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James Suzman's book titled Work: A Deep History, From the Stone Age to the Age of Robots examines our fixation with being productive, diving into the reason we are working hard in the first place.

Modern work, according to the author, is analogous with farming, which fundamentally changed our relationship with time, land, history and each other.

Your to-do list should be an extension of your mind. It's a way of storing away tomorrow's work so that you can focus on what you have to do today.

However, if we don't regularly tidy up our list, it can get cluttered. Instead of a reliable to-do list, it can become a cumbersome task in itself that cease to fulfil the function it was designed for. Learning from Marie Kondo, we can declutter our task list in a similar way she tidies physical belongings.

...means getting more out of the limited time you have each day. It’s one of the cornerstones of productivity and once you know how to properly prioritize, it can help with everything from your time management to work life balance.

• Something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of success regardless of the immediate outcome.
• A collection of goals, tools, habits, and methods is not the same as a purposeful system.
• A working system allows you to reduce your tasks to a manageable set of inputs and outputs, and establish some predictability.  

A lot of the internal things that affect our productivity are out of our control. Our energy, focus, and motivation follow their own path or “productivity curve” throughout the day. 

• Fighting against your personal productivity curves leads to overwork, feeling overwhelmed, and burnout.
• If you learn to work with your natural peaks and valleys, it can tell you exactly when you should schedule each part of your day.

Micro-breaks are quick impromptu breaks that workers take in order to keep our energy levels steady in order to get through the day.

The best work happens in short intensive deep work spurts (1–3 hours, no distractions). 

Your best thinking  will actually happen while you’re away from your work, “recovering.” By taking your mind off work and actually recovering, you’ll get creative breakthroughs related to your work.

Time anxiety is the feeling that you have not done enough to meet your goals or that you're not using the time you do have effectively.

Time anxiety is more than feeling overwhelmed at times - it haunts your days and causes you to procrastinate on essential tasks.

We all have good intentions about getting work done, but we rarely stick to them. Instead, we allow distractions to use up our time until there is nothing left.

We need to choose what is worth paying attention to. A system of focus will help you to keep track of deep work. Knowing where your time goes is an essential first step to taking control.