Milo

It can be inconvenient if you've missed a telephone conference because you forgot that 9:00 a.m. in Chicago is 7:00 a.m. in Los Angeles and 10:00 a.m. in New York City.

Time zones are supposed to keep our clocks consistent with solar time wherever we are on the planet. Solar time changes as you move even a short distance from one place to another. It was invented to help reduce confusion rather than cause it.

The activities that we have on our calendar are most likely the things that we're supposed to do but in order to not tire ourselves out, we must also make time for the things that make us happy.

The people who spend more time on projects that energize them and with people who bring the same energizing energy tend to be happier.

This is a productivity method developed by Brian Tracy. The 'frog' refers to the most important and most impactful task you have to complete.

If you work on it first thing every morning, you'll be more productive and successful, and you'll reach your goals more quickly.

We usually procrastinate instead of being productive due to various reasons like having fun being distracted (like playing video games) or just lounging around as the task is too easy (or too difficult).

We start with a big, audacious goal and quickly realize that it is not feasible. Our lack of expertise is also a perfect excuse to slack around, as we fail to break down the task into smaller ones or take the first step.

A huge number of productivity books have been published but very few of these books combine productivity, creativity, and mental health. How do you achieve more without burning out in the process?

Using a mindful productivity audit is one way to assess your current systems and evaluate if you can perform better while taking care of your mind.

Research suggests that we need to think strategically about how the time of day will affect our decisions and performance.

As a day passes, we become increasingly tired and more likely to underperform on work tasks. This suggests that we should tackle tasks that require a great deal of attention and mental energy first and that we should take regular breaks.

There are real consequences of not reaching office on time, or not meeting a project deadline, and that makes us focus on work, instead of our exercise, nutrition, reading or meditation.

The consequences of missing our beloved activity or hobby or even the relaxing walk in the park are not felt right there. We habitually prioritize work as we try to squeeze stuff we like to do in the small pockets of time we get in between.

Jerry Seinfeld keeps his commitment of writing a joke every single day with a calendar: Each day that he writes, he puts a big X on the calendar.  

After a few days, he'll have a chain. If ever he’s tempted to skip a day, he just has to look at the calendar where a single missed day will ruin the whole chain.

Most of us want to be productive but do not completely understand what we do, why we do it, and who judges it as productive or non-productive.

Productivity can be defined as the effectiveness of an effort, measured in terms of input and output. This definition is limited, as modern knowledge work does not fall in the category of industries (like a sugar factory) or agriculture, where productivity can be measured tangibly, and the output is already defined in a linear way.