it is worth noting that, while productivity is a rather non-specific thing that can be systemized in a myriad of different ways, there are certain suggestions that end up repeated across many different self-help books, youtube videos and guides to various productivity software. i can attest from my practical experience that this particular advice sticks firmly in all kinds of places, and, in my opinion, the usefulness of such tips is high enough to the point that they should be considered axiomatic and diligently applied to every productivity system ever made.
listed below are five tips that i consider essential in any productivity scenario and should be evaluated above everything else when designing a productivity system. these are fundamental to every system that actually sticks.
every item here is gonna be prefaced by quotes from the book “Atomic Habits”, written by James Clear. even if the core idea of the book doesn’t sound like it will stick with you [it definitely didn’t stick with me], i still highly suggest checking it out because many other ideas it presents are quite revelatory and highly influential across much of self-help stuff you see nowadays.
i think much of the advice presented here may be summarized by this quote in particular:
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
don’t design around motivation, design around personal convenience
When scientists analyze people who appear to have tremendous self-control, it turns out those individuals aren’t all that different from those who are struggling. Instead, ‘disciplined’ people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control.
[…]the truth is, our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient. And despite what the latest productivity best seller will tell you, this is a smart strategy, not a dumb one.
a major mistake pretty much everyone makes when starting out with designing a productivity setup is overthinking things. like the new year’s resolutions, we start with grand plans and set rigid goals months in advance, timetabled down to every second without an opportunity for a wasted breath to leak through. the resolve we get from coming up with such intricate plans can even get us to follow them - for the first couple of days, at least. but, much like that abandoned fitness gym membership, such systems do not last long, exhausting themselves in the blink of an eye and leaving us with nothing but weeks-long backlogs of unfulfilled plans and dreams.
you cannot count on productive peaks every day. motivation comes and goes, and it is a rather hollow ground for something that is supposed to last. design your setup so you can still tick off that box even when you really don’t feel like doing so. make things lenient enough that you can consistently achieve something on any day, high and low, and you’re able to keep the car running through any obstacle you may face.
rigidity is the biggest enemy of productivity. the system that requires a lot of motivation and self-control to be followed is counterproductive and ineffective in the long term.
it is all the worse that there is an abundance of applications and community-made setups for apps like Notion or Obsidian that reinforce rigidity by pretending to be one-size-fits-all solutions for everything, stuffing every productivity concept under the sun and looking like they were purpose-built to be shown off at /r/unixporn.
such pre-made setups often end up overengineered and daunting to approach to anyone without necessary experience [and trust me, those with experience never use such setups wholesale either]. any attempt to personalize them often reveals that they are about as stable as a Jenga tower, breaking unpredictably in ways that are a bother to troubleshoot, especially when it is in the way of actually getting things done.
pre-made setups can certainly provide inspiration, but when you start out, you should start small and incorporate things gradually, so you can develop your own taste for what works and doesn’t work for you. don’t attempt to fully replicate pre-made setups, and avoid doing everything all at once.
give yourself the right time and place
Whenever you want to change your behavior, you can simply ask yourself: How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive? How can I make it easy? How can I make it satisfying?
a major point of friction between us and getting things done is our environment. it may be that your surroundings are so messy that just thinking about it makes you feel dread of having to sort them out. perhaps there’s not much room to breathe because you live with your parents in a tight flat, and getting space for yourself ends up a game of tug of war. or it might be that your devices are conveniently set up to give you instant access to steam or your social media platform of choice.
either way, think about setting up a dedicated environment where you can commit as much attention to your work as possible. make it a place where you do nothing but what you want to do. said place can be physical [different place/different room], metaphorical [same desk you use, but cleaned up and primed specifically for your intended goal], virtual [different profile on your computer or in your browser], or a combination of either of the three. the ideal setup may not be as readily available as we desire for it to be, but setting some boundaries can make sticking to work much easier.
remove the distractions, don’t forget about ergonomics, make your workspace effective and conductive towards whatever you want to do.
think less, act more
Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.
you might have a massive project you want to take on, or perhaps there is a list of tasks that you want to go through. either way, it can be daunting to figure out where to start and what to do to achieve the end result.
the less you spend time on thinking what to do, the more you spend time actually working on things. thus, the main goal of getting out of the overwhelming set of tasks is eliminating ambiguity.
perhaps you can sort them based on importance and urgency to determine what you should do first and what you can delegate or eliminate entirely. you can sort what you have by difficulty and project so you can readily determine relevant tasks and approach them by setting adequate time proportions. or, if that is still not enough and you can’t decide between a project you want to take on today, just flip a coin, spin the WHEEL, make it a decision, sit down, and work on it.
alleviate boredom
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.
productivity doesn’t have to be boring, and i hope that by now it is quite apparent. but what if it can also be fun?
gamification is a tool of great power that can be used as great leverage. find opportunities to add enjoyable mechanics to your productivity setup. could be more obvious gamey reward feedback, or could be juicing up things so they feel nicer to use.
[there’s also a point to be made on making the productive environment inspiring]
spend less time on a productivity system than you do on actual work
It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle, the perfect idea for a side hustle. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action. As Voltaire once wrote, ‘The best is the enemy of the good.’
you can spend a long time on setting up a productivity system, but if you spend more time on managing it than you do on actually doing work, you’re doing something wrong.