Category: “Personal Productivity”

Human beings, throughout history, have always played with the idea of reaching a status in which leisure is most of their time and work obligations are minimal. If we can avoid hard work and rush, better.

The debt-snowball method is a strategy developed by Dave Ramsey, author of the book The Total Money Makeover, which aims to eliminate personal debts. It basically consists on cancelling first the lowest debt providing minimal payments to the rest of the debt. Once you have cancelled the lowest debt, you can concentrate in the next one with the smallest amount owed, and so on.

Stephen Covey says in his famous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that we accomplish all that we do through delegation. We delegate either to time or to others. In the first case we are talking about efficiency, in the second one we are talking about effectiveness.

In 2006, Joseph C. Nunes and Xavier Dréze published a study called The Endowed Progress Effect: How Artificial Advancement Increases Effort. They describe a very interesting phenomenon used in marketing, which you can also use to take on your projects with greater motivation.

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.