Tag: “Science”

Today I want to share a thought that I read last week at Daniel H. Pink’s blog. In this article, the author compares the current phenomenon of Personal Productivity with the Dieting one, which has been installed in our society for a few decades.

Humor is a tangible demonstration of the most important attributes of the right side of the brain: the ability to place situations in context, to see the big picture, to combine different elements to create new things, and so on. According to various investigations, humor reduces hostility, relieves stress, allows a better criticism and helps to communicate difficult messages. It turns out that, used skillfully, it can be a great stimulus for creativity, a trait increasingly necessary for success.

Why do we procrastinate even knowing that this behavior will bring us problems? Why is it so hard to quit a job or a career that gets us nowhere? Why do we continue to do (or not to do) certain things, even though we know that the fact of doing (or not doing) them hurts us?

Stress is generated due to certain restrictions and demands that act upon us. Restrictions prevent us to do what we desire and demands request strongly our effort and focus into something. In particular, stress occurs when we deal with a restriction or demand of which outcome we perceive to be both important and uncertain.

Surely you know that the book written by David Allen in 2001, Getting Things Done, has become the manual of personal productivity for hundreds of thousands of followers. The great success of this method is that it has been used and validated empirically by a crowd of supporters.