Category: “Personal Productivity”

El “Chapo” Guzmán was arrested in Mexico. Dozens of women are sexually assaulted in several German cities during the New Year’s Eve. Kim Jong-Un, North Korean leader, conducted nuclear tests with unclear purposes. China pumps money in the economy to prevent a collapse in the Stock Market. What is the purpose to know all this? Does it increase your knowledge? Does it raise your awareness? Does it help you think better? Does it make you more productive? Does it improve your life? The short answer is no. An extensive and reasoned response follows.

It comes a holiday season in which, in addition to visiting your family, eating a lot and buying many gifts, it is possible that there may be some time left to devote to the great pleasure of reading. Some time ago I recommended five books related to personal productivity from which you can learn many things. As far as I am concerned, they helped me.

Larry Dossey is an American author and physician whose publications are somewhat controversial because of the importance he gives, in the field of medicine, to spiritual issues that have little to do with science. In 1982, Dossey coined the term “time sickness” to define the belief that many people have about the fact that time is always slipping away, that there is never enough of it, and that we must go faster and faster to keep up.

In their book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, the Heath brothers argue that if you want to change the way someone behaves (including yourself) you’ll need to appeal to both the Rider and the Elephant within that person.

Principles and rules can be understood in different ways, so in this article I will refer to principles as “fundamental ideas that govern someone’s thought or behavior”, and to rules as “that which must be complied with because it has been agreed within a community.”