Why productivity matter

This is a shorter post, but as someone who is in the productivity space and makes content about productivity, I feel the need to bring this point up from time to time, so no productivity apps today. Just some thoughts on my philosophy around productivity. I hope you enjoy, and there will be more posts about tools coming next week.

I have spent so much time the last couple of years talking about productivity applications. Writing about them, making videos about them, and testing them. I have done it because it is fun. I love testing out new apps, but there is more to it. It all started because I felt like I was losing control of my life. It felt like tasks would come in and I would just start them right away because if I did not, I would just forget about the task. I felt constantly overwhelmed, and it affected my sleep. That is why I got into productivity. I am not saying that productivity alone fixed all of it, but it gave me and continues to give me a sense of control.

Productivity to me is not about doing more. I hate the idea of doing more and more and more. Because at some point we no longer have any hours left. There is actually a limit to how much you can do in a day. No, productivity to me is not about doing more. It is about living more purposefully.

I know what I want to spend my time on in life. I want to spend it with my family, and I want to spend it creating content. Those two things are important to me, and I will always try to prioritize tasks that are related to those two aspects of my life. If my father asks me for help with something, that goes to the top of my priority list. But how can you prioritize something if you have no idea what your tasks are? If you do not have a system to manage all of the inputs that come during a day, it is hard, and I would say even close to impossible.

I do not have a task management system so I can do more. I have a task management system so I can easily decide what I do not want to do. Something that I have gotten much better at in the last couple of years, and my productivity system has helped. There is a limited amount of time, but in the digital age we are living in, it feels like the amount of input we are getting is not limited. It feels like it can go on forever.

I might have not needed a productivity system 30 or 40 years ago, but today I need it simply because I am available 24/7 and because there is information coming to me every second I am awake. It is a part of the society we are currently living in. We have so much information, and just like with tasks, I do not have a productivity system to try to remember everything. My productivity system is there for me to help me consume less, consume more mindfully, and to go back to the things I have consumed. To try to connect things together and make sense of things instead of jumping to the next piece of content before I have finished this piece of content.

My productivity system is made for mindfulness, something I think we need more of. It is about me being mindful of my tasks, the projects I take on, and the things I consume. It is about me trying to live a fulfilling life, which will be different from you living a fulfilling life because we are different with different goals. My productivity system is for me to live slower and not faster.

I think that is why productivity is important. When everyone and everything is fighting for my attention, I am happy that I have a system that helps filter out the noise. So for me, that is why a productivity system is important. It might be different for you, and that is okay. But as someone who makes content about productivity apps, I feel the need to from time to time talk about how productivity is not just about doing more all the time. There is a limit to what you can do in a day, and that is important to remember, especially for us in the productivity community. You cannot always do more, and sometimes doing less is exactly what you need.