Category: “Personal Productivity”

The referee gives a penalty kick in a soccer match. The ball will take a split second to reach the goal from the moment of the striker’s kick, so the goalie cannot wait to see the ball’s trajectory to decide to which side he should jump. The decision should be taken beforehand. The odd thing is that the goalkeeper will decide, in most cases, to jump to the right side or to the left side, when the optimal strategy according to statistics is the third option: standing in the middle. Why won’t he stand still? Just because doing nothing is always somewhat embarrassing, even if it is the right thing to do.

The other day I met a friend for coffee. When we finished our coffees, we decided to go for a walk and continue the conversation for a little longer. Bad idea. The sun was blazing hot; the temperature 30ºC. I said goodbye and went home to continue the work I had planned to do that evening. Impossible. It took less than five minutes to realize that the increasingly intense headache caused by the sunstroke would not allow me to concentrate on what I had to do for a good while.

It’s the middle of the day, you’re tired and don’t think clearly anymore, you want to go home but still have 3 hours left of work before you can go. You have this nagging thought in your head: How can you get motivated and be more productive all day long, so you don’t hit these darn speed bumps that pop up all over the place like little targets on a video game?

Being productive while you’re traveling is not easy, for many reasons: you have limited resources, you have irregular schedules, you eat differently, you usually sleep worse, you do little exercise, you are away from your loved ones, you have more stress, etc.

During your average workday, how much time do you spend on emails and other routine activities? It’s easy to fritter away time on tasks that are necessary but not goal-driven.