Smarter Faster Better: Summary Review
This is a summary review of Smarter Faster Better containing key details about the book.
What is Smarter Faster Better About?
"Smarter Faster Better" is a book that explores the science of productivity and offers strategies for making better use of time and increasing efficiency.
This book explores eight concepts that are critical to increasing productivity. It takes you into the cockpit of two passenger jets (one crashes) to understand the importance of constructing mental models--telling yourself stories about yourself in order to subconsciously focus on what really matters. It introduces us to basic training in the U.S. Marine Corps, where the internal locus of control is exploited to increase self-motivation.
Summary Points & Takeaways from Smarter Faster Better
Some key summary points and takeaways from the book include:
* The key to success is not working harder, but working smarter.
* To work smarter, one must focus on the most important tasks, eliminate distractions and optimize processes.
* The 8 key concepts of working smarter:
* Focus on the most important tasks
* Eliminate distractions
* Optimize processes
* Embrace technology
* Cultivate a growth mindset
* Collaborate effectively
* Embrace data-driven decision-making
* Continuously improve and learn.
* The book provides practical strategies and tools for implementing these concepts in the workplace and personal life.
* The author argues that embracing a smarter, faster and better approach to work leads to increased productivity, job satisfaction, and overall success.
Who is the author of Smarter Faster Better?
Charles Duhigg is an American journalist and non-fiction author. He was a reporter for The New York Times, currently writes for The New Yorker Magazine and is the author of two books on habits and productivity, titled The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business and Smarter Faster Better.
Smarter Faster Better Summary Notes
How to Stay Motivated and Productive: Tips from "Smarter Faster Better"
Staying motivated is essential to achieving success in any project or endeavor. However, it is not always easy to maintain the necessary drive and energy to keep going, especially when faced with obstacles and setbacks. In the book "Smarter Faster Better," author Charles Duhigg provides insights on how to stay motivated and productive, starting with the importance of making choices. Researchers have found that people feel more motivated when they have greater control over a situation. This means that having the ability to make choices, even small ones, can help people feel more invested and responsible for the outcome of a project.
Moreover, it is crucial to remind yourself of the bigger picture and long-term goals. Knowing how your choices contribute to the project and the ultimate goal can help you stay motivated and focused. For instance, if you are reading an essay on drone building, but find it uninteresting, you can remind yourself how it will contribute to your drone-building project by writing a reminder at the top of the page. This simple trick can help you shift your focus back to your goal and make the task at hand seem more meaningful.
Smarter Faster Better Key Ideas: Motivation and Goal-Setting
In the book "Smarter Faster Better," Charles Duhigg presents a range of strategies for improving productivity and achieving success. Two key ideas he emphasizes are the importance of motivation and goal-setting.
One way to maintain motivation, according to research from Columbia University, is by giving yourself choices. When you have control over a situation and can make decisions, you're more likely to feel excited and responsible. You can also stay motivated by reminding yourself of the bigger picture - how each task contributes to your overall goals. By keeping this in mind, even mundane tasks can feel more rewarding.
Another key to success is setting ambitious goals. Studies have shown that people are more creative when they strive for higher, bigger goals. However, these goals can also feel overwhelming. That's where SMART goals come in. By breaking your stretch goals into specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound steps, you can make them more manageable and keep yourself motivated by tracking your progress.
In short, motivation and goal-setting go hand in hand. By giving yourself choices and reminding yourself of the bigger picture, you can stay motivated throughout the process of achieving your goals. And by setting ambitious goals and breaking them down into smaller steps, you can make progress and feel accomplished every step of the way.
Staying Focused on Goals with Mental Models and Anticipating Distractions
Life is full of unpredictable events and distractions that can take you away from your goals. In order to stay focused, it is important to create mental models that can help you stay excited about the future and anticipate any potential distractions. Mental models are positive stories that can help prepare you for upcoming projects or conversations. They allow you to visualize and prepare for your goals, which can help you stay motivated and focused.
To create mental models, start by imagining the end result of your project or goal, then work backwards to identify the steps you need to take to get there. This will help you anticipate any potential obstacles or distractions that could arise, and prepare for them ahead of time. For example, if you have a stressful week ahead, you can imagine yourself conquering each challenge step by step, which can help you stay motivated and focused.
In addition to mental models, it is also important to anticipate and plan for potential distractions. This could involve using email blocking software to give yourself uninterrupted thinking time, or planning your meals in advance to avoid lengthy lunch breaks. By anticipating potential distractions and having a plan in place to deal with them, you can stay on track and achieve your goals more efficiently.
Psychological safety and respect are the keys to a successful team.
What makes a team great? Is it a group of overachievers or superstars? According to Google's Project Aristotle, even a team of average performers can accomplish great things if the team has the right dynamic. The most important factor for a successful team is whether team members feel psychologically safe.
