The dumbest and best productivity trick

He can look out the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks. Write or nothing. . . . I find it works. Two very simple rules, a: you don’t have to write. b: you can’t do anything else. The rest comes of itself.

But being productive and being organized are not always the same thing. The trap with organizing is that it can sometimes be an excuse not to ship things.

Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation. The few tasks on his list will be by

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