Efficiency is a trap. Most people think being productive means checking off a hundred tiny tasks while drinking lukewarm coffee at a desk they haven't left in six hours. It isn't. Charles Duhigg, the guy who basically wrote the bible on habits, tackled this head-on in his book Smarter Faster Better. He realized that the most successful people aren't just working harder; they are managing their brains differently.
Let's be real. We’ve all had those days where we are "busy" but accomplish absolutely nothing of value. It's frustrating. Duhigg argues that productivity comes down to making specific choices. It’s about how we view ourselves and the data we encounter every day. If you want to actually get things done without burning out by 3 PM, you have to look at the underlying mechanics of motivation and focus.
The Motivation Gap and the Locus of Control
Motivation isn't a spark that just hits you while you're staring at a blank screen. It’s a muscle. One of the most fascinating parts of Smarter Faster Better involves the concept of the "locus of control."
Psychologists have known about this for decades. Basically, if you believe you have control over your life, you have an internal locus of control. If you think the world just happens to you, your locus is external. Duhigg points to studies of the Marine Corps to show how this works in the real world. At boot camp, recruits are pushed to their breaking points. The ones who thrive are the ones who find small ways to take control—even if it's just deciding how to shine their boots.
When you feel in charge, you work harder. You stay focused. If you're feeling stuck, the best thing you can do is make a choice. Any choice. It sounds silly, but even choosing which email to reply to first can kickstart your brain’s motivation centers.
Why Teams Fail Even When the People are Great
We’ve all been on that one team. You know the one—everyone is brilliant, the credentials are off the charts, but the actual output is garbage. Google spent years and millions of dollars trying to figure out why this happens through something they called Project Aristotle.
They looked at everything. Did the team eat lunch together? Were they all extroverts? Did they have similar hobbies?
The answer was actually much simpler: Psychological Safety.
In high-performing teams, people feel safe to take risks. They aren't afraid of looking stupid. Duhigg highlights that the best teams have "equal distribution of conversational turn-taking." That’s a fancy way of saying everyone talks roughly the same amount. If one person dominates, the team's collective intelligence drops. If everyone feels they can speak up without being judged, the group becomes a powerhouse.
Mental Models: Why Some People Never Panic
Ever wonder how some people stay calm during a crisis? Pilots, ER doctors, high-stakes traders—they all seem to have this weird "calm" about them.
It’s not because they were born without a fear response. It’s because they use mental models. They are constantly telling themselves stories about what they expect to happen.
- "If the engine fails now, I'll steer toward that field."
- "If the client hates this pitch, I'll pivot to the budget slides."
By visualizing these scenarios beforehand, they stay in control. When things go sideways, they aren't surprised. They just switch to the next "chapter" of the story they already wrote in their head. Most of us just react to the world. Productive people predict it.
The Problem with SMART Goals
We’ve been told forever that goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. SMART.
Duhigg says that’s only half the battle.
The problem with SMART goals is that they encourage us to focus on the easy stuff. We like checking boxes. It gives us a hit of dopamine. But if you only focus on SMART goals, you end up doing a lot of "productive" work that doesn't actually matter.
You need Stretch Goals.
These are the big, scary, "I have no idea how to do this" goals. In the 1960s, Japan’s railway engineers were told to build a train that went 65 miles per hour. That was a SMART goal. Then, the head of the railway told them it had to go 120 miles per hour. That was a stretch goal. To hit it, they couldn't just tweak the old engines; they had to reinvent the entire rail system. That’s how the Bullet Train was born.
Combine the two. Have a big, insane stretch goal at the top of your page, and then use SMART goals as the ladder to get there.
Information Blindness in a Digital World
We are drowning in data. Your fitness tracker, your screen time reports, your bank statements—it's everywhere. But having data isn't the same as understanding it.
Duhigg talks about "disfluency." This is the idea that we learn better when information is slightly harder to process. If you just read a list of numbers, you'll forget them. If you take those numbers and draw a graph by hand, you'll actually understand what they mean.
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This is why "paper and pen" people often seem to have a better handle on their lives than people with 50 different productivity apps. By forcing yourself to interact with information—writing it down, explaining it to a friend, or reframing it—you move it from your short-term memory into your "working" knowledge.
Bayesian Psychology and Better Decisions
Decision-making is just a game of odds.
Annie Duke, a professional poker player mentioned in similar productivity circles, and the experts Duhigg references, all point to the same thing: you have to think in probabilities. Most people think in "yes" or "no."
- "Will this business succeed?"
- "Should I quit my job?"
The smarter way to look at it is: "There is a 60% chance this works if I do X, but only a 20% chance if I do Y."
When you start thinking about the world as a series of probabilities, you stop beating yourself up when things go wrong. Sometimes you make a great decision and get a bad result. That’s just variance. In Smarter Faster Better, the takeaway is clear: successful people don't just hope for the best; they calculate the odds and adjust as they go.
Actionable Steps to Take Right Now
If you want to actually apply these concepts, don't try to change everything at once. Pick one area and tweak it.
- Reclaim your locus of control. Next time you feel overwhelmed by a project, find one tiny, insignificant decision you can make. It could be the font of the document or where you sit while you work. Just make a choice to remind your brain that you're in charge.
- Narrate your day. While you’re commuting or drinking your morning tea, visualize your day. Imagine the obstacles. "When my boss asks for that report early, I'm going to tell him I need two more hours to polish it." This builds your mental model.
- Audit your team’s safety. If you lead a team, look at who is talking. If it’s just you and one other person, stop. Ask the quietest person in the room for their opinion. Create the space where "stupid" questions are welcomed.
- Make your data "ugly." Stop looking at pretty dashboards. Take your most important metric—whether it’s your savings, your words written, or your sales—and write it on a physical whiteboard or a piece of paper every single day. Force yourself to interact with the numbers.
- Pair your goals. Write down one "Mount Everest" goal today. Then, immediately write down the first three SMART steps to get there. The stretch goal provides the direction; the SMART goal provides the momentum.
Productivity isn't about being a machine. It's about being a better human. It’s about understanding that your brain has quirks—like needing to feel in control or needing stories to stay calm—and working with those quirks instead of against them. Start by making one choice today that proves you're the one holding the steering wheel.