The Four-Way Win

I almost titled this “Increase productivity, happiness…” but then I remembered happiness is bullshit and one should chase contentment, so I re-titled it.

There are six million and five approaches to being more productive and more happy — entire sections of bookstores, people fly all over the world speaking about it, Oprah essentially became a billionaire by talking to others about it, etc. You can walk more. You can download some apps. You can eliminate “time sinks.” You can use personal analytics. You can “batch” tasks. You can be an Essentialist. There’s really no one “catch-all” answer to this stuff; you figure out what works for you and you roll with that.

Here’s an idea from Stewart Friedman, who teaches at Wharton. It’s interesting and logical, although perhaps his take on Harvard Business Review does link to his books a couple of times. But hey, we’re all game for a little self-promotion, right? (Especially if the ideas have value.)

Alright, so … here’s the HBR article. Let’s break this down.

Friedman believes there are four essential domains to life:

• Work
• Home
• Community
• Self

So far this is all logical. You could maybe quibble with the wording (“family” as opposed to “home”), but I think everyone…