Book Review: Stress-Free Productivity (Dr. Alice Boyes)
If you’re struggling with burnout, you NEED Stress-Free Productivity by Dr. Alice Boyes, Ph.D. in your life.
Why? Dr. Boyes teaches you how to become more creative and innovative, two key skills that many productivity books overlook. This unconventional book encourages you to take downtime, disengage with the hustle culture, and tap into your unique abilities to solve any problem that comes your way in business or in life.
“The trajectory of someone’s success is largely determined by a few pivotal moves each year. You can succeed if you have periods of bravery, prescience, and intense work. It’s not realistic to be in these states constantly. Nor is it needed.”
Dr. Boyes explains how to practice self-observation (what are you doing right now that’s working? What’s not working as well?), create repeatable systems to get things done more efficiently, and above all to become more creative and visionary. Rather than harping on common productivity themes like time management and discipline, Dr. Boyes emphasizes the importance of being kind to yourself and making gradual mindset shifts that then move your results in the right direction.
“To be productive, time management techniques and hacks for working faster aren’t enough. You need to be creative, curious, and brave. Without those, time management is shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Dr. Boyes has a wonderful chapter on procrastination, which is the most kind and compassionate explanation of what it is and why we do it that I’ve seen so far. Rather than attributing procrastination to a lack of willpower, self-discipline, or strong habits, she points to the basic issue of feeling overwhelmed as a key factor. When you feel overwhelmed by a task, you may tend to procrastinate and here’s why:
“This begs the question of what makes someone feel overwhelmed by a task. One criminally overlooked factor is that people lack skills and confidence for planning tasks. You might feel confident when doing a narrow range of work every week. However, when you are faced with a new task, deciding how to approach it feels overwhelming.”
Stress-Free Productivity is full of easy, actionable tools and little quizzes that teach you how to efficiently and effectively tackle any task, no matter how daunting. Highly recommend!