Good Productivity Ideas Are Borrowed. Great Ones Are Stolen.

I’m sure you’ve heard the quote, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” The quote is attributed to Pablo Picasso, although there is some doubt.

The point is that simply borrowing or “copying” (as Steve Jobs altered it) is not a good strategy when developing your productivity system. What works for one person is not going to work for you.

You and I, for example, work differently. We have different jobs, for a start, and how we work will be different. If you meet a highly productive person and try to copy their methods and techniques, you will fail. However, if you steal a concept and bend it to work for you, you will discover strategies and practices that work for you.

I recently came across Jeffrey Archer’s time management system. It’s extreme, and at first, I dismissed it as impractical for my work. However, a seed began germinating in my mind over the following weeks. I realised that while Jeffrey Archer’s system, as he practices it, would not work for me, the concept could be stolen and forged to work.

Jeffrey Archer’s method is to practice a ‘two-hours on, two-hours off’ work day. He will begin his day at 6:00 am with two hours of writing (his core work — he’s an author) and stop at 8:00 am for a two-hour break. He would then repeat that from 10:00 until…