PagerDuty emphasizes the importance of productivity and effective time management by assessing the concept of leverage, which involves maximizing value or impact per unit of time invested. Drawing from Edmond Lau's definition in "The Effective Engineer," leverage is achieved by focusing on high-impact tasks with minimal effort, akin to the Pareto Principle where 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. The text highlights practical strategies such as reducing the duration of meetings, managing email and Slack interactions to prevent distractions, and engaging in "deep work"—a state of focused, distraction-free productivity as defined by Cal Newport. Additionally, it suggests evaluating tasks in tools like JIRA to ensure they are completed efficiently and with maximum value, encouraging engineers to question the necessity and effectiveness of their activities regularly. These approaches are aimed at distinguishing between being busy and being genuinely productive, ultimately leading to more meaningful and impactful work.