The Five Essential Components of Productivity
I’m on an obsessive quest to discover what works in Productivity. Sure, there’s already a lot of material from some great authors, but I’m specifically looking at what works for me — managing in-trays and time boxing isn’t always practical. I work in an investment bank, and while the environment is strenuous, the most challenging aspect is managing multiple projects on the go. Fortunately, my most recent discovery may be my most profound — I call it the Five Essential Components of Productivity. It’s simple, easy, efficient, and it has transformed my results over the last two months. I know it will do the same for you.
1 — Start With Your To Do List
I wish I could start with a ground-breaking innovation, but the simple truth is productivity will always start with knowing what you have to do. Recently I have heard of so-called gurus condemning the to-do list as it can hinder our ability to be flexible and creative. That same attitude has cost me dearly over the years, and nothing has ever been more simple and yet effective than writing down what I need to get done — as a starting point.
The reasons for keeping a to-list go beyond anecdotal evidence. In 1927, Bluma Zeigarnik made a fascinating discovery that humans remember incomplete tasks with greater detail than those that have been finished…
