Stress-free productivity does exist

El “Chapo” Guzmán was arrested in Mexico. Dozens of women are sexually assaulted in several German cities during the New Year’s Eve. Kim Jong-Un, North Korean leader, conducted nuclear tests with unclear purposes. China pumps money in the economy to prevent a collapse in the Stock Market. What is the purpose to know all this? Does it increase your knowledge? Does it raise your awareness? Does it help you think better? Does it make you more productive? Does it improve your life? The short answer is no. An extensive and reasoned response follows.

How all the things have changed in the last 20 years! We live in a society in which over 500 million daily tweets are published, more than 300 million uploaded photos to Facebook every day and over 300 hours of video to YouTube every minute. There is a lot of new information, and it comes to us very quickly.

The end of the year is approaching and you’re probably making a mental review of how this year was, what you’ve achieved and what you would like to change to make the next year better.

In this article I will use the word “work” in the way it is used in GTD, that is, understood as anything you’ve committed to do, either in personal or professional contexts.

It comes a holiday season in which, in addition to visiting your family, eating a lot and buying many gifts, it is possible that there may be some time left to devote to the great pleasure of reading. Some time ago I recommended five books related to personal productivity from which you can learn many things. As far as I am concerned, they helped me.