It’s all too common for productivity “experts” to treat “time management” as a silver bullet for improving performance at work. Here’s the dirty truth – time management is overrated.

Think about the top performers in your workplace. It’s common for top performers to have a 10X or greater impact on their organization than average performers. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg has gone on the record stating that exceptional performers are “100 times better” than their merely “great” peers. These are the type of people we aspire to be. Freeing up an extra few hours a day isn’t enough to get us there.

In order to be a 10X or 100X performer at your day job, you need to get 10X or 100X more value out of the limited time you do have. Doing so requires ensuring that you’re working on the highest impact things, in the most efficient way possible, and in a state that will lead to your best work. Here’s how:

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It was just another afternoon at the office: I had finished lunch, wrapped up a meeting with our PR team, and was looking forward to having a productive, distraction-free rest of day. And then, out of nowhere, it happened – sharp pain in my chest and right arm, shortness of breath, lightheadedness. It seemed like I was having a heart attack, so I immediately asked for a coworker to take me to the hospital.

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There’s a reason that there’s thousands of books and blogs that talk about how people can be more productive. When you think about it, who doesn’t want to be more productive?

I know that when I first started working in sales, I devoured everything out there on productivity: books, blogs, podcasts –  the whole nine yards.

What I learned surprised me: 95% of what was out there was completely irrelevant to what I actually faced on a daily basis, first as a salesperson, and later on, as a marketer. Or if it wasn’t irrelevant, it was too impractical to implement. Or the impact was marginal at best, and not worth the effort required.

Knowing there had to be a better way, I’ve sought out to develop and codify what’s worked for me, and share that knowledge with the world.

But first, here’s where I think the experts are off:

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