The Best Articles on Productivity

How can you get more work done, overcome procrastination and do it without all the stress and guilt? Here are my best articles exploring ways to get organized and accomplish more with less effort.

The 5 Best Articles

Productivity is a major theme of the blog, as such, I’ve written hundreds of articles on the subject. If you’re not sure where to start, here are the best five to get you going:

How to Finish Your Work, One Bite at a Time – The first article introducing my weekly/daily goals system, which I’ve used for years to stay productive.
How to Be Prolific – Sometimes the key is just creating a lot. Here’s how to produce a lot more in your work.
What is Productivity Guilt, and How to Prevent it? – We all feel pressure to do more than we’re doing now. While your intentions may be good, this guilt may do more harm than help.
Make Your Time Top-Heavy – A key strategy for getting things done.
Rethinking Discipline – Some speculations on what really motivates us to stick to things.

My Books on Productivity

I’ve written two ebooks on productivity: The Little Book of Productivity and Think Outside the Cubicle.

The Little Book of Productivity is a compilation of 99 ideas to make you more productive. Perfect if you’re looking for an easy read with a high ratio of ideas to pages.

Think Outside the Cubicle, despite having a somewhat confusing title, this book isn’t about quitting your job, but about how to be productive when you don’t work in an office. Students, entrepreneurs, freelancers and a growing number of people who don’t work in the normal office environment, nonetheless need to find ways to meet those productivity challenges. This book is a guide for rethinking the way we work.

Time Management

How to Find Time – A short essay on how to find time for what matters.
Why You Need to Run a Timelog (and How to Do It)
How to Work on Your Goals When You Don’t Have Time – Strategies for sticking to your goals when time is scarce.
What’s More Productive: Counting Hours or Tasks Accomplished? – Comparing two common metrics of productivity.
Why You’re Probably Not Working as Much as You Think You Are – Timelogs are an underused, and powerful way to see where you really spend your time.
How Much Time Do You Spend on Your Most Important Goals in Life?
Schedule Footprints VS Deadline Counts: How to Hack Your Stress Levels – A guest post from Cal Newport.
Don’t Pay Yourself by the Hour – Why thinking in terms of results, not hours worked, makes more sense.
20 Tips for Batching to Save Time and Cut Stress – Batching small tasks in one go can save a lot of time and free your time up for deep work.

Energy Management

Rethinking Discipline – Some speculations on what really motivates us to stick to things.
Energy Management – My first post on the subject.
7 Tips for Morning Alertness Without the Caffeine – I got through some of my most difficult projects (including the MIT Challenge) without drinking coffee or caffeine. Here’s how you can wake up without the brown stuff.
What Does it Mean to Work Hard
Why Focusing Can Often Feel Lazy
The Stupidity of Cutting Sleep – Why your time in bed is your most useful per hour spent.
Why Focus (Not Effort) is the Key to Getting Stuff Done
How to Nap (Without Feeling Exhausted After)
Energy Management is More Important for Creative Work

Motivation, Preventing Procrastination and Staying Focused

How to Cultivate Mental Stamina – How to persist on tasks that drain you mentally.
Stress, Not Working Too Much, Causes Burnout – You feel exhausted because of the emotions you need to deal with, not the toil itself.
The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus – Being able to concentrate is no easy task, here’s how to get better.
The Irony of Focus: Why Doing One Thing Actually Helps You Accomplish More
Could Obsessive Research Be the Cure for Procrastination? I spend a long time researching my projects, and ironically, this time spent actually increases my ability to stick to hard things.
Why You’re Lazy (and How to Fix It)
Work Less to Get More Done
20 Tips to Survive When You’ve Overloaded Your Schedule

Systems for Getting More Done

Double Your Output (While Working Fewer Hours) – My approach to productivity.
The Art of the Finish (How to Go From Busy to Accomplished) – Popular article from Cal Newport on how to get things finished.
Too Much Work? Here’s How to Handle It
Do You Trust Your Productivity System? – Trust that your system will get the job done will keep you from stressing over it.
Boost Productivity with a To-Don’t List – Why the things you don’t do often determine your productivity more than the things you work on.
How to Speed Up Highly Creative Tasks – Applying two-flow theory to creative work.

plus, the original article describing two-flow theory.


Kill Open Loops – Relax without feeling lazy.
Twenty Ways to Stay Productive When Working From Home

More Thoughts on Productivity

How Procrastination Can Help You Succeed – Delaying isn’t always a bad thing!
20 Unique Ways to Use the 80/20 Rule Today
Don’t Be Busy – Why true productivity often looks like laziness, and why busyness often leads to less getting done.
Just Finish It
Does Enjoyment Trump Efficiency? – Why the most efficient solution may not always be the best one.
How to Juggle Pursuits and Still Get Stuff Done
The 10 Really Obvious Ways to Be More Productive
Taoism and the Art of Productivity
How to Keep Productivity from Making You Into a Robot
Build a Motivation Catalyst
10 Tips for Staying Productive While Being Scheduled to Death

Have a question related to productivity, procrastination, and getting things done that I haven’t covered here? I’m always looking for new things to write about, so ask your question in the comments and I can consider it for a future article.

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