Close your eyes, grasshopper. And imagine a time when music came in cardboard sleeves, your “virtual communication tool” was a phone box, and nobody minded if the soundtrack of a movie didn’t sync with the characters’ lips. This was the time of martial arts legend Bruce Lee. Emerging from a 5,000 year old culture, he had great respect for the traditions of his ancestors. But when it came to productivity he was a thoroughly modern man. He built his skills using what later decades would call “life hacking” - short-cuts and best practices to get the job done. Bruce wasn’t just a master of the five-point palm exploding heart technique; he was also a master of project scoping and effective execution. So if you’re ready to study with the master, let’s enter the temple of productivity … and turn Jeet-Kune-Do into Jeet-Kune-DONE.

1. JEET-KUNE-DONE:
TEN PRODUCTIVITY
EDICTS FROM BRUCE LEE

2. Edict #1
DIVIDE THE IMPORTANT
FROM THE URGENT.

3. Email. Phone. Social. 1,000,000 things steal
your focus from what needs doing.

4. Make a list, young apprentice, of what truly matters,
vanquishing busywork by deprioritising it.

5. Edict #2
DISCARD THAT WHICH
IS NOT USEFUL.

6. Only the
unproductive
man needs ten
communication
apps or fifteen
collaboration ones.

7. Master Bruce tried everything, but kept only what added
value. Make hacking away at the non-essential your habit.

8. Edict #3
GROUP THAT WHICH
IS SIMILAR.

9. Bruce practiced
kicks Monday, jabs
Tuesday, and so on.
Stretching himself
in each.

10. Batch your workload into chunks to avoid the pick-up and
put-down flitting around that steals time, and your work
will flow like an eel in oil.

11. Edict #4
DISCERN WHERE
YOUR DIFFERENCE LIES.

12. Bruce “feared
not the man who
practiced 10,000
kicks once, but he
who practiced one
kick 10,000 times.”
(Others wondered
why: surely that
man would be so
tired he’d be easy
to beat?)

13. But the edict
holds: find what
actions have the
biggest positive
effect, and become
so fluent in them
that victory
becomes effortless.

14. Edict #5
SHARE KNOWLEDGE
FREELY.

15. Discrimination was not in Master Bruce’s dictionary.
(Nor was “flibbertigibbet”, but that’s irrelevant.)

16. Collaborate with anyone who wants to learn, and they
can share your workload. So seek them out on the
mountain top. Or at least the office.

17. Edict #6
FOCUS ON THE
TASK IN HAND.

18. When you begin
a task, focus on it
to the exclusion
of all else, and
the task will soon
be complete.
Existence is
fleeting - and
so are tasks,
when you truly
concentrate.
Make the task
your world.

19. Edict #7
BE WATER.

20. Be wet. Be cold. Steam when you get hot. Sorry -
that’s not what Bruce meant to communicate.

21. What he meant was take on the shape of what you are
thrown into, and you will understand it better. In short:
be always learning, always adapting.

22. Edict #8
START WITH A VIEW
OF THE FINISH.

23. Visualizing your goals makes them real. So when you
begin a task, ask: what does success look like?

24. Imagine not the
fearsome attacker,
but the vanquished
foe lying in a heap
at your feet. Keep
that image in
your mind as you
progress, for it will
guide your path to
productivity.

25. Edict #9
MIND AND BODY
ARE ONE.

26. Many are the capable students who forget a basic fact:
all starts with health.

27. Your mind is only as productive as the body that houses
it. So make time for sleep, fresh air, exercise: these are
investments, not costs.

28. As Bruce said, mens sana in corpore sano (a sound mind
in a sound body). Or at least he would have done if he
had spoken Latin.

29. Edict #10
FIND YOUR OWN PATH.

30. The most
important of
all. Find what
works for you.
Many and varied
are the paths
to productivity.
Great teachers can
provide guidance,
but the solution
must be yours
alone.

31. Now, O student, you have the skills for
perfect productivity.

32. And as you communicate and collaborate your way
to enlightenment, always remember that you are
surrounded by friends.

33. From collaborative project or screaming fist,
Bruce Lee is the man to learn from.
Singular focus and deliberate actions are the
keys to greater productivity.
Try everything, but be ruthless in
discarding what doesn’t work.
Takeaways

34. Are you ready for your next
lesson, young grasshopper?
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