Tag: “Decision Making”

You have managed to set up and assimilate a personal productivity system that works for you. Congratulations, that is not easy. Despite it, you are aware that, in many cases, you are not performing well. You are realizing that, in order to perform certain tasks, you need much more time than you had planned.

Many people think that a personal productivity system consists of some software and/or a calendar and/or an ordered to-do list and/or a series of notes or documents relating to all this. However, this is nothing more than the physical, tangible part — the least important — of a personal productivity system.

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.

According to The Threefold Model for Evaluating Daily Work defined by David Allen, a person may be held in one of these three types of activities at any time during a normal workday (1):