Is productivity complicated?

My take - I can be productive in my comfort zone no issues. I can work non stop 3-4 hours without any distraction. When it comes to pushing the comfort boundaries and doing the impossible, productivity falters. Can't focus more than 20 - 25 minutes. Be it solving a Leetcode difficult problem or trying to synthesise a new idea. I think this behaviour is more or less similar in everyone. So one hack that I am learning slowly is to stay in the comfort zone, be productive and then push the boundaries something like a 80:20 split. Eventually my belief is that the 20% will move to the 80%. You can use the existing tooling like RescueTime/Pomodoro for measurement but they won't be useful in determining the context of tasks.

I'm working on a productivity product, and I do think most tools and systems are unnecessarily complex. For example, a lot of our users previously used Notion as a productivity system. The problem is they spent all their time maintaining Notion, rather than actually doing the work. Also, many tools are team focused, and optimize for collaboration and communication, rather than individual productivity.

How much of good productivity comes from habits instead of tools we get asked all the time. Obviously we think tools can help. otherwise we wouldn't be building https://sendmemo.app/ but thinking about that has help us realise that some things can't be fixed by our tools and we should focus on the small bits that can be

I agree with @crowdhailer that it's a habit thing. Tools can help you stay/become more productive, but the tool is not the solution. If I feel like doing nothing on a given day, the tool is not going to make me sit down and work. What helped me be productive is prioritize and tell myself "let's get this done". Seeing a list of tasks has hardly any impact on me. I tried Asana, Todoist and Roam Research for productivity. I think Roam isn't a good tool for productivity, but it's great for note taking and storing information & knowledge (which I need for writing).

I feel there's a lot of good productivity tool out there. Some saves me time, others help with tracking my productivity. As an example, a tool tracking my productivity - seeing my progress (or lack of) over time keeps me accountable. I can see if I'm stuck at the same place and then course-correct. (I'm into journaling - I feel its the same principle)

I personally tried LOTS of productivity tools and frameworks (my personality type is "manager", so I am interested in such tools by nature). The conclusion I've got after years of up-and-downs is that THERE IS NO PERFECT SOLUTION. Some frameworks may become useful for somebody just "out of the box". Some frameworks require adaptation and modification to one's lifecycle, way of thinking and approach to doing things. Skipping the boring part about considering myself as complicated person, and straight to the core: I discovered, that all "self-management" things are divided into two main segments: 1) Global scope: What GOALS we are going to deal with or to make done in months and years. 2) Local scope: How to organize TIME for particular TASKS during days and weeks. For scope that involves more than one-two-three months, the first approach is optimal: you just markup main things, or milestones. Sometimes "SMART" is useful, sometimes easier to write down goals in simple verbose format. But when it comes to daily work and tasking (according to big goals!), most useful is to organize TIME (not Goals) and TASKS. So. For both scopes, Global and Local, there are completely different tools and frameworks. For example, you can develop your Yearly Goals using "Wheel of Life" OR "Year Compass" or by "Getting projects done" and etcetera... Whilst Monthly, weekly and daily work you can organize using Eisenhower Matrix, Pomodoro, Kanban, Google Spreadsheets, Bullet notes, Simple checklists, whatever, what you more comfortable with. The main goal in small scoping is to organize time properly to achieve locally your global goals. For me - yes, I tried hard to modify and combine different approaches and frameworks that finally well suits me personally. And I would not claim that my curent model is "perfect": models are changing as we grow as self-managers.

Yes, productivity is complicated if you are not using the right techniques to market your product. If you are a salon owner and not able to mage your business activities then use !salonist.

I think we tend to over think Productivity. I prefer to focus on "Organising". If you're better organised you're more productive? Any tool that lets you organise whatever you're doing easily, will become great for productivity. Any tool that needs time and thought to "how should I organise" will likely kill/reduce productivity. Just as I write this I'm thinking how we should be implementing this thought at our "productivity tool" 😅

This is a good question @maths_mathisen - I think it can be overwhelming. I work with clients on a 1:1 basis to help them ruthlessly prioritise and figure out what they need to work on. Usually my clients find the practice of talking it through with someone/having someone asking questions useful. It's often difficult to see the big picture when you're stuck in the swamp. All of these systems can help, but it's about finding something that works for you. If you're spending more time on tools and systems, they've failed you...

