Why I don’t care about productivity

I used to spend a lot of time asking myself “how I can be more productive.”

Productivity measures the time or effort you put in, not the result you put out.

You could be incredibly productive doing utterly meaningless work. If you spend every waking minute working on goals that don’t matter, your productivity levels will be through the roof!

Another problem with measuring productivity: someone being “productive” with many medium-important tasks can have the same “productivity” as someone working on one, massive goal.

I don’t like to measure my input. I tend to not even ask myself how I can be more productive.

Why? Because the science behind productivity isn’t rocket science.

The ultimate productivity hack is saying no.Say no to “unproductive” things, and you’re all set to be “productive.”

I changed the metric to meaningful work. Instead of caring about how productive my day is, I care about how meaningful my work was. Is it bringing me closer to my goals in life? Do I feel satisfied? Proud?

There’s a difference between spending a day sorting through emails and slack messages, and a day working towards building a product or vision. You can spend the same amount of time being “productive,” but the thing that matters at the end of the day is how meaningful you find your work.