determines the state of our lives. So how do we harness our attention to focus …
How can I increase my productivity?
To increase productivity at work, manage your energy, build a better to-do list, tune out distractions, focus on one task at a time, batch tasks, prioritize healthy habits, take breaks, and refine your workspace. These strategies can help you get more done while reducing stress. Often, when you reach the end of your workday and realize that only half of your tasks are completed, it can be frustrating.
Is giving a TED talk prestigious?
TED Talks are a highly prestigious and prestigious event, attracting a diverse network of experts and thought leaders. However, the process of giving a TED Talk can be a mystery, especially for those who are not experts in their field. The author shares their own experience of wanting to give a TED Talk for years, describing the consternation and FOMO they experienced. If someone asked them to give a TED Talk, they might be tempted to fund a business class ticket to Beijing and escape the nagging question of whether they have a TED Talk. The author aims to share their own experience and provide insight into the process of giving a TED Talk, aiming to help others who aspire to do one or are curious about the process.
What is the most successful TED talk in history?
TED is a global platform that offers a platform for sharing ideas, inspiring people, and promoting creativity. The most-watched TED Talk is Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”, which has nearly 75 million views. The top 8 TED Talks videos collectively have hundreds of millions of views, demonstrating the high demand, popularity, and viewer retention for TED Talks. The best TED Talks are not just eloquent speeches or persuasive power, but powerful calls to action.
These insights equip the audience with the tools to implement the ideas they’ve heard, sparking inspiration and real change. The 20 most popular TED Talks are a sample of this eclectic selection, offering a taste of the diverse and inspiring content available on the platform.
How to increase productivity in Ted Talk?
The TED Talks “7 Productivity Boosting TED Talks That’ll Help You Achieve More” by Laura Vanderkam, Shawn Achor, and Christine Carter offer strategies to boost productivity. These talks challenge preconceived ideas about productivity, refresh drive, and inspire individuals to achieve more. The rise of peak distractions, such as social media, 24-hour news, and phone notifications, has made achieving a “flow state” seem impossible.
A website called Focusmate has been created to help individuals avoid procrastination by pairing them up with strangers to act as virtual coworkers. Last year, nearly one million co-working sessions were scheduled through Focusmate.
What is Brené Brown’s most famous Ted talk?
Brené Brown, a TED Talkist and Netflix researcher, hosts the Unlocking Us podcast and has a filmed lecture on Netflix called “The Call to Courage”. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband Steve and two children, Ellen and Charlie. In a special episode of the TED podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant, Brown and Grant discuss the importance of being vulnerable in the workplace without revealing everything.
What are the most powerful TED Talks?
The top 10 TED talks that will change your life include Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Your Elusive Creative Genius”, Amy Cuddy’s “Body Language”, Tom Thum’s “The Orchestra In My Mouth”, Dan Gilbert’s “The Surprising Science of Happiness”, Brene Brown’s “The Power of Vulnerability”, and Malcolm Gladwell’s “Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce”. Damon Gameau, the highest-grossing Australian documentarian, has become the highest-grossing Australian filmmaker.
The idea of revitalizing Sydney is crucial as metropolitan urban development is predicted to change over the next decade. The TEDxSydney Film Finalists explore the concept of being real, whether it’s transparency, truthfulness, or actions following our actions.
What is Brené Brown’s main message?
Brené Brown’s TED Talk emphasizes the importance of embracing vulnerability for deeper connections and authenticity. It suggests that embracing vulnerability can spark creativity and innovation, and that teaching emotional intelligence is crucial for resilience. Brown’s insights highlight the connection between vulnerability and mental health, emphasizing the need to stop hiding from fears and find harmony in work-life balance. This highlights the importance of embracing vulnerability in personal and professional growth.
What is the trick to productivity?
