More Great Productivity Tips from Lifehacker.Com

We wouldn’t dare argue with any of these. Well, certainly not with the doods who created them:

The Best Productivity Tricks Used By Evil Dictators – by Thorin Klosowski

History is full of evil dictators, and while the had their share of bad qualities, it’s undeniable they were efficient at getting things done. Here’s what we can learn from them, despite their evil nature.

Dictators manipulate people when their willpower is weak, they get rid of close friends, and they give rousing speeches that can convince people to do just about anything. Here’s six things, both good and evil, we can learn from the ways dictators have handled situations.

Force Difficult Decisions on People When Their Willpower is Weak

As we’ve talked about before, working whenyou’re tired and when you’re suffering fromdecision fatigue leads to poor decision making. A good dictator knows exactly how to exploit this.

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro loved 4 a.m. meetings where he’d often get people out of bed so he could put them at a distinct disadvantage. Russian dictator Joseph Stalinwould also use this tactic, even meeting Winston Churchill late at night to draw up plans to attack Germany.

How you can use this: In both of these cases, the idea is to catch your enemies (or allies) when their willpower is low and they’re willing to do anything to work with you. On the flipside of this, it’s a reminder that decision fatigue is real and easily exploitable by anyone for a variety of means—so whenever possible, avoid those 4am meetings with your boss (or give yourself enough time to wake up beforehand).

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We’d say, “Oh, this is all tongue-in-cheek, cute Halloween stuff” and let is slide, but our friends working in TV swear that their bosses, be they showrunners or executives, are all executing some form of this game plan. In other words, from all of us who aspire to be in the biz, “Yikes!!!”