Psychological safety is the sense of feeling safe from ridicule when making mistakes or suggesting ideas. Safe teams were found to perform better, envisioning more innovative products or meeting sales targets. It allows team members to admit mistakes, which means any issues can be quickly addressed. It also fosters a comfortable environment for sharing unconventional ideas, making the team as a whole more creative.
Team members also feel safe when they are encouraged to contribute to a project's success. This encouragement shows each member that they are an important part of the group with opinions that are highly valued. Furthermore, safe teams thrive in an environment that is, in general, caring and respectful. Project Aristotle found that the safest teams are made up of empathetic individuals, which is why it's easier to trust people when they care about you.
Team leaders are tasked with fostering psychological safety. As a leader, make sure all team members have their voices heard at least once in every meeting. Encourage upset team members to share what's wrong and make sure other members respond in a caring way. Resolve any conflicts in the open and never interrupt team members when they are speaking. Make sure everyone feels valued and respected.
Fostering a Commitment Culture for Increased Company Success
Many CEOs once believed that company culture was irrelevant to startup success, but research has proven otherwise. A company's culture is critical to its success, and the most successful culture is a "commitment culture," one in which management focuses on building trust and attachment to the company. In this culture, the emotional connections between the organization and its employees are paramount, and the company looks for people who fit its larger team and company vision.
A study by Stanford Business School professors of nearly 200 Silicon Valley technology start-ups found that commitment culture companies consistently proved to be the most successful. Not one commitment culture firm went bankrupt, and they were the fastest to go public, maintaining the highest profitability ratios.
In addition, commitment culture companies can maintain fewer middle managers, which makes them more efficient. By hiring driven, high-quality specialists who are good at managing themselves, a company can address questions or problems directly. The leaner middle management ranks also allow for more efficient decision-making and smoother communication between departments.
Building a commitment culture requires focusing on building trust, care, and emotional connections between the company and its employees. When companies hire employees who fit into the larger team and company vision, it fosters a sense of commitment and loyalty that translates into greater success for the company as a whole. By fostering a commitment culture, companies can see increased success and create a positive, engaged work environment for their employees.
Using Old Ideas in New Ways and Embracing Your Emotions to Boost Creativity
Innovation doesn't always have to start from scratch. Finding new applications for old ideas can lead to groundbreaking and successful outcomes. For instance, behavioral economists combined economic and psychological models to gain insights into why people make decisions counter to their interests, discovering new insights by finding new applications for old concepts.
Furthermore, tuning into your emotions and intuition can also help boost creativity. Listening to how you feel about a situation or idea can tell you whether you're dealing with something great or ordinary. Disney Animation President Edwin Catmull used this strategy with his writers, having them explore their emotional connections with siblings while working on the movie Frozen. This allowed the writers to portray the relationship between the characters Anna and Elsa in an authentic and relatable way, contributing to the film's sweeping success.
Creativity isn't always about coming up with something completely new. By taking existing ideas and approaching them from a different perspective, or by tapping into your emotions and intuition, you can come up with groundbreaking and successful outcomes.
Book Details
- Print length: 400 pages
- Genre: Nonfiction, Business, Self Help
Smarter Faster Better Chapters
Chapter 1 :Motivation: Reimagining Boot Camp, Nursing Home Rebellions, and the Locus of Control
Chapter 2:Teams: Psychological Safety at Google and Saturday Night Live
Chapter 3:Focus: Cognitive Tunneling, Air France Flight 447, and the Power of Mental Models
Chapter 4:Goal Setting: Smart Goals, Stretch Goals, and the Yom Kippur War
Chapter 5:Managing Others: Solving a Kidnapping with Lean and Agile Thinking and a Culture of Trust
Chapter 6:Decision Making: Forecasting the Future (and Winning at Poker) with Bayesian Psychology
Chapter 7:Innovation: How Idea Brokers and Creative Desperation Saved Disney's Frozen
Chapter 8:Absorbing Data: Turning Information into Knowledge in Cincinnati's Public Schools
What is a good quote from Smarter Faster Better?
Top Quote: “Every choice we make in life is an experiment.” (Meaning) - Smarter Faster Better Quotes, Charles Duhigg
What do critics say?
Here's what one of the prominent reviewers had to say about the book: “Not only will Smarter Faster Better make you more efficient if you heed its tips, it will also save you the effort of reading many productivity books dedicated to the ideas inside.” — Bloomberg Businessweek
* The editor of this summary review made every effort to maintain information accuracy, including any published quotes, chapters, or takeaways. If you're interested in enhancing your personal growth, I suggest checking out my list of favorite self-development books. These books have been instrumental in my own personal development and I'm confident they can help you too.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