To improve productivity, work in short bursts, such as the Pomodoro technique, which involves 25-minute sessions with 5-minute breaks, to help the human mind concentrate on the same task quickly. Create a dedicated workspace, whether at home or remotely, where you’ll go to work and leave when finished. Additionally, work near natural light, as exposure to sunlight is believed to improve sleep and contribute to overall well-being and productivity levels.
What are the 4 pillars of leadership Brené Brown?
Brené Brown, an author, storyteller, and research professor at the University of Houston, has identified four pillars of courageous leadership: vulnerability, clarity of values, trust, and rising skills. Vulnerability refers to uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure, and leaders who exhibit courageous leadership are willing to be vulnerable, even if it means failing or getting hurt. Contrary to popular opinion, vulnerability is not soft or weak, but it sounds like truth and feels like courage.
Engaging in courageous leadership may face criticism and haters, but it is essential to be selective about who you allow to speak into your life. Brown encourages drawing a one-inch by one-inch box on paper and listing the names of people whose opinions matter to you, emphasizing the importance of being selective about who you allow to speak into your life.
Why is productivity so weak?
Low productivity can be attributed to various factors such as poor time management, unclear goals, inefficient processes, excessive workplace distractions, inadequate skills, low motivation, and high levels of stress or burnout. Examples of low productivity include consistently missing deadlines, subpar work output, frequent distractions, procrastination, frequent errors, and lack of progress. The level of productivity measures the output or work accomplished within a given time frame, evaluating the quantity, quality, and efficiency of completed tasks or projects. High productivity indicates that significant work is being done effectively and efficiently.
📹 The Art of Stress-Free Productivity: David Allen at TEDxClaremontColleges
Productivity guru and coach David Allen talks about “Stress Free Productivity” at TEDxClaremontColleges. About TEDx: In the …
Good for Chris Bailey. I liked his wisdom on how the mind can connect with more inspiring and/or novel ideas when given the room to “wander”. That said, I strongly disagree with his criticism of your phone. Perhaps this is because I have come across numerous articles and “pseudo life hacks” that discourage phone use and that I don’t have an obsessive time-consuming relationship with my mobile phone. But I didn’t have a phone recently for a span of a few days because my previous one died and I hadn’t set up the new one and my confidence, security, and safety plummetted. When I got the new phone I could navigate with the gps and maps, make important support phone calls to family and friends and even medical support, and you are factually more connected with the presence of a phone. I understand how some people are way overstimulated, registering Facebook-like-dopamine-shots constantly, and decreasing the phone presence could be an asset to them (I deleted my Facebook account completely permanently last year). But my main message is a phone doesn’t have to a be a distraction, it can increase your connectivity and even safety and security!
Rough notes: Crisis evokes serenity, because a crisis forces you to be appropriately engaged. This is because a crisis clears all unimportant items from your mind. It clears up your psyche, leaving enough bandwidth for the important items. One requires psychic bandwidth to be appropriately engaged. Increase psychic bandwidth under normal circumstances by capturing your thinking. How to “capture your thinking”? The first step is to write down the all things on your mind that you feel you need to do something about. Next, write down the outcomes you want to see, the actions you will take (if you decide to take action at all) and the resources you will allocate to achieve your outcome. Finally, you need maps. Make maps of all your projects and the actions in them. You also need maps outside your to-do list, maps about your goals in professional life and personal life that cover all the items you need to watch and take care of. Now that you have captured your thinking, you can make good decisions about what you need to do. Use your maps to decide the course you want your life to take. Re-evaluate your maps on a regular basis: adjust to new incoming data and recalibrate your maps. The end. This is the art of stress free productivity.
Another HUGE tip I have to add on to what he was saying (all great advice, by the way): Don’t focus on the end-goal. If you want to achieve something great, you’re most likely not going to do it in a day. So after you have your plan, focus on a single task every day. Day after day, it will get easier. Of course you’ll have your bumps, but of you’re chasing something that really means a lot to you then you’ll keep going. And eventually you WILL reach your goal. I learned this with coding. I never thought I was that smart and learning to code was very difficult for me. I used to focus on being a master game developer and thinking about how intimidating it is that I have to learn so much. But now I just put all my effort and focus on one lesson every day. And I feel like I can accomplish anything that way. It doesn’t take you 1 step to learn how to walk. But eventually you learn how to sprint.
