I'll let you in on a little secret: I'm not always productive.

Back in 2008 I was suddenly laid off from my job. My client canceled all contracts in the space of an afternoon, and my own company, which I had been with for 12 years, laid me off via email the next morning.After years of being in an office, I was suddenly at loose ends. My daughter was in first grade, and I wasn't sure what I would do next. I wanted to take my time to find the right job, but otherwise I didn't know.

Not all projects are created equal. Yet many of us routinely pile things onto our already over-full plates without stopping to consider if the project needs to be done at all, or if you are the best person to do it.And just because we are all individuals, each person must have individual standards about if a project is worth doing. Here are two ways that I look at projects:

Have you ever gotten so far behind in something that it would be easier to start over than to catch up? Sometimes you just have to cut your losses and start over.I recently realized I had a few hundred podcasts to listen to, and the list was growing bigger each week. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy them, I just hadn't made time to listen for the past few months.I knew I would never get through the backlog, and I would fall further and further behind. It was time for drastic action.

A feedback loop is something which gives you information about an action you have taken. As Wikipedia says: "the causal path that leads from the initial generation of the feedback signal to the subsequent modification of the event".I once heard a talk about the concept of feedback loops in relation to environmentalism. It got me thinking about feedback loops, and how they can be applied to our productivity.

Afternoon sleepiness is a normal function of our circadian rhythms. But our actions can make it better or worse. Here are 9 things I find help me get through the afternoon slump:

I've been writing this blog (or its variants) since 2007. And yet I still feel like a beginner on so many things!Someone challenged me, in response to a comment I made about not really knowing anything about productivity, to write a list of 30 things I know about productivity. Here it is:

We've all been there: we spend hours working on things, only to look at our lists to find we didn't do anything on them. Busy, but not planned. I call these rabbit trails. I don't go down rabbit trails very often, but when I do, I can count on losing at least an hour of productive time. Today we will look at how to spot them and what to do when you're on one.

Three types of office vampires have existed in every place I have worked, leaving trails of negativity behind them. And there are other types of vampires as well, more subtle in their approach to sucking out your energy and happiness. Can you spot and neutralize them?