In my time absorbing productivity content, one thing has become abundantly clear: there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to making the most out of your time. Some books say one thing, some podcasts say other things, some YouTube videos say even more things, and by the end of it all, you’re playing Twister with all of these productivity hacks and methods, instead of reaching the actual goal of being more productive. As is inevitable with several different sources of chatter, many ideas end up clashing with one another. When you’re being pulled in all sorts of different directions, it can be difficult to surmise what actually works. That word “surmise” is doing a lot of the lifting there.
Advice Incompatible
One such example of contradicting ideas is how best to start your day. In Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog!, he talks about starting your day by tackling the biggest, most daunting task on your to-do list. Having done this, you’ll have no reason to fear what the rest of the day throws at you. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the idea of accruing momentum over the course of the day with “easy wins” (I can’t remember where I first learned of this technique, sadly.) This idea involves chaining a simple task—or the simplest form of your task—into successive tasks that are just as simple, building up steam that will lead you into the larger tasks you need to do.
Clearly, these ideas are polar opposites in nature. By its definition, the frog cant possibly be an easy win in and of itself. You can certainly break the task down into smaller pieces, as is often advocated for, but that has its own limitations as well. The phrase “break it down into smaller pieces” always brings to mind a comic I once saw of a huge boulder being broken down into thousands of smaller pebbles. Is tackling one of those things really that much better than the other?
Audacious Introspection
I’ve found that, like with every facet of life, you really only know what the best method is once you’ve done the experiments. As for myself, I saw little benefits of eating the frog. There would be times where the task is so daunting that it prevents me from getting any work done at all; or, in the scenarios that I do get over the hump, I never felt that sense of satisfaction you’d then use to take on the rest of your tasks. No, I’m much more a fan of the easy wins approach. I love to start my day with a simple to-do list of 5-6 small- to medium-sized items, crossing them off once I’ve finished them, or for larger projects, once I feel I’ve done enough to move the needle.
An intentional design philosophy of my current personal productivity system is leaving things more fluid than rigid. I’ve returned to my Notion Calendar many times to fill out what I want my week to look like, only to then quickly abandon that schedule in favor of doing things as I see fit. When I jot down these tasks on my to-do list, I have a rough idea of how I’d like my day to flow, but what’s most important to me is that I eventually hit all of the points, regardless of how it happens. Now, does this sometimes backfire on me and make me less productive than I could be? Absolutely; though, I’m willing to bet that no productivity system out there is entirely foolproof, no matter what the gurus try and sell you.
I wouldn’t have ever came to find this system if I tried to stick to what traditional wisdom says. If I did that, I’d be a burnt out mess that keeps filling out a schedule I can’t stick to because every day has to start with moving this heavy boulder another mile before I can get to the smaller stuff. Therein lies my point: I’m only able to say these things do or don’t work for me because I’ve done the experiments myself—no surmising required.
Adopting Information
It’s always best to approach productivity content with the mindset of “adopt what works and remove what doesn’t.” Be curious about the way these alternative methods make you feel, run the experiment of applying it to your life for a period of time, and look at the evidence you’ve collected, both factual and opinionated. Maybe this method does improve your productivity, but it’s at the cost of your happiness; sounds like it might not be the best method to adopt, at least within the context of how you ran the experiment.
The last thing to be aware of is how likely it is that your own system will shift over time as well. There’s no need to stuff yourself into the same box for years on end because it’s one that fit you perfectly some time ago. If it doesn’t fit you now, recognize where the pressure points are, and be willing to run more experiments.