Stress-free productivity does exist

If you are running a 5k race trying to achieve your best time, surely in the halfway point you’ll be struck by doubt about whether you will get it or not. In full effort, with your heart beating so hard and the muscle fatigue accumulating in your legs, you will have a strong urge to slow down.

Interruptions are the number one public enemy in the field of personal productivity. If you don’t get things done on time and you need to work late, or even on weekends, it’s probably because there have been many interruptions at work. In other words, it’s not that you have that much to do, but that you’re not good at managing your attention.

Today, the to-do list is probably the simplest and most used tool by those who try to put some order in their daily activity. Basically, it is just a list of things to do, usually on the same day or in a short period of time, that is somehow ordered by priorities.

Jumping to conclusions is a cognitive distortion that occurs when we make a decision, or we judge something without having all the facts that are necessary. It is something extremely common, and you might just find yourself doing it on a daily basis. It happens because we aren’t capable of actually distinguishing what we see from what we are taking for granted.

Quitting a project is very frowned upon. Quitting, in general, is frowned upon — unless what you’re quitting is a bad habit, like alcohol, tobacco or drugs. Quitting is for cowards and losers. Quitting is failing. It is sin.