Barbell Strategy for Productivity

I’m reckless for a quarter of my day, responsible for the rest. This is how I put the barbell strategy into practice.

The barbell strategy is all about spreading your risks. Instead of going with consensus all the time, go with consensus most of the time and non-consensus the rest of the time. Consensus is being responsible, non-consensus is being reckless.

Where’s the risk in being responsible, you will ask?

Being responsible is going with the prescribed. Answer your emails, do your meetings, stay on top. Staying on top means things turn out as expected. But outsized results are rarely expected. You sure do want them, so how do you get them?

Here’s what you wouldn’t have guessed. 𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐮𝐧. And here’s another thing you know but avoid acknowledging: 𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞.

What am I talking about?

Most days, I do no emails or meetings in the AM. These are the hours, usually a couple as it gets tiring beyond that, I spend thinking. It may be something I’m learning or a topic I’m neck deep in–something tied to a big needle I’m trying to move. A meeting in my reckless hours costs me a lot more than one in my responsible hours. Same with emails–they break the train of thought. So I stay off emails and meetings. You can call this my maker’s time, as Paul Graham does. I prefer to call it my reckless hours.

Attaching a spiky label is necessary to understate a barely acknowledged truth. Deep work is essential to creative output. But modern ways of knowledge work do not accommodate deep distraction-free work too well. They’re built for shallow distraction-fueled work.

Oh! Let’s be reckless all the time!

Deep work isn’t easy. It involves a lot of warm-up (setting the mental table), grappling with things that don’t pay off instantly (not the dopamine hit of striking items off your to-do list), and a proper hollowing-out of your brain (feeling wiped at the end of it).

Hence, my reckless-responsible split. I can be reckless for a couple of hours, recover, and be responsible for the rest of the day.

Be reckless for 60 days straight and see the change in yourself. You can sit still by yourself, gather your thoughts, think through things. It’s not easy but it’s hard to miss. And some of this benefits your team, your manager, your employer.

Or you can be responsible through and through (I was this person for years) and you can spend each day getting to inbox zero. Nothing wrong with that if staying on top is what matters to you.