For me, productivity means creating meaningful output that matters. Not busy work or the illusion of progress, but actually moving needles that count. These are observations from my experience, not prescriptions:
- Meaningful Work: I can't maintain focus unless I deeply understand why task matters. When I connect with the purpose, my brain solves problems even when I'm not actively working. I've found that spending time thinking about what to work on and why is just as valuable as the work itself.
- Delegation: My breakthrough was discovering that different people genuinely enjoy tasks I find draining. Someone on my team actually enjoys polishing animations to perfection, while for me it's tedious. Finding these complementary motivations has multiplied what we accomplish together without anyone feeling burned out.
- Lists: I track tasks digitally in Things3 with a simple system – each project is a container with a binary state (either complete or not) containing related tasks. While the digital system is great for organizing and adjusting plans, I've found transferring today's specific tasks to paper each morning creates a powerful commitment device. The physical act of writing tasks down and crossing them off creates a momentum that digital tools can't replicate. This hybrid approach gives me both flexibility and focus.
- Focus: I've learned to ruthlessly eliminate anything not on today's list during my productive hours (9am-6pm). Notifications silenced, distractions minimized, noise eliminated. Deep work requires extended periods of uninterrupted attention. The difference in quality and quantity of output has been dramatic.
- Biological Energy: Quality sleep in a cold, dark room, consistent exercise 3-5x weekly, proper nutrition, and steady hydration create the foundation for sustainable energy for me. I know someone who operates differently. He pushes through for months on psychological energy alone, producing impressive work, until he crashes completely for a week. After recovery, he's back to full capacity. While effective for him, whenever I've neglected these basics, it's inevitably caught up with me much faster.
- Input Curation: I've noticed that long-term exposure to low-quality content gradually shifts what I consider meaningful work for me. Deliberately spending more time with thoughtful content and interesting people while reducing exposure to feeds and news has transformed my work for the better. Defending my attention has become as important as managing my time.
Still experimenting and refining daily. What works changes as contexts shift.