Stress-free productivity does exist

Fear is an interesting thing that I’ve written about from time to time. In this post I’d like to explore the ways that fear can be a source of energy and motivation if you can learn how to turn it into something positive. In fact, if you learn to recognize your fears and use them to your favor, they may help you achieve your goals.

In GTD, the Calendar is used in a very different way than in other traditional time management systems.

Surely you are aware that there are times in your life when you have thoughts like, “What can I do to be more competitive or productive?” “How can I improve my skills and advance my career?” “Should I move to this or that city?” This kind of big-picture thinking is called divergent, and is the one you use to generate ideas when you face a problem.

The Daily Review is a resource to sort the ideas generated during the day and arrange your work plan. First, you have to review your Calendar to have in mind the commitments for the next day, checking all the necessary stuff to ensure you are not forgetting anything. This is key to not appear at a meeting without an important document or information, to not feel a little bad for not mentioning a significant detail that emerged during the previous evening.

It often seems that side projects are only an entrepreneurial thing, that they are done just by people who seek a new or alternative way to get money and make a living. Of course, that might be the target of a side project, but you don’t need to think about working on a side project only in terms of starting another company. Having a personal side project, apart from your usual work, has many other benefits: