Recently, blogger, podcaster and teacher David Sparks (aka MacSparky) introduced the latest in his series of Field Guides – the Productivity Field Guide. This one comes in two flavors: a standard edition ($49) and plus edition ($99) – both include a combination of a PDF and extensive videos that walk you through his process.
The plus edition includes an additional twelve part webinar series doing a deeper dive on many of the topics in the course. I signed up for the Plus edition and have been working my way through the course content and attending the Plus edition webinars as they’re being held.
Although I’m retired and wasn’t looking for the latest and greatest set of tips and tricks to maximize my productivity – like I’d be wanting desperately in my younger years! – I’ve really been enjoying this field guide. The reason is that I find it’s less about productivity – although that’s still the focus – and much more about an approach to living that MacSparky has developed over years and years.
In fact, he’s described how he set out to write this field guide years ago but held off on completing and publishing it until he felt comfortable he had fully thought through and could articulate this approach to living.
The foundation for MacSparky’s approach is to orient life around a series of roles – the many different “hats” that one wears as we live day to day. In his case, his roles (which evolve from time to time) include: husband, father, brother/uncle, friend, MacSparky, ex-lawyer, learner, creative human, spiritual human, responsible human, and altruistic human.
These roles are really foundational to living for him and the rest of the field guide builds on them. As a next step after clarifying your roles, he recommends applying a bit of Greek philosophy – specifically the notion of “arete” or excellence and using that to help define living up to one’s potential. (“Arete” is pronounced “ah-reh-tay”.) So for each role, he spends time defining what the notion of arete means to each role. He then uses those refined definitions to help manage everything he has to do in life – including the inevitable prioritizing required to juggle too many tasks.
MacSparky’s approach to productivity is refreshing – and a whole different approach from almost all of the many other productivity approaches I’ve come across. If this kind of approach sounds attractive to you, I’d recommend you explore what he had to say in his introductory video. I really like the way he’s approaching this and recommend this field guide.
If you’d like to learn even more, be sure to check out several recent blog posts by Jim Eager on his blog OriginalMacGuy.com:
- Discover the Life-Changing Productivity System That Will Transform Your Work and Personal Life
- Part 1: Getting Started With a “Carrying Water” List — Working Through the Productivity Field Guide
- Part 2: Identifying Your Roles & Writing Your Arete Statements — Working Through the Productivity Field Guide
- Part 3: Using Projects and Habits to Implement Your Arete — Working Through the Productivity Field Guide
- Part 4: Using Quarterly and Monthly Planning to Live Your Best Life In Each Role
- Part 5: Achieving Your Best Self Through Consistent Weekly Reviews and Daily Planning
Jim does an excellent job in each of these articles walking through how he is applying the lessons and techniques that MacSparky teaches in the PFG.