Do You Have Projects Stuck in Limbo? “Get into the best shape of my life by next summer.” “Launch a new business line.” When you first launched these projects you were full of energy and progress came easily. Then the
Does Saying “I’m Busy” Make You Fall Behind? A: “How have you been lately?”B: “Oh, I’m swamped. Every day is a blur.”A: “Well, that’s a good thing—being busy means you’re doing well.” We hear conversations like this all the time.
Why Spend Time Naming Your Tasks? We put thought into naming a new baby, a beloved pet, or an important file because we know a careless choice will come back to haunt us. The same applies to tasks. Give a
Every day a flood of new tasks arrives and the sheer volume leaves you spinning your wheels. You can tell, at least vaguely, what needs to be done, yet the picture stays fuzzy and your hands just will not move.
Even if you are working on your daily assignments or accomplishing the tasks you have set for yourself, you may feel unsatisfied and unfulfilled and feel anxious, wondering, “Is this what it’s all about?” There are limits to what you
Stop Ignoring Overdue Tasks Most task apps let you set due dates and alert you when you miss them. If you manage work with an approach like GTD, it is tempting to add deadlines to everything: “Finish this by the
Checking Off Tasks but Still Unsatisfied? You capture ideas in your To-Do list and tick them off one by one. Day after day you repeat the cycle. In theory, that steady rhythm should lead you to your goals. Yet there
Modern task managers such as Todoist and even Google Calendar make it easy to set recurring tasks. Used well, this is powerful. Used poorly, it becomes a trap. We often create daily recurrences for admirable habits: Exercise Meditation Reading Study
Seiroku Honda (1866-1952), known as the “father of Japanese parks,” designed numerous parks, taught as a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Agriculture, and amassed great wealth as an investor. In his book My Confession of Wealth he
Anyone interested in productivity probably knows Katsuma Kazuyo. She produces an incredible volume of work, and at first glance it looks impossible to emulate. Her idea of banning the “three poisons” and keeping a “not-to-do list” makes that challenge manageable.
