You're Wasting Your Time Following Productivity Gurus – Here's Why
Like most people, I am constantly looking for a shortcut or hack when it comes to productivity.
Everyone wants to be productive and finish all their work in an organized and timely manner. Folks aim to feel confident, as David Allen suggests that all your commitments are out of your mind and in a trusted system. That's why we all have To-Do lists, calendars, notebooks etc.
We typically look for inspiration on YouTube for a system that will help us get organized and productivity. There are various popular YT productivity channels where we all are asked to like, and subscribe. But after reading this post on Reddit, it has changed my entire out look on this space.
u/eight-hundred wrote in the r/productivity Subreddit
Productivity content creators do not make money like you and I do. Their job is to sell something to you. They want you to watch their videos, to provide ad revenue, they want you to purchase their courses, they want you to sign up to their content marketing email newsletters, they want you to buy their books, they want you to buy their merchandise, listen to their podcast where they get sponsorships and further funnel you to sign up to their lists, etc. This is not inherently bad. The reason I mention this is because you as an individual need to understand that we are all human, but you are falling for "the product" in your pursuit of perfection.
Essentially, I think the article can be boiled down to this: They are content creators and are in the business of selling you something. To keep you engaged with their channel, they constantly switch to the next shiny new object.
I think we sometimes spend time on these channels because it makes us feel like we are accomplishing something. I have a saying, 'just because the wheels are spinning does not mean the car is moving'. It can be applied here. I suspect you have changed your productivity system several times last year based on your YouTube surfing, thinking this 'shiny new object' is what I need.
I got caught in this never-ending switching as well, with note-taking apps. All the YouTubers I watched were using Roam Research then switched to Obsidian, then Logseq, it was never ending. I even paid for these products and then asked myself why am I paying for six different note-taking apps when I require just one. It's because I followed the YouTube content creators.
I finally ended up going with paper and pen, which has worked great.
I encourage you to read the post on Reddit and as far as productivity advice, you know what you need to do, write out a list then start at the top and when you finish one move to the next. This has worked since the beginning of time.