Hillary Rettig is both an activist and a productivity expert, two vocations that don't seem to have much in common at first glance. But as soon as I started reading two of her books, The Lifelong Activist and The 7 Secrets of the Prolific, I got the connection.

Unproductive would-be activists are disempowered activists.

And in a world that systematically tries to disempower those who challenge its structures of power and privilege, the last thing we need is to get in our own way when we stand up to injustice.