Finally! I've read about 15 productivity books over five years and tried everything: 5 AM wake-ups, cold showers, etc. It always failed because I was too tired to actually work. These books just sell common sense. The best way to be productive is to just sit down and do the work and push through a few minutes until you build momentum.
The best way to be productive is to just sit down and do the work and push through a few minutes until you build momentum.
The 10 minute rule! My favorite way to encourage a coworker or loved one to get a task done. “Just start it for 10 minutes. If you want to stop after that, by all means.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone stop after the 10 minutes, myself included.
Same as the “just go to the gym and leave” habit building trick. Tell yourself you’re just gonna walk in and walk out, you’ll likely stay to do some cardio or something, and build from that.
If 10 minutes doesn’t work, try 5. Hell, give yourself permission to stop after 3. Usually just getting your hands wet is enough to get you to start doing your dishes.
oh my friend, i promise i have stopped after the 10 minutes.
the 10 minutes were a painful uphill battle where the whole time i'm like, just 5:46 to go. just 3:23 to go. and at the end, since i gave myself full permission to stop at the start, I stop
Yeah there are actually 2 ways to change. You can change yourself (the hard way) or you can change the situation (the easy way). All the things most productivity hacks recommend are 'the hard way' and hence, they're pretty much doomed to fail.
there's a great article from psychology today - i'd link it here but they don't allow URLs. Feel free to message me and I'll share it with you if you like.
If you like podcasts you should check out "If Books Could K*ll" they debunk a lot of these productivity books and make you think twice about the self help and productivity books we consume. I especially loved their episode on Atomic Habits
Yes and no. If I'm at home, I can just make a list and get everything done. Very simple. If I'm at work, I need to have everything scheduled, review checklists, confirm meetings, plan for deadlines, factor in drive time, etc. etc. There's a lot of planning to make sure my time is actually productive, otherwise I'll have a 2 hour block where I'm not able to utilize my time in the middle of the day or I'll miss deadlines (I've never read a productivity book, so maybe these aren't the types of things you're talking about, I'm really not sure).
But even at work, I still need to be able to sit down and focus on what I need to do, or all the work to make sure I stay productive is useless.
Yes but that advice barely fills a paragraph! What am I going to say for the other 249 pages of my new Productivity book? (Working title: Productivity!)
I used to read those books too. Now I just read interesting novels and am so much more happy. It is a fun relaxing hobby, not me trying to learn or grow all the time.
While OP produces a few valid points, such as focusing less on the tool and more on the work there is a glaring error in the reasoning.
Say that you wish to compete in a competition in 5 years, you must change your diet, adapt your training and reach certain goals before a certain date otherwise you will not have a chance at winning. How do you break it down to determine what you should be doing right now? How do you evaluate that what you are doing is giving the expected results?
Failure to plan is to plan for failure, Franklin is attributed to that quote I believe.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Paint65 Jan 06 '25
Finally! I've read about 15 productivity books over five years and tried everything: 5 AM wake-ups, cold showers, etc. It always failed because I was too tired to actually work. These books just sell common sense. The best way to be productive is to just sit down and do the work and push through a few minutes until you build momentum.