Kevin O’Leary swears by this productivity hack he learned from Steve Jobs
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- Kevin O’Leary follows Steve Jobs’ daily “signal and noise” goal-setting technique.
- O’Leary prioritizes three main tasks each day.
- “I don’t let anything get in the way until those three things are done,” he told Business Insider.
“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary has learned many things from the CEOs and world leaders he rubs shoulders with, but one of his most important daily rituals comes from an iconic innovator: Steve Jobs.
O’Leary told Business Insider that a goal technique he uses every day came straight from studying the Apple founder. He picked it up after working alongside Jobs in the mid-1990s, when O’Leary’s educational software company The Learning Company was working with Apple to get the Mac computer into schools.
“He believed that you needed to do three things, and you had to get them done every day,” O’Leary said of Jobs.
“You need a ratio of at least 70% signal, which are the three things, and the 30% can be noise — whatever is going to stop you from getting the three things done,” he continued. “So I pick three things I want to get done that day, and I don’t let anything get in the way until those three things are done.”
O’Leary said one of the three things he has to do every day is exercise. He usually wakes up at 5 a.m. and works out for over an hour, usually biking about 12 miles.
“I have to do that; otherwise, bad things happen,” he said.
On the noise side, part of the 30% that gets in O’Leary’s way is his overflowing inbox. It’s become such a distraction that he’s stopped trying to keep up with email.
“I don’t do emails anymore because I get anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 a day,” O’Leary said. “I’ve tried every system to take the crap out, but over the years, my email address has gotten out there, and so it’s just a constant stream of noise and garbage. As we speak, I see the emails just pouring in. I’m never going to get to them, so I don’t try.”
The “Marty Supreme” star says in his line of work, it’s best to focus on what he really wants to accomplish and block out all the noise.
“In entrepreneurship, and certainly in what I do today as an investor, there is no holiday, there’s no workday — that doesn’t exist,” O’Leary said. “It’s what you want to do with your time.”