Stop Your Pointless Quest for the Best Productivity System

This Bullet Journal is beautiful. But would something like this really be productive for you? (Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash)

Are you a productivity junkie? Are you constantly on the lookout for the latest productivity system or app?

Getting Things Done, the Bullet Journal, the Hipster PDA. Trello, Wunderlist, Todoist. There are waaay too many to name.

If you’ve said to yourself, “I’ll start writing when I figure out a better way to organize all of my ideas,” you’ve got a problem.

But the problem isn’t the system you’re using — it’s you.

Organizing Can Be a Stalling Tactic

Many of the apps and productivity methods out there are good. And the “latest and greatest” might be better than whatever you’re currently using.

Don’t let that distract you.

Organizing is much easier than creating. Creating is hard. And sometimes painful. Organizing, on the other hand — getting all your goals and tasks set up in a shiny new system — feels great.

It’s almost like you’ve really accomplished something.

But that sense is fleeting. Because you know, deep down, that even as you’re telling yourself that you’re optimizing, all you’re really doing is procrastinating.

As Gretchen Rubin said in her book Better Than Before,

“The biggest waste of time is to do well something that we need not do at all.”

So what’s the answer?

Stop Fussing and Start Doing

Pick a system and stick with it.

Stop reading about new productivity methods. Stop reading about the latest app.

If you don’t know what system to choose, go back to whatever you were using the last time you felt the most productive. Use that again.

Or pick something at random — anything that will let you keep track of your ideas and the steps you need to take to reach your goals.

What you choose doesn’t really matter.

Commit to using your new system for at least a few months — or however long it will take for you to start making real progress toward your goal.

And whenever you get the itch to try a new app or method, remember that it’s probably just The Resistance trying to get in your way.

Don’t let it.

“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.“— Franz Kafka

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