Maximizing Productivity: Insights from Sam Corcos of Levels

In today's fast-paced world, productivity and time management are crucial skills for success. Sam Corcos, the founder of Levels, is known for his unique approach to maximizing efficiency and output. In this article, we'll explore some of his top productivity hacks and insights that can help you optimize your work and life.

The Importance of Time Tracking

One of Sam's core beliefs is that your calendar is the empirical record of your actual priorities. He emphasizes the importance of aligning your actions with your stated priorities:

"You ask people like what are your priorities and they say oh it's family or whatever it is. They have some optimistic thing that they say is their priority. And then if you follow up with and how much time did you spend on that in the last week it's like well this week I was really busy. Clearly your actions and what you say are your priorities are not aligned."

Sam takes time tracking to the extreme, meticulously documenting how he spends his time:

"I'm actually in the process of writing an article. It's how I spent 17,784 hours working at levels for the last 5 years. It is an exact 15-minute increment allocation of my last 5 years."

This level of detail allows him to analyze his time allocation and ensure he's focusing on what truly matters.

The Impact of Major Life Changes on Productivity

Sam openly discusses how major life events have affected his productivity:

"Getting married had the biggest impact on my productivity. It was about a 20 or 30 hour a week decrease in output. It definitely forces you to prioritize more."

He notes that having a child further reduced his work hours:

"Having a baby on top of that decreased that by another 10 or 15 hours a week. So, I'm down to about 50 hours a week, which is the lowest it's been since I was probably, I don't know, in my early 20s."

While these changes have empirically made him less productive in terms of work output, Sam acknowledges that it's okay and has forced him to be more intentional with his time.

Top Productivity Hacks

1. Sleep Optimization

Sam emphasizes the importance of quality sleep for productivity:

"I sleep with silicon earplugs every night. Um they are earplugs that are made for sleeping. Uh I can send you the link but Max is the company. MacS makes really good ones. I found the foam ones are too uncomfortable when I'm sleeping and they fall out. Uh, but the silicone ones are amazing and my sleep quality improved probably 20 to 30%."

2. Using Alarms for Present-Mindedness

To stay focused and present, Sam sets alarms for all his daily activities:

"One of my biggest challenges, which I've been working on, is staying present when I'm with somebody or just not thinking about other things that are happening when I'm with a person, out to dinner, doing anything. So, what I do first thing in the morning, I set alarms for everything that I have that needs to change my attention throughout the day."

This practice allows him to be fully present in each moment, knowing he won't miss upcoming commitments.

3. Audiobook Consumption

Sam is a strong advocate for audiobooks as a way to increase knowledge consumption:

"Audiobooks are such a hack to just increase consumption of really high quality information. When I when I gave up the news in 2013, I just translated my news consumption time to audiobook consumption. And since then, I've been able to do I've averaged two books a week for the last 11 years."

He listens to audiobooks at increased speeds, often between 3x and 3.5x, which he notes is equivalent to normal reading speed for physical books.

4. Leveraging AI for Learning and Productivity

Sam discusses the potential of AI tools like GPT-4 for enhancing learning and productivity:

"Having really long conversations with GPT4 Omni about often highly complex or highly technical topics and you can frame as for things that are really technical and complex you can say look I don't know anything about this topic start by explaining to this start start by explaining this to me as somebody who knows nothing about physics like please start from there and then you can dig into each one and it's just it is incredible how good it is at explaining things if these tools did not exist would have taken me months to understand and now I can I can understand what's important because it it meets me up high level in hours."

5. AI-Assisted Coding

For software developers, Sam strongly recommends using AI coding tools:

"If you are a software developer and you're not using cursor or some of these new AI tools, you are missing out. They are awesome. There's no there's like no way to exaggerate that statement. I try to get into the codebase 2 days a week and I just really started embracing these fully about a week ago. Um, this week in particular, I did Tuesday, Thursday, and uh, there was a project scoped optimistically for two weeks. Probably would have taken longer. I had it completely done in 2 days."

6. Minimalism

Sam advocates for a minimalist lifestyle as a productivity hack:

"Having less stuff is a pretty big hack. There's never been a goal of being a minimalist, but I think I think I qualify as that at this point. I have three shirts. I have one pair of pants. Everything I have can fit in a fairly small backpack."

He emphasizes that this approach reduces mental overhead and simplifies decision-making.

7. Streamlined Management Style

Inspired by Jensen Huang's management style at Nvidia, Sam has adopted a more streamlined approach to managing his team:

"I've changed my management style towards the people that I work with from it used to be more of a mentorship oriented reporting structure and now it is much more decision-oriented. So we have blocked time for one-on-ones but they get cancelled if there's no agenda. The goal of those calls is to solve problems to unblock people."

8. Communal Living

Sam shares his positive experience with communal living, especially as a new parent:

"We moved in with another couple, two of our friends in San Francisco who also have a baby of the same age. So we have a double baby house going on and it is amazing. It is uh it's a thing that feels like it should be the default and probably was for hundreds of thousands of years."

This arrangement provides built-in support and socialization, which can be especially beneficial for new parents.

9. Meal Prep

Sam emphasizes the importance of meal prep for maintaining a healthy diet and saving time:

"Having healthy food around is a huge hack in terms of how I feel throughout the day. It's like going to the fridge and only seeing like packaged foods around is it's so much nicer when you have packages. I I order a big Costco delivery every week and we get like a bunch of vegetables, a bunch of meat. We do stews. We spend a couple hours doing these like huge batch processes of food."

Conclusion

Sam Corcos's approach to productivity is multifaceted, combining technological tools, lifestyle choices, and strategic time management. By implementing some of these hacks and strategies, you can potentially boost your own productivity and achieve a better work-life balance. Remember, the key is to find what works best for you and to continuously refine your approach based on your personal and professional needs.

Whether it's leveraging AI tools, adopting a minimalist lifestyle, or simply being more intentional with your time, there are numerous ways to enhance your productivity. The insights shared by Sam provide a valuable starting point for anyone looking to optimize their work and life in our increasingly complex world.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsbvAQbP9LM