Your Constant Quest For Productivity May Be Hurting You

I have been head down working on several things. During the time I found myself accomplishing a lot of what I had set out to. Accomplishing a lot more than I would previously. What changed?

Let me take you on a journey...

A number of the decisions I took towards the end of the previous year began to pay dividend. These included my stepping away from React and that ecosystem. Changing how I go about accomplishing the things I set out to. Elimination of things from my life and avoidance of others.

Anyway, I digress...

Let's talk productivity...

Productivity

You will be hard pressed to not encounter someone talking about productivity this or productivity that. Be it an app, a book or some system that has 'increased their productivity'. Everyone and their grandma is on some tool, some book, some extension or some keyboard shortcuts to increase productivity - and it never ends. There is always going to be something, there is always something and there will always going to be something.

One of the things I did, or rather didn't do, was stop hunting down tools and methods to 'achieve ultimate productivity'. A realisation hit me; I asked myself; with all this focus on creating the most productive work environment, is anything actually getting done?

Why that question specifically? It boils down to an insight I had while I was reading and taking in the words in my own time. In it, our guide said something that made me stop and think. It was something to effect of:

Which in turn got me thinking; all this 'productivity' everyone is stuck in endless loops in search of, who is it for? Does anyone really want to be productive, or do they want to look like they're being productive? I have to admit, at a point I was guilty of the latter. [^1]

That choice, that simple decision of asking myself; this that I am doing, is it helping me in any way? Is it aiding me getting to my keystones in any way? When I answered those questions honestly, a shift in my mindset occurred. I did away with all the hype and zeroed in on what was important to me.

The More You Look for Productivity, the Less You Accomplish

That was the observation, the conclusion I came to. Every minute, every second spent on trying to and looking for ways to be 'productive' was a minute spent on not getting anything done. Simple as that. There is no hidden tool, special book or supposed system that will get you to be more 'productive'.

The change that needs to happen is you, within you. Once your mind is set right and your focuses are correctly aligned, things will begin to work smoothly and you will attain that 'productivity' that you've been feverishly hunting.

Contrary to what you might have been lead to believe, there is such a thing as too much 'productivity'.

Conclusion

Forget the productivity tools, forget the books, forget the systems. Do the work, accomplish the task. Quiet the noise. Productivity is not some magic pill you can stumble upon, it is a shift in mindset. Wrap your head around that, and stop hunting for magic geese.

[^1]: Just pick a thing and do the damn thing

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