The 3C Model of Productivity
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to spend time “wisely”. When I come home from work I usually am distracted by many things at once (the internet doesn’t make this any better), and am thus presented with a large set of activities I could be doing. So many things I could be doing, but what was that elusive “right” thing?
After being inspired by Sam Altman’s blog post, I realized I needed to think about high-leverage skills to learn so that I could compound my abilities over time. According to Sam:
Almost everyone I’ve ever met would be well-served by spending more time thinking about what to focus on. It is much more important to work on the right thing than it is to work many hours. Most people waste most of their time on stuff that doesn’t matter. Once you have figured out what to do, be unstoppable about getting your small handful of priorities accomplished quickly. I have yet to meet a slow-moving person who is very successful.
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been attempting to distill what really “matters” into a handful of priorities, so that I can easily attach my free time to one of those activities. I knew the overarching category of productivity for me is learning, but I wanted to codify what that really consists of. Thus was born the 3C Model of Productivity: Consume, Create, and Converse (apologize for the cheesiness).
Consume
This activity is what we consider to be “learning” in the traditional sense. It involves consuming novel and/or challenging information to learn a new skillset or concept, thus improving our neural connections in some way. Consuming information is relatively straightforward and is often directly attached to your interests. Like basketball? Read an article about the statistics of 3 pointers. Like startups? Read Paul Graham’s essays. Like math? Buy and read an interesting book like this.
You can never go wrong by consuming new information. You may ask, “Well what if what I’m consuming is stupid or childish,” and to that I would respond that there is no such thing. As long as it is healthy and you can learn something new, by all means consume it. Yes, that even means watching Netflix, and using Social Media can (sometimes) be productive. The only caveat here is that you go into the learning activity with conviction and purpose. Too many times we sit and scroll through the Internet with no real purpose and end up wasting hours of our precious time, only to realize it after the day is over.
The key here is to vary your sources of information so that you learn how to obtain knowledge in different ways. In this era, mediums of information dissemination abound: Podcasts, Blogs, Newsletters, YouTube Videos, Audiobooks, Articles, Online Courses, Webinars, Documentaries, etc. Exposing yourself to this type of variety can help you develop new ways of learning and even allow you to optimize how you learn best.
For many, this type of immersion in information consumption sounds “boring”. This is only the case if 1) you are consuming information that does not interest you (a negative consequence of the traditional K-12 education where we are force fed unwanted information) or 2) there is friction and difficulty involved when facing new/challenging information. To address #1, remove the negative connotation of “learning” as you have been taught in school. If something is interesting to you, find out more about it. You will be surprised how exciting this can be sometimes. As for #2, start with simple things everyday. If you can’t commit to a 500-page paper-back behemoth, then just start by reading a short article everyday. If the topic interests you, slowly you will find yourself wanting to immerse yourself further.
Finally, don’t be afraid to invest cold hard cash in learning. Imagine all of the $5 Lattes or $30 drunk Ubers you purchase every month. Paying $5/month for a well written subscription newsletter from someone you admire is well worth the investment. Usually, the information you pay for ends up being the highest quality and can generate the highest knowledge return on investment.
Create
Another key aspect of productivity is to create something. This may sound simple but is cunningly difficult in practice. The reason for this is before you create something, you have to decide what to create. This unique aspect makes it so that very few people end up being creators. Theres a reason not everyone is a YouTuber, blogger, hacker, etc in their free time.
The positive side to this is that tech based tools have made being a creator so much easier. SubStack, Anchor, Figma, TikTok, WebFlow and many more have allowed creators to express themselves more easily than ever before. This even turns people (like me before I started on SubStack) from non-creators to creators.
I think creating is a vital step, because at the end of the day creators (in my opinion) produce the largest impact on the world. Whether that be creators of startups, research papers, works of art, or movies, they create lasting influence. If you want to emulate these successful people, a good usage of your time would be to learn how to create as much as possible with the knowledge and skills you have (gained from Consume!). Being creative (through creation) exercises a part of your brain that is not used when passively consuming information. It allows you to act on this information, generating insights about the world around you and solving important problems.
The best way to get into creation is to just make something. Anything. The toughest part is this venture is to disregard the perfectionist inside of us that wonders whether what we create will be “good enough.” I’m sure a couple months from now I am going to look back and thing Why the hell did I post this… but I am pushing through for now, as I think it will be beneficial for my creation muscle.
This bold practice of creating takes a bit of courage and necessitates a departure from your comfort zone (at least for me) but is a valuable way to gain important skills. Want to say something? Write about it. Want to have cool conversation? Make a podcast. Want to create a personal website? Just Do It. If you don’t know how, you will figure it out along the way.
Converse
This activity is different from the previous two because you need other people. We are social creatures and sometimes are most productive when other (positive) people are around us. A lot of people don’t put effort into being productive in this category because it seems counter-intuitive but some effort could go a long way.
Schedule brainstorming sessions with your friends. Get coffee with someone you admire. Cold email a potential mentor. Reach out to that friend you haven’t talked to in months. Creating this network of people can go a long way both professionally and personally.
This facet of the 3C model also requires getting out of your comfort zone, because sometimes meeting new people can be scary. There may be a level of social anxiety, imposter syndrome, or just wanting to stay in the comfort of your own home. I personally have felt all of these things, and historically I haven’t made the effort to converse with the people I want to converse with. This will change, as I have realized that the right conversations can lead to some pretty awesome things, including startup ideas, introductions to cool people, and just general feel-good vibes.
To clarify, being productive in this sphere also includes spending time to find the right people and attempt to contact them, so it could be done at home. But eventually, you need to go and meet them physically.
Finding the Balance
So given the 3Cs Consume, Create, and Converse how do we divide our time between them? I think a 40/40/20 split is optimal for me, but this obviously varies person to person (I’m not too rigid on this split either). This means that if I have 5 hours (300 minutes) when I get home from work, I give myself 2 hours to Consume, 2 hours to Create, and 1 hour to Converse (or find people to Converse with).
I’d say just see what balance is best for you, but I would caution to not go to extremes. It’s very tempting to just read books all day, or code all day, or hang out with friends all day, but this one-sided approach is not likely to result in much success in the long-term. As long as you keep the 3Cs in mind, you can track your progress against each of them and feel good about being productive :)