Great advice! The presentation is also on very high level. People interested in public speaking might learn a lot from it. The main idea is that we have to free our minds from everyday thoughts in order to have space for creativity. Write down every task you are thinking about. Then develop a concrete plan how to achieve it. Make sure you take into account all your activities and time they require when implementing a new one. Don’t use your mind as a storage, use it as a generator instead!
The idea wasn’t to follow to-do lists, but to create a personal system that didn’t require mental space to be taken up – creating a system for yourself to let other things go for total focus. He also gave information about what to do in that time – to keep your mind flexible enough to react, but focused enough and calm enough not to overreact and lose sight of what you’re giving your creativity and effort to. The writing part was just to give your mind the ease and space to do so, I think.
As for all the negative comments. Over 4,000 thumbs up, less than 200 thumbs down. I’m guessing the thumbs up people are busy implementing the information instead of wasting their time telling everyone what a waste of their time it was perusal it. Mmmm……maybe they would benefit from learning how to spend their time more productively.
I have a huge respect for David Allen and his work. I’d like to add that if you’re a procrastinator, like i was, then before even implementing any system you’d need to look at the root causes of procrastination first. The Procrastination Elimination Method by John Isaac has been life-changing for me in this regards. NOW i can use systems like GTD with more efficiency.
As a person who battles anxiety, this is great advice. As a person who struggles to manage ADHD, it is SO HARD to block things out of my mind, ie focus, ie engage. It’s easier when I’m in a quiet room alone than when I’m at work with everyone talking and arguing in an open office plan. Also, just want to point out that not everyone has had an experience of peaceful engagement in a crisis, which this speaker didn’t acknowledge. I took a course in crisis management taught by a professor who retired from working in the UN and Red Cross, and for the course we read a book by Gisli Olafsson called “Crisis Leader”. Gisli writes that your ability to function calmly in a moment of crisis can be increased by having a plan, staying healthy, staying centered with your values, etc., but ultimately it comes down to personality. Some people freeze up and feel paralyzed in crisis, others feel calm and clear headed and can hold off the emotions and stress until later, and deal with them once the crisis is averted. Not everyone is cut out to be an ER doctor or a search and rescue leader, and that’s okay. And people may have some weaknesses that make engagement difficult, but it is something I’ve tried to get better at as part of coping strategies for anxiety and ADHD, and I’ve improved at least somewhat.
Brief Summary: – Getting things done is is about appropriately engaging with what is going on. – Crisis forces you to be in Crisis – You don’t necessarily need time, but you need space to …a. think b. create c. be crazy d. make mistake e. be chaotic and so forth – You need freedom to make a mess – Give appropriate due between tasks/actions – Make a list the things in your mind & Then decide what is the very next action about this topic (what is the project) & Create a right guide for the topic/projects (so you can see a clear picture)
I’ve been a GTD user for about 4 years and I can’t imagine my life without it now. It’s just not a business tool but a life tool. And it’s a journey not a destination so if you’re new, give yourself time in terms of months and years to make changes. While Getting Things Done is a quick weekend read, implementing it is best done very very slowly like weight loss.
The worst feeling is when I’m perusal a TED-talk with a highly motivated, very determined and successful speaker, saying exactly what I need to do in my life to become a better person, yet I don’t really understand the talk and is left rather bummed out and empty. It just.. doesn’t really sink in. And the comment section is always filled with “oh, this article is life changing!” comments. Too many talks leave me like this.
The act of writing things down, both everyday tasks, and goals, whether short or long term, is AMAZING for people dealing with anxiety and depression.. It takes away that sense of overwhelming responsibility when you don’t have to remember, and therefore think about every single little responsibility.. Keeping things organized, clear, concise, able to be revised and revisited on a regular basis.. Keeps things in context and in perspective.. Freeing up that mental energy and capacity for actually accomplishing the tasks required..
