Date: 10th May 2019
The productivity industry is a $1billon dollar industry. And it is a waste of time.
Six years ago, I was obsessed with productivity. The result of my obsession was ineffeciveness.
Today, I spend zero time thinking about how productive I am. And yet, I am the most productive I have ever been.
What changed?
Here is the truth: I stopped investing time into finding new ways to be more productive. And put that time into my work.
And just like magic, my effectiveness increase 3-fold.
When I became a software engineer, I was facinated by how much time some (not all, some) engineers spend on things like config files and 'setup'.
On new languages and reddit threads. Anything and everything except delivering the project.
One is work. One is not.
Or, the startup founder who invests multiple weeks into their third project management tool.
Asana this week. Monday next week.
They already use one of them (and it's not an issue), but they heard that another tool will make them more productive.
All the founders I have spoken to that switched tools told me that nothing changed.
The focus is one productivity instead of delivering solutions to their customer.
One is work. One isn't.
If you are obsessed with productivity books, courses or tools... ask yourself this: are you avoiding the work?