Stress-free productivity does exist

One of my favorites David Allen’s statements is that you cannot do projects, you can only do action steps. In the end, a project shows up as done after doing a lot of small, physical and visible actions that make the world fits with what you had in mind.

Routines are sets of actions we perform frequently, almost automatically, without much effort. They are mechanisms we devise to make our life easier. By turning many of the things we have to do into routines, we establish habits that allow us to free our brain, since they are tasks of which we do not have to think too much to carry them out.

Normally we go through a five-stage workflow method to deal with our work. We (1) capture things that catch our attention, we (2) clarify what they mean and we (3) organize the results, which we (4) reflect on frequently to choose which thing to (5) engage with next.

One of the most frustrating things when you have managed to establish a personal productivity system that works for you, is to realize that the others do not give a damn about your productivity. You just need to decide to tackle a task that requires total concentration and an idle co-worker will come and start telling you whatever story. You just need to decide to sort out your personal finances and your partner will tell you she feels like going out for a walk and, of course, what you are doing can wait.

You usually feel bad when you do not get things done that you had committed to do, but this feeling of anxiety and guilty is not because of the many things you have to do. Frustration comes up when you break an agreement that you have made with yourself.