I have spent more than 10 years of my life practising the methodology Getting Things Done, reading many Personal Productivity books or articles and watching uncountable hours of videos on the Internet about this topic.

I remember being really thrilled when introducing a new strategy in my life to become smarter, faster and better. After some time, I stopped improving my personal system and left it as I use it today.

Over these 10 years, I discovered some simple facts that I would like to have known when I started. Let me share them with you, in no special order:

  1. All the methods and techniques you can find on the Internet, books, articles and YouTube videos might work for you… or might not.

  2. No matter how productive you are, you can always get stressed and frustrated for not giving more of yourself.

  3. Any organizational system that worked fine might become defective in the future, and it is hard to realize when that happens.

  4. Nobody follows completely “Getting Things Done” or any other similar methodology. Get what you like from them and build your own productivity system.

  5. While most productivity methodologies focus on the changes you have to apply to your life, the truth is that sometimes the environment matters more than your capacities and habits. Your boss, company culture, or personal situation may affect you in ways no methodology would be able to handle.

  6. If you are interested in Personal Productivity, you are probably already a very productive person.

  7. Personal Productivity comes down to habits management. The more flexible changing habits you are, the easier.

  8. Many people use Personal Productivity to sell books, courses, agendas, pencils, t-shirts and almost anything. Please don’t buy them to make you feel productive; you will regret it.

  9. You can improve your productivity by copying habits from your colleagues, friends, family or partner. Anything that works for people around you may help you, and there is no need to read them on any book or productivity website.

  10. Tools are irrelevant.

  11. Getting ideas and tasks out of your head is the best advice to improve your productivity, and it is a common rule in many Personal Productivity methodologies.

  12. Prefer continuous goals over end goals.

  13. Personal Productivity should teach you how to say “no”. There is no better way to be more productive than rejecting or delegating tasks.

  14. You can always improve your personal system, but having reached some point, further improvements don’t worth the effort.

  15. And last but not least, if Personal Productivity doesn’t find you more time for the things that really matter, like your family and friends, then it’s useless.