A Chunked Theory of Productivity

by Galen Knapp

"Nothing"

A friend calls and you pick up the phone: "Hey, what's up? What you doing?"
Me: "Nothing, just chilling"

Unless you've reached a state of Zen enlightenment and have completely emptied your mind and soul, you're probably not doing nothing. Instead, you're doing nothing productive, important or substantial. So what are you doing actually?

Well, here are some examples of me doing nothing: Making small talk and lounging around at a family or friends get together. Reading, watching videos or sports, or playing Age of Empires. In the best case, I'm weeding, cleaning up the house, doing food prep or some mildly productive activity. However, if you asked me what I was doing the following week during this time, I'd be drawing blanks.

As you'll see, what we call "nothing" is just filler time that takes up XS small chunks of time. Though these tasks are sometimes necessary, the more of our life spent in XS chunks, the less memorable of a life we end up having.

I say: A life well-lived is a life remembered! That means doing fewer forgettable small tasks, and more tasks that allow you to achieve depth, results and novelty.

The Chunking System

Simply put, unless you make time for meaningful activities, you'll almost never spontaneously happen upon them. If you want a more thorough system and overview on the importance of making time for the big stuff, read Deep Work. This is mostly a corollary system to the ideas in that book.

Here it is:

  • During the "work" day (from ~8am-6pm), you have time to do ONE (1, and only one) Big Chunk.
  • In the "evening" (from 6pm-10pm), you have time to do one Medium Chunk.

And now The Chunk Formula™:

  • 1 Big Chunk = 2 Medium Chunks
  • 1 Medium Chunk = 2 Small Chunks
  • 1 Small Chunk = 2 XSmall Chunks

Chunks are your unit system of productivity, and can be Tetrised to fit in any configuration throughout the day, but if you try to take on more than that, you will almost certainly fail, leading to a sense of dissatisfaction, which robs you of any of the endorphins you'd otherwise get by completing your ToDo list. Under-promise, and over-deliver: It works for yourself as well as for others!

But I can definitely take on way more than that!

That's great! Chunks themselves aren't actually time bound, but tasks are subjectively costed into chunks based upon what you can do, intuitively. For example, if I set out to learn a new piece of music (very amateurish musician that I am), it may be a M or L chunk. For a pro, they'd probably mostly just read it on-sight – XS for them. You've got to get a feel for what a L chunk is for you – it's different for everyone.

And yes, no system is perfect. This isn't academically studied. Maybe you can actually take on 2 more XS chunks than I say you can. Still, my experience is that this is about the right quantity for myself and others.

Too many x-smalls

What I've found particularly helpful about this productivity system is the weight it gives to XS small chunks. After all, anything meaningful deserves a chunk, even the very quick things that you think should just fill the gaps. Throughout the workday, you may have a variety of small, recurring meetings. For me, these often come in the form of 1:1s, project check-ins, standups, etc. These commitments feel zero cost, but obviously they are not.

So, if during the day I have 4 of these meetings, all XS, then already this adds up to 4XS = 2S = 1M. This means that I only have time for 1 more M chunk during the day. Ah!

Over-chunked

You really think you can take on more chunks, huh? You can, for short periods of time. But it's been my experience that it never works out in the long-run. Inevitably, you burn out, or start crumbling under the stress of failed commitments. You rob yourself of the sense of fulfillment that comes with completing a task at a quality that you can be proud of, and you put the expectations of others at jeopardy. Knowing your own limits is, from my experience, a key indicator of maturity and wisdom.

The golden corollary

And lastly, the most important result of this is the following rule (that I definitely did not make up):

If you don't make time for big things by clearing out the minutiae, you'll never get big things done.

Taking on big things (L chunks) is among the most satisfying work that you can do, as well as the most impactful – so dream big, but make time for yourself to take those big things on. Cheers.

Credit to Jim Lamb (a former PM I used to work with) and Cal Newport for these idea.