Over the past decade, Chris Bailey has personally experimented with pretty much every productivity hack under the sun to separate what works from what doesn’t. He is one of the most-viewed TED speakers of all time and has been called “the most productive man you’d ever hope to meet” by TED Talks, “a quirky and energetic guide through the productivity thicket” by the Harvard Business Review, and a “productivity mastermind” by WIRED. Bailey’s practical time-saving advice combined with his infectious enthusiasm for the topic, will transform how audiences view productivity at home and work.
Celebrated for making productivity exciting, Bailey’s approach is unique — he doesn’t believe in a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, he argues that we should take the advice that works for us and leave the rest. To date, Bailey’s productivity experiments have run the gambit from curious to ridiculous, seeing him meditate for 35 hours in a week, use his smartphone for only 30 minutes a day, work 90-hour weeks, and more. He combines lessons from his entertaining experiments with the latest research in neuroscience to show audiences how they can apply different tactics to accomplish more — while actually enjoying the process.
Bailey is the author of three internationally bestselling books — The Productivity Project, Hyperfocus, and How to Calm Your Mind. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages and have been named books of the year by Oprah Magazine, Fortune, The Globe and Mail, and Reader’s Digest. He is also the author of the Audible Original, How to Train Your Mind, and writes a biweekly column on his website, ChrisBailey.com. His fourth book, about the science of goal attainment, will be published globally by Penguin Books in 2026.
Bailey has also written hundreds of articles on productivity and his work has garnered coverage in media as diverse as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, Harvard Business Review, Lifehacker, GQ, TED, Wired Magazine, BBC, Fortune, and Fast Company. His latest TED Talk, “How to Get Your Brain to Focus”, has been viewed over 17 million times.