One day I’d had enough. Truth be told, I’d had way more than enough. I stopped and reevaluated my life, trying to figure out what was important to me, and what

One day I’d had enough. Truth be told, I’d had way more than enough. I stopped and reevaluated my life, trying to figure out what was important to me, and what wasn’t. This self-reflection and whatever series of events led to it are more valuable than any particular time management technique. I'm surprised the author did not discuss this in more depth, though I suspect this is because these realizations tend to arise largely by happenstance. When we notice ourselves failing to direct our energy toward matters of immediate concern, this is a fine occasion to evaluate what we are doing and why. If it is procrastination, perhaps this is a result of fearing failure, or perfectionism, or low energy. Perhaps we are distracted by a thought with which we have too closely identified ourselves, thus failing to notice that we are even thinking. There are many competing forces at play in the mind, and we are seldom if ever aware of all of them at once. I think that generally the cause of low productivity is, as someone once put it, "a failure to think about thinking." Perhaps the boon of these techniques is that they direct our attention to the content of our minds by creating a sense of urgency.