The Productivity Pyramid: Free Up Time, Get More Done
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What if you could work fewer hours—and actually get more done? In this episode, Alex introduces the Productivity Pyramid, the framework behind the 5-hour workday that helped his company increase productivity, revenue and retention all while working less.
You’ll learn how to:
- Eliminate the most common time wasters that secretly drain your workday
- Understand the cognitive cost of distractions and multitasking
- Shift from a “busy” mindset to a results-driven work culture
- Use the One-Day Time Audit, a simple experiment that reveals exactly where your time is going
Whether you're working 8 hours, 10, or even 12+ hours a day, this episode will help you reframe how you think about productivity—and give you the tools to reclaim your focus, your time, and your energy.
Topics Covered:
- The surprising origin of the 5-hour workday
- The three levels of the Productivity Pyramid
- Time Wasters vs. Distractions: What’s the difference?
- Why attention residue and decision fatigue hurt your performance
- The myth of multitasking—and why it wastes 28% of your workday
- 3 key strategies that transformed Alex's work culture
- How to run the One-Day Time Audit to reveal your biggest productivity leaks
This Episode's Experiment:
The One-Day Time Audit
Track your time in 15-minute blocks for a full workday using 3 columns:
→ Activity – What you did
→ Distractions – What pulled your focus
→ Observations – What stood out
Run the audit, review your patterns, and see what happens when you become truly aware of how you’re spending your time.
Resources Mentioned:
- Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive
- The One Thing by Gary Keller
- Stanford University Productivity Study
- Harvard Business Review study on task prioritization
- UC Irvine research on attention recovery time
Connect with Alex:
Have a breakthrough from the time audit? Found your biggest time waster?
DM Alex on LinkedIn — he’d love to hear how this experiment changes the way you work.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-gafford-09b2b87/
Stay Tuned:
Next episode: Alex dives into the top layer of the Productivity Pyramid—Proactive Strategies, including time blocking, AM/PM routines, and how to protect your energy for deep, focused work.
9 episodes