Stress-free productivity does exist

Now that you are on vacation or about to start (if you have already finished your holidays, I am late, but still read on and use the advice on your next ones), surely you will have plenty of spare time that you will try to spend, within your means and according to your circumstances, doing things you really enjoy. Actually, you should try to do things you like throughout the year, and you should work on something you like as well, so that every minute of your life counts… but this is not the subject of this post.

Email is one of the most used communication tools these days. And the one I most recommend, if you do not want to waste a good portion of your time. Everyone has an email and this kind of conversation is asynchronous, which means that, unlike phone calls, instant messaging and meetings (whether face-to-face or by video-conference), the interlocutors do not share the same spot of time and, therefore, answers do not have to be immediate.

A common mistake that people make when they start to feel the need to be more efficient and better organized, is trying to use the same tools they already use for other new things. They think that, using the same stuff for everything, they will do fewer things and, therefore, will be more productive. Big mistake. Mixing different things usually does not simplify anything; on the contrary, it creates confusion and complexity.

Have you ever felt really overwhelmed by your work? I mean those situations where you feel you have no time to do anything and just try to deal with one fire after another. If you are reading this blog, it is more than likely you have been there a few times.

From time to time I find in my lists some tasks that are difficult to manage, at least for me. They usually have these features: