A colleague recently gave me a nice compliment. He said, “I recognize you as one of the most productive and impactful people in Automattic.” He followed up with a question, “What is your secret? What advice or tips can you share with someone like me?”

The compliment was encouraging – there are some days I don’t feel very productive, but the question got me thinking about what I’ve learned over the years. I thought I’d share my answer here. At some point, I might go deeper into each of these things. In no particular order…

1. Find your Lane

Essentially this means having a good understanding of what your contribution to your business, your company, organization, family etc. is expected to be along with what you want it to be. When those overlap it multiplies your impact and productivity.

The image I have in mind here is that race car drivers are always looking to find the optimal lane for going around the track. Speed, car, weather conditions, and driver skill all influence what that optimal lane is. Drivers with the most success are good at finding that lane.

2. Gas up – don’t run on empty

To be productive and impactful, you need to be aware of your energy levels and when you need to “gas up”. Empty people more often do empty things. So don’t get empty – what is it you do to gas up?

3. Aggressively Prioritize

Not everything you can do is worth doing. I’m more productive and impactful when I know where I’m going and how I’m going to get there. When I don’t, I’m curious, ask lots of questions, and learn.

A funnel I use for prioritization that has consistently helped me:

I aim to be always working on the things I should do NOW and continually evaluating opportunities and things landing in my lane through that matrix. Oh and by the way, the more people you lead, the more you should also be asking “What are the things only I can do” as a part of the criteria for what makes it to the end of the funnel.

4. Posture of Learning

One observation that is consistent across all the productive and impactful people I’ve encountered is that they live with curiosity. They posture themselves for learning. Learning expands your capabilities and your ability to understand and process things that come across your path.

How you learn doesn’t matter that much. I read (both online and offline), watch documentaries, try new things, and ask lots of questions.

Deserts don’t have much living in them.

5. Every little bit counts…

My least productive times often occur when I’m paralyzed by the big thing or trying to finish everything at once. When you break things down into smaller chunks and understand the principle that doing a little bit, consistently, accomplishes more than nothing at all – you win.

Another benefit of breaking things down and working towards the big thing incrementally is that you’re able to…

6. Fail quickly

I don’t want to waste my time and effort being busy on the wrong thing. I don’t always get this right which is okay, but I want to know I’m not getting this right as soon as I can.

Also, the worst failure is the one you don’t learn from.

7. Soak the meaningful things

Sometimes things that initially appear a failure, are just before their time. Either the environment, the dependencies, or the people aren’t ready. Let it soak – revisit it.

8. Who you know

Network, find mentors, mentor someone. Prize diversity in your circle. The wider and more diverse the influence of your circle is, and the more influence you gain from this circle, the more productive and impactful you’ll be.

Oh and by the way, you don’t have to be friends with everyone in this circle. Oh, and it doesn’t even have to be someone you’ve met.

9. Write, speak, teach

You multiply your effort exponentially when you become good at these things. Being good includes being clear, timely, relevant, and effective. Not all of these have to be before a large audience, treating even individual interactions as an opportunity to polish this craft can be just as impactful.

10. Develop strong opinions, loosely held

The biggest motivators in my life are the things I have a strong belief, passion or drive around. Those are the things that capture most of my attention and my effort.

Yet, I also hold these opinions loosely. In the context of all the other things on this list – “looseness” allows me to be curious when I become aware of things that challenge what I thought to be true or worthwhile, and flexible when I’m wrong.

So I’m curious, what in this list resonates with you? Are there other things that you think contribute to productivity and impact that you’d include?