PS. I also discovered it’s much easier (and MUCH MORE FUN!) to have 4 vision boards: one for immediate projects (under 1year). the second for long term projects (1-3years), the third for my ideal vision (5-10 years). And after I finish something, I take it off the board, and put it on the fourth cork board, where I put all the projects and objectives I finished. It’s awesomely rewarding, and super fun. Each project is either a simple post-its, or printed color images that are really motivating!
There’s one big thing missing from this system and that’s: how do you decide on the goals, projects and actions that you work on? I think this question can be answered by answering two other questions: what kind of life do you want to lead and what kind of person do you want to be? The first question gives you the goals, the second tells you how important each goal is and in what manner you want to achieve it. For me, the second question is most important. It tells me how to interact with people and the natural world, adds a separate goal of continual self-improvement and allows me to base everything I do on deeply felt personal values. The end result of that is great interpersonal relationships and a deep sense of satisfaction with my life as a whole, or, in other words, an amazing life!
This title & description box is missing a VERY important piece of CONTEXT here. David Allen is the author of a book called “Getting things done” the subtitle is -the art of stress free productivity-. If folks don’t have the book or aren’t using the GTD system this article doesn’t offer nearly as much value. Personally, as a GTD practitioner, I found the article to be one of the more streamlined and effective talks that David has done.
Loved it! We expect directions on long road trips, but we don’t often think of employing the same method of “getting us there” to our goals. More than not, the goal is not to drown under the mass of projects and priorities we have. I can attest, writing down each and every project and pressing priority allows me to step outside of my head and take an eagles eye view of what I have been juggling all along. It has only been at those moments where I have had real clarity about what goes first. You have to answer what, why, and when first. Your how and where will follow once you get to those items on your list down the road. Don’t map each branch out en tedium before you approach actually working on your first objective. You’ll just stress yourself out. As a Leadership and Development Professional, this has been a MAJOR make-or-break factor in my own success. Fantastic Tedx Talk.
I had suffered heavy stress after the fall of Saigon 4/1975 due to political discrimination; therefore, I had to escape Vietnam by boat. I was reborn in the USA as a political refugee in which I have suffered the other types of stress, but I have hopeful future on the ways to come. Great thanks for all Co-workers, staffs (Bilingual Speaking Mexican Americans & Native English Speakers) with whom who I have been working for 36 years. Now, I have faced other stress due to health problems. To be self-health career is most difficult in life span. My warm best wishes to you all.
Wow, what a ton of shit. One thing I can say for sure that control is an illusion, and Perspective is ever-shifting. The only thing you really need to do to “Get things done” Is decide what really matters to you. Most of the time when we are lazy, or we don’t feel inspired is because of internal conflict, when our surroundings force us to do stuff we are not really interested in. Just think about what is really important for you in your life, and accept your flaws and restrictions.
17:32 Anything and everything that’s potentially meaningful, write it down. – I have been following this advice for nearly a year now. It is definitely helpful. It is a habit now; I am compelled to write things down, otherwise they are in my mind occupying space or important things being forgotten. BUT, I spent so much time writing things and thoughts down (and sometimes things turn to thoughts, vice versa) that I do not have time to do anything! Does anyone encounter this too? How do I solve this? Help!
A few comments below, indicate that the main point from the talk, is to write stuff down. Although that is sort of true, there is more to this talk than just write stuff down. He talks about not blending issues, but focusing on things one at a time, because on an average day, you can move from taking the bins out, to helping kids, to business negotiation very quickly. He talks about therefore investing appropriate attention to each thing. He also talks about not accumulating things in our heads by writing them down, so there is space in our minds to remain creative. I liked his analogy that if your kitchen is a mess, how will you find the space to create an experimental meal for friends, something which in itself, will be a messy process? Thus keep things tidy – so you have space to handle challenges and be creative. I zoned in and out of the talk and feel it could probably have been whittled down to half the length – but there is much more to it than just ‘write things down’!
