The productivity advice that will actually improve your life | Chris Bailey: Full Interview

Productivity centers on becoming intentional about how we allocate time, attention, and energy. Achieving goals requires aligning daily actions with a hierarchical "intention stack" that connects immediate tasks to broader priorities and core values. When goals feel aversive or lead to procrastination, reframing them to align with personal values—such as benevolence or self-direction—can restore motivation. Because human attention is naturally limited and prone to distraction by novelty, protecting focus is essential. This involves both "hyperfocus" for deep work and "scatter focus," a state of deliberate mind-wandering that occurs during habitual activities. By allowing the mind to wander, we connect disparate experiences and memories, which significantly improves our ability to plan for the future and generate creative solutions. Ultimately, managing the quality of information consumed and the state of our attention determines our overall effectiveness and sense of meaning.