Category: “Personal Productivity”

All of us procrastinate occasionally. Most times it is simply to delay a few minutes or a few hours on something we must do (“come on, 10 minutes more on Twitter and then I’ll get with it”, “This afternoon I’ll call him, now I do not feel like it”.) Other times it is more serious, because our unwillingness to undertake that task affects other people and generates problems.

I know; to be selfish does not seem a very appropriate advice at Christmas time. Besides, nobody likes to be tagged as being “egoist.” In its most common use, an egoistic person is a conceited person, too engrossed with his/her own interests to think about those of others.

The concept of productivity is being carried to an extreme that I don’t like at all. I agree that time is precious and we should not waste it. But I do not agree that we should lose our essence as human beings to not give a second up as lost.

According to Daniel Pink, author of the book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, what drives most people to do things is basically the satisfaction they get by simply carrying them out. Under certain circumstances, working can be just as exciting as not working at all.

A very important issue in any company is deciding when to invest in improving existing products and services and when to invest in researching new possibilities ¹. How many companies have been ruined by blindly following the products that led them to success, not caring to investigate new concepts, technologies and trends?