The problem is that he has a strong and effective idea, and has stretched it out to 22 minutes. Sure, he could have explained how to make a list of tasks, how much attention to give it, and how to release the items from your mind in about 3 minutes, but would they have invited him to speak for that? Sadly, the answer is probably no.
the first rule reminds me the movie “Yes Man” with Jim Carrey saying yes to your mind i mean it makes sense to clean up the mind, but some things you cant just do right away like travelling when you have debt and no money, or doing rock climbing when you do 12 hours psychical job, i do agree that you need a system to put these things as soon as possible from your mind, i really like the concept of mental bandwidth sounds cool.
Notice the classic form of best selling advice, i.e., “it’s not about A, it’s about B”. In this case (David Allen), “it’s not about getting things done, it’s about being appropriated engaged.” You might hear variations on this, such as “It’s not about the product, it’s about what we stand for.” or “Becoming a manager is not about becoming a boss. It’s about becoming a hostage.” and “It’s not about perfection; it’s about connection.”. One piece of management advice that trumps them all is P. T. Barnum’s advice about suckers and the seemingly endless supply being ready to be taken in by the latest huckster. Tell me if you find anything in this article based on scientific studies.
My experience of this talk: 1) he wants me to think he’s important, 2) he wants me to think that he is intelligent, 3) he wants me to think that he has information that I need. Did I benefit in any way from what he said? No. Was this talk designed to benefit anyone other than himself? No. Will he benefit for the rest of his life by bragging about how he produced a TED talk? Yes. Maybe Ted talk meant something for a long time ago, but these days it’s just another notch in the belt of cereal achievers who care about no one but themselves.
I can’t agree with this more. It’s true getting things done has very little to do with getting things done per se. It’s more about controlling and navigating through internal emotional states in such a way that they will propel you through. Some use fear, some reward, some love, anger, some watch rocky films lol.
WOW on that very last sentence (paraphrasing): “….in order to take maximum advantage of all the ADVENTURES coming towards us, may we all find our own ways to be appropriately engaged.” I just love the connection point between adventure and preparedness. It creates so much more space for flow and flexibility moment to moment. My most inspiring life experiences have been rooted in this intersection and there’s still so much potential for further refining and aligning and optimizing from a structural POV. I love this!
Can anyone explain what is so special about this message? 1. Make a to do list of anything u can think of 2. Specify what you need to do on items 3. Make a big picture of todo list so you have a macro picture …….and this is considered a top Ted talk 2015? I must be missing something – teach me folks
1.) I have been using this since I was a kid. I grew up in a stressful home and realized very early that lists and organization are the KEY to excelling. All of these children being labeled ADD or ADHD are NOT mentally ill. They are quantum thinkers, but because of how our society is unstructured, or structured inorganically they are unable to properly modulate their super high bandwidth. It takes an unconditional fractally harmonized implosion (higher order) to one’s zero point…
21:16 “Very simple folks! Just write stuff down.” – No, it’s not simple, and it’s not stress-free either (misleading title). I have been following this advice for nearly a year now. I spend so much time writing that I don’t have enough time for doing things. Also, the logic does not add up for me considering several things presented here. 17:32 “Anything and everything that’s potentially meaningful, write it down…. Keep a pad and pen with you, don’t have a thought twice (write it down). .. Little, big, personal professional, just get it all out. … capture anything that’s pulling on your psyche…” My writing did not even go that far and it has already occupied so much of my time. Most of us have thoughts here and there. It is just not practical to “just get it all out”, “Little, big, personal professional, just get it all out”, “don’t have a thought twice (write it down)”, not to mention he went on to say 18:55 two key questions about EVERYTHING on your list, 20:20 all the maps needed, 20:46 by the way, once you experience that, I’ve never had anybody make that list and not come up with “Oh! That reminds me!” (very true, but it made my writing even longer and time even less). Seriously, how do you do this practically?
