How things began
It all started in the late 90's when our advertising manager gave me Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Successful People. He had noticed my sluggish productivity despite spending long hours in the office.
The book had an immediate impact on me. I started coming into the office earlier than everyone, scheduled my priorities and organized my inboxes into four quadrants. My productivity improved.
Jump forward 13 years, my inboxes overflowing and feeling overwhelmed, I found Leo Babauta and his Zen Habits blog, and his post on the GTD system (Getting Things Done by David Allen). This is where my love for self improvement and productivity really kicked in. I became a devoted GTDer, experimenting with all kinds of electronic and paper versions of lists, and realizing that Covey’s third and fourth quadrants (other people’s priorities and time wasters) should be the trash can.
The end result has been a feeling of control over my own life and increased peace of mind.