Tag: “Habits”

Some time ago I heard a very interesting podcast in which Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, was interviewed by David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, in an attempt to delve deeper into the intersection between the management of habits and personal productivity.

I am absolutely convinced that the main reason why many people are not well organized and continue to live burdened by the pressure of their work and personal tasks, is that they fail to establish the necessary habits needed to keep everything in life under control.

The Daily Review is a resource to sort the ideas generated during the day and arrange your work plan. First, you have to review your Calendar to have in mind the commitments for the next day, checking all the necessary stuff to ensure you are not forgetting anything. This is key to not appear at a meeting without an important document or information, to not feel a little bad for not mentioning a significant detail that emerged during the previous evening.

Today, our productivity is always threatened by the existence of constant interruptions that we cannot control. An interruption is anything that prevents you from starting and ending an important task. It is hard to do the important things and ignore the trivial when the universe is conspiring against you.

GTD, Autofocus, ZTD, Pomodoro technique, Personal Kanban… Personal productivity has always been surrounded by different formal methods intended to systematize our behavior to make it less erratic and allow us to better focus on what we have to do. From time to time there is a new method — or a variation of an existing one — supported by a handful of evangelists, which enjoys a period of relative popularity… until it is replaced by the next.