Productivity Is a Myth, This Is How I Procrastinate.

Everything I read about being productive is garbage. It's all written by people selling a system that only works for them—if it works at all. My biggest complaint is that no one talks about the real goal: having more time to procrastinate at work. We all know that's what the end goal is with every workflow tutorial, productivity blog, and every app made for it out there. I don't want to read about how some app was able to make you 3x more money; it's just not true. Half of these productivity gurus act as if you just color-code your calendar and wake up at 4 a.m., your whole life will magically fix itself. Meanwhile, I’m out here, proud of myself for replying to three emails before lunch.

I get overwhelmed with trying to find that perfect system or app that will basically do the work for me. Until Elon builds me a robot that does my job, the perfect system isn’t happening. I've tried just about every system, and they all cause the same problems. You spend more time setting them up and working in the app than you do actually doing the tasks that you're logging into them. I could spend all day building a daily planner and to-do list, but when it comes to actually doing the work, that's where they fall short. No amount of pesky reminders or "points" for getting things done will motivate me to complete tasks.

My two motivations for doing anything are these:
Keeping my job.
Having time to do nothing.

I would love for there to be a magic system that I could input all of the things I need to get done into it, and it would complete them for me. Unfortunately, I'm not Harry Potter.

All of Life's Answers are Just One In-App Purchase Away

I understand, everyone needs to make money for what they build. I'm just sick of being told that if I sign up for your premium app that it will change my life. The grift is getting old. I have wasted so much money trying to find that perfect system that will change the way I work. Here's the secret: they are all the same app wrapped in a different package. Everyone is just recreating the same things over and over.

At some point, you have to decide if it's worth paying $5.99 a month to write down your to-do list in an app. If so, just pick one and move on. Once I realized that, it changed how I work. I'm no longer constantly searching for that magical app or system that will change my life. I'm not wasting my time anymore looking for a new way to do things when I feel like I can't get anything done. I remind myself that every time I think I need to find a new way to stay productive.

Making Time to Procrastinate: How I Do It.

I would spend hours at my desk working in apps like Notion, trying to build an amazing productivity dashboard. I would have spreadsheets, calendars, and kanban boards. The full works, every little detail added to this system. But it wasn't a system, it was just a new way to procrastinate. At the end of the day, I would go home without actually completing any real work.

I needed to stop and really look at what I was doing. What helped me reach a point where I could make this happen was realizing what my goal truly was: getting things done so I could be lazy. Once I was true to myself, it started to fall into place. Now, it's not perfect, but I have started to build myself a system that allows me to get my work done and also slack off.

My System

My “system” is basically the bare minimum I can get away with without getting fired. I'm not going to sit here and tell you you should use this app or another, or that this will work for anyone else, because it probably won't. It barely works for me. I have a few simple tools that help me organize my work life when I see fit to actually use them (That's a whole other problem).

• I use a to-do list of things that need to be completed. I use Todoist for this. I'm not pitching this app; it's just the one I picked to use.
• I use Microsoft Calendar, because that's what my employer provides us.
• I use a notebook app on my iPad to write notes down in a central location.

That's it, three simple things that can capture everything I need. I keep it simple; otherwise, I would be spending all day tinkering in an app trying to organize every little detail.

Conclusion: This Will Fail One Day

I won't bullshit you, this system will fail me someday. I already have trouble sticking to it. I let items linger on my to-do list, or sometimes I just delete them because I just don't feel like doing that task anymore. I forget to put things on my calendar all the time. I also don't always get my iPad out to write notes down, reverting to sticky notes on my desk that I eventually lose. This is one of the major problems with productivity apps that they don't tell you. If you weren’t productive before the app, you won’t be productive after. The app doesn’t fix you, it just gives you a prettier place to fail.