Sam Altman’s Insight: Productivity is More About ‘Why’ Than ‘How

Nov 30, 2023 by manish

“It doesn’t matter how fast you move if it’s in a worthless direction. Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and usually almost ignored.” – Sam Altman

There is so much written about productivity tools, techniques, hacks, but very few articles focus on asking the questions-

are you working on the right thing? are you enjoying what you are working on?

Other piece of advice that resonated with me from Sam Altman’s essay on productivity was:

“The right goal is to allocate your year optimally, not your day.”

If our long-term goals excite us and we enjoy the journey, we naturally boost our productivity. 🎯 But if we’re stuck in tasks we dont like or we’re clueless about the destination, it is really hard to make your day productive.

So sometimes it’s worth asking ourselves — Are you sprinting in the direction you truly want to be heading? Is your daily grind aligned with your yearly goals?