No I do not think it is complicated but I think it benefits the productivity economy to make out that it is complicated. My approach has three steps. 1. Review what needs to be done. 2. Write down, prioritise and commit. 3. Remove distractions, choose the top item and do it. Someone mentioned eating the frog. Some days it feels like all I do is eat frogs but hey, in France they are deliscious!

Productivity is not complicated but it requires discipline. After following a simple routine of planning and reviewing each week for a couple of years, I created a simple web app that focus on that: 1. Define your long term goals and new habits 2. Write down your priorities for the week 3. Indicate some tasks you'll work on during the week 4. work... 5. Review and start again If you want to check it out, it's named theLIFEBOARD.app ✌️

I wouldn't say that productivity is complicated as much as it is misunderstood. The tension around "being productive" and recognizing it in other folks boils down to a definition. As we build our tool, on the surface, you'd think a productivity metric like "number of commits" would be a feasible productivity measure, but when you dig in, it really is nothing but a vanity metric. Maximizing productivity starts by establishing how it's defined for you and your teams.

Tip 1 on saving your time and working productively is stop reading book about productivity. Tip 2 - if you can't start doing the task, count from 7 to 1 and move forward with it without overthinking. Just do it. Tip 3 - Cut the bigger tasks into the smaller once, like step by step. We often don't do our work because it scares us away with its amount. The tools for productivity are not unnecessarily complicated, they're just unnecessary. Productivity starts with you and your attitude to work/time, it's in your head. All you may really need is a small notepad and a pen to write a plan for the next day. Good luck with what you're working on!

I draw the line of productivity between teams and individuals. Individual productivity is 10% the tool, 10% the methodology, and 80% your own will and commitment. For teams, the tool becomes more necessary and important. Fair warning, this is my product, and it's awesome because it lets you work the way you want to work. Let out the chaos in your mind in a free form fashion and then bring order to it. Very conducive to GTD - https://crucialhuman.com/product...

Always have a pen and paper next to your laptop to take rapid notes. Best productivity tool ever !

Meditation and a good night's sleep! For me these outperform every 21st-century tool by far.

Let me share my take on it, holistic approach: - Our ability to be "Productive"/ Focus on the task at hand and long/short term goal depends on the ability to Concentrate and avoid distraction. - Our ability to Concentrate depends on the amount of Energy we have and Balance of the Hemispheres of of Brain. - Energy and Hemispheres balance depends on "cleanliness" of our body - The "cleanliness of the body" is largely based on the diet we have. There are a lot of information and techniques that deal with each link of the chain. It does not matter which tools you use until you have strong roots. "It makes no sense to build a beautiful house in the swamp".

Multi tasking is complicated. Also multi tasking isn't productive. Productivity isn't complicated at all when you are focused on single thing.

I think there are two strong points two consider in how productivity is discussed, most specifically in the business environment. I agree with you that a lot of productivity solutions feel overcomplicated. Especially because they have a lot of extra features, plugins, add-ons etc. that make sense on paper, but once you actually incorporate them into your workflow, you end up spending more time calibrating your work stack than actually *being* productive. Complicated tools also make collaboration harder, with expectations that everyone you communicate and collaborate have the same proficiency with all the tweaks, upgrades and specific features you incorporated. On another note I also think that for a long time general business culture definitely negatively defines the concept of productivity. Surreal expectations of working crazy hours are still very much a thing in some companies. But very long work days on a continuous basis will a) lead to a burnout or b) doing stuff in 10 hours that could be done in 5 (example). Nevertheless, the last few months I have seen some amazing stuff popping up on the future of work and kind of breaking the decade long preconceptions. I think besides tools and books with tricks, hacks, tips and whatnot, looking at the original definition of what a *productive* workflow/workday actually looks like matters. Also, how is it connected with collaboration and communication (individual productivity is not as useful if the rest of the team is not) is something that not often considered, especially with remote work becoming more and more popular.

I think that productivity is only ever accomplished with SLEEP. In a culture that promotes multitasking, productivity, and efficiency often our most basic human needs are left unaccounted for. I have often sacrificed sleep in order to achieve my daily goals or long-term plans but have recently rediscovered the importance and the effects of a good night of SLEEP!