For RescueTime Only–Simple Hacks to Getting 10x More Done Each Day

Hey there,

If you’re a RescueTime reader, you’re almost certainly interested in productivity. These days, doesn’t it seems like time just disappears—hours fly by, and you feel like you just didn’t get enough done?

Maybe you wonder why some days your best work effortlessly flows from your fingertips, but other days it feels more difficult than running a marathon.

The fact is, distractions are everywhere. It wasn’t always like this—heck, watch Mad Men. Those advertising executives didn’t have computers on their desks. Can you imagine what you would do in a day without a computer?

Today, people have different jobs. Some people have bosses who tell them what needs to be done. Others work for themselves—or would like to work for themselves—but just can’t seem to get motivated to get their work done.

But what if I told you that our lack of motivation isn’t actually a fault of willpower, but rather an effect of our environment?

Think about it. You’re subjected every day to beeps, notifications, status updates—distractions that no human faced just ten years ago. Companies bid for our attention daily, and it’s no surprise that the end result is more distraction and less real work done.

I grew up feeling the stress of distractions. For years, suffering from ADHD, I blamed myself and the disorder for my lack of productivity. Using RescueTime, I started to measure my productivity to find out what I was actually doing.

What I discovered was astounding.

I thought I was wasting my time on email and reddit. What I found was that I spent nearly four hours a day—yes, four—on chat. It was interaction I craved, and I was using chat as a distraction.

So I resolved to fix my productivity issues. I began to execute several different productivity experiments and see what worked.

The results were incredible. Several small changes — changes I executed in a day — were significant enough to drastically increase my productivity. For example, in one experiment, I tested how to hire an authority figure. I hired a girl on Craigslist to sit next to me and, every time I used Facebook, to slap me in the face. Below, you can see the video of it happening.

And my productivity? It went from 38% to 98% — with a simple change.

Now, with RescueTime’s help, I want to show you how you can do the same.

I’ve created a guide for you — The Minimalist Guide to Hacking Your Habits. In it, you’ll see specific experiments I’ve done over the past year to improve my productivity. There is also a worksheet will help you identify what is holding you back—and how you can break the productivity blocks that keep you from succeeding.

You can get access to it by filling out the form below.

You’ll also get access to the Hack the System exclusive newsletter.

Starting November 20, I’ll be conducting a productivity experiment, where I’ll publicly showcase how small changes in my workflow can produce major results in productivity. You can watch it all happen, grab The Minimalist Guide to Hacking Your Habits, and join the challenge, by filling out the form below.

Who am I? I’m Maneesh Sethi, a 25 year old Stanford dropout from California. who’s been traveling to exotic locations for over four years. Since 2007, I’ve:

• Lived in and learned the languages of Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, and India.
• Founded an NGO in India that raised $5000 to build a library and computer lab for a poor village in India. (SaveThem.net)
• Had a sandwich named after me in Florence,Italy.
• Built a completely passive business, outsourced with several virtual assistants, that runs on fewer than four hours of work per week.