Tim Ferriss's DEAL framework uses delegation, elimination, automation, and liberation to boost productivity. The speaker argues procrastination is diagnostic: it reveals low-priority work worth cutting, automating, or delegating. Batching email and shifting where you work are concrete ways to reclaim time.
Productivity starts with procrastination. Tim Ferriss has this framework he calls the DEAL framework, D-E-A-L, for delegation, elimination, automation, and liberation, which are the 4 ways that you can improve your productivity. And L, I think, is the most interesting of them. It is the liberation. And what he means by liberation is to time shift the work, to like batch it for later. Instead of like replying to emails all the time, you pick a time of day you're going to work on your emails, that kind of thing. And that time shifting, or he calls it liberation, which allows you to do things like, say, work from the beach or from someplace else you find more comfortable, that they get to shift both time and space. And now the quality of the work you get to do goes way up. And I think there's a lot to be said for that. I also think there's a lot to be said for just saying do it later. Because when you say do it later, you're telling yourself that the work is not that important. And if the work is not that important, it actually becomes a pretty good candidate for elimination, automation, or delegation. Maybe this isn't work that you should be doing at all. So when you're considering how to be productive, might start with putting it off.