You are grossly mistaken. First of all because it’s not a figure of speech but a scientific concept of evolutionary biology, and secondly because you might be surprised by how many people don’t know what it actually means. Amongst other areas of biology, I teach basic evolutionary biology in high school. You would be surprised at how many don’t know what the saying actually means. Maybe it’s because of my position that I find the definition so important.
It’s a very vague phrase I’ll give you that. Since ‘fittest’ is a changing variable that depends on the environment, and seemingly chance. There is no most ‘fit.’ We only say something is more fit when it happens to survive while others die. So it’s kind of like saying ‘survival of the survivors.’ But what it really means is the conditioning and evolution of the survivors. It’s not a silly phrase at all. It’s a natural process which we have even adapted to AI to make them more effective.
In evolutionary science, those who are the most adaptable are considered the fittest. To be fit in evolutionary science means to be be capable of dealing with the external world. To be fit in evolutionary science isn’t per se related to do with cardiovascular performance or the amount of muscle tissue.
I’m not ignoring the first 18 minutes, I’m just saying he could have cut it down to 6 minutes and still made the same points. My company paid to have his people come in and give a multiday seminar. It was good, but there was just too much introductory material. It was very similar, the signal to noise ration wasn’t optimal.
A whole lot of knowledge, yes. Thoroughly researched probably and based on some great writing, maybe. But this ted talk is not one of the best i have seen. Mr. Allen knows his way around his subject, but forgets to slow down according to the speed of a mind fresh to it. Too many words in too fast a talk. Also, as a project manager myself i can say: none of this is new. You could apply yoga wisdom (being in the moment) and experience brought to you by a good mentor, so as to learn to think of the bigger picture. Goals and maps are cool, yes. Also flexibility, which you learn in life. Being a mom taught me that in a crash course. I guess what bothers me is the fact that i am missing empathy towards the listener. Without ths summaries in the comments i would be completely lost.
This is exactly what I am finding in my life, the focus/ the engagement. I consider my life as a failure because until now, at 21, I didn’t feel like good at anything. But occasionally, when I am able to engage with sth on my hand, I can do outstanding work that I couldn’t believe. All these moment were so remarkable that I hope that mind state can last forever, so I can do everything well.Those were also the moment I know my talent was there, but I’m just unable to perform it when it is needed
Yeah, he seriously needs to add “iron sportcoat” to his to-do list. Hard to take the guy seriously when he can’t find time to look like he didn’t sleep in his clothes in his Kia in front of the venue. Plus he talks in motivational speaker doubletalk. If you’ve got time to worry about your ringtone, then you need to up your Ritalin prescription. I’ve got hundreds of poor people’s paychecks on my mind every minute of every day, and this jackass did nothing to ease my mind.
I have spent many years with an illness that has left me useless too often. Completely unlike every other method GTD is the perfect system because it allows you to GTD when your body allows, or when you have the energy. And more importantly: It frees you from the anxiety and guilt and stress that an illness causes.
The importance of understanding what you really have to do, what action you need to take and how you will execute it, and to accomplish it successfully by Write What tasks you really need to do? Focusing not on the outcome but putting your mind in the present time, have appropriate engagement with that specific goal by taking one action at a time, by focusing on one task at a time. After Reflect on the progress that you have made Make maps for it Recognize the next steps/actions/decisions that you will take to get on the next level. Thank you, Sir David! I’m 18 an asipiring to be an SUCCESSFUL business man and musician at the same time I have a lot of ideas in my mind but the problem is im struggling with taking the right action, or making the right decision I overthink a lot because I want it to be perfect but I’ve learned from you that a goal that we’ve dreamed to achieve will only succeed when we focus on the first step not on the outcome. To start and give your 100% focus, energy, time on this specific action and eventually it will get you to the place where it should be. Thank God!