Simple principles applied to complex systems are going to be multifaceted by definition.

In order for the system to comply, you’ll have to address and rearrange its multiple variables so that the system acts in harmony with the principle.

That’s why it’s hard to have a balanced lifestyle, or it’s hard to prioritize effectively, or it’s hard to stay consistent.

The game is harder than saying ”hey, just take the 3 most important tasks of your day and focus on them.”

Just because you understand it, doesn’t mean you can apply it, that’s an entirely different skill set.

If you run a team, a company, or something like a digital product, you know how hard it is to keep simple features and characteristics consistent over the entire system.

I'm 40 and I've tried many productivity hacks and new habits over time.
More recently I came to the conclusion that only the most "Spartan", extremely simple and hard to master principles are the ones able to boost personal productivity. I understand that if you are on your 20s, habits that boost your energy might not be a big deal for you. They are, in order of importance to me: 1 - Dramatically reducing screen time. In my case that means less than 45 min per day. Also, whenever possible changing some digital activity to its analog counterpart. 2 - Checking email and Whatsapp only after 4pm 3 - Going to bed before 10pm 4 - Having a great diet, mainly by avoiding any kind of processed food. 5 - Going to the gym at least 3x a week.

It's difficult to be productive when you are overwhelmed with things happening in life.It gets overwhelming to tackle tasks related to self development along with family responsibilities. Particularly when life is going in the lows, I choose to procrastinate and tend to give into escapism. Any tips on keeping a stable mind and still progressing?

You push a bit harder at school. You suffer jealousy of your peers enjoying life. You’re rewarded with the grades you wanted.

You ask girls out. You suffer rejection. You are rewarded by finding the one.

You apply for job after job. You suffer rejection and humiliation. You are rewarded by landing the job you wanted and needed.

You do that thing that’s eating you alive with worry. You suffer through it. You are rewarded with peace of mind.

You push a bit harder at work. You suffer exhaustion and stress. You are rewarded by a bonus or career jump.

You listen to that one peace of feedback that you didn’t want to hear. You suffer humiliation. You are rewarded by personal growth.

You do not spend your money and invest. You suffer from doubts, uncertainty and missing out in life. You’re rewarded with the bliss of financial freedom.

Suffering is happiness and happiness is suffering.

Hey fellow Redditors, I deleted all social media from my phone 50 days ago, and while I’ve seen some benefits, I’m facing a new challenge. With all the extra time, I’ve been binge-watching TV series. I have plenty of time for “productive” activities (8 hr work + about 2 hours of learning after work), but I lack the motivation to learn more. When I do try to be more productive, I burn out quickly. I’m considering stopping TV series for a couple of weeks, embracing boredom, and seeing if it sparks a desire to do something else. I have hobbies, but they don’t consume much time, and I only occasionally feel like doing them. Has anyone else been in a similar situation? I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but I know watching TV series feels like a waste of time.

At this point this trend is undeniable. This happens every single time, and is genuinely damaging to my performance in college, to the point where I'm considering maybe just going completely radio silent during critical periods.

I function best when I'm acoustically monomaniacally focusing on something. However, I also generally turn into a crazy person when I don't talk with my friends for a bit.

Idk, any of you had similar experiences?

I’ll go first. Mess. The apps often get messy fast so you start spending time organizing the app instead of actually doing what you need to do. Searching for things may become a challenge.

What are your main issues with productivity apps?

I used to put off tiny tasks like replying to emails, tidying my desk, or setting reminders. But once I followed the “2-minute rule,” things changed fast.

Now, instead of building a mountain of small tasks, I just handle them immediately.

It gave me momentum and made me feel more in control.

Have you tried this? What’s one small rule that improved your productivity?

Other the last time I gave an exam,it was 2016.

I am preparing for an exam this sep-oct. and I have no clue how I am supposed to do prepare. I am just so overwhelmed.

I have total 167 chapters to study before the exam. tho I am not entirely new to the topics since I used to study here and there in the past years but looking at the books(PDFs) my mind is going blank.

the exam itself is just an high school diploma but it's means a lot to me, considering my age, if I fail, not only I'll burden my guardian more, but it'll also waste a year.

I don't know how I am supposed to schedule self study, and I also do arts(drawing, I am learning). everything is just overwhelming. maybe because I am used to live without any such pressure for a few years now.

any advice would be helpful. thank you.

I realized this as I've been travelling for a week to visit family and was able to be really motivated in the hotel desk/room despite being very busy in the day I got so much done.

Now I'm back home and can barely get ½ of what I was getting done when I was abroad when I'm in my room. I think I've associated this environment as my lazy environment, but I really can't forgo my room as a study space.

What do I do?

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with using AI tools like ChatGPT and Blackbox AI to get unstuck faster — whether it’s writing study notes, debugging small Python projects, or even organizing my to-do list. Instead of spending hours Googling or rewriting stuff, I just ask why something isn't working and get answers instantly.

It’s helped me shift from perfectionism to just getting things done. Anyone else here using AI this way — not to replace thinking, but to make the doing easier?

Would love to hear your workflows!

I work as a musician but have been cranking out 6-7 day weeks of intensive practice outside of my freelance work in order to take auditions for full-time ensembles. This has been my goal for about half my life, and only recently have been taking the preparation process seriously. My current practice and work regime has been at my maximum capacity for a year and a half.

This past week I hit a breaking point, and ghosted on students. My sleep had started deteriortating, and I was more or less "wired" at all times despite being exhausted. I had chest soreness like I was recovering from a cold despite not being sick. I was getting acne breakouts despite doing skincare. Randomly screaming whether it was at home or driving.

Then this week I just decided to stop working cold turkey. Spent most of the week catching up on errands, going to eat because I didn't feel like cooking. Not setting an alarm and finally sleeping soundly, though I wake up way too late, and continue to be sluggish throughout the day. Playing video games sporadically and reading fiction books.

I guess I gave into burning out, and now I'm just as barely functional as I can be without being unable to take care of myself. But I'm left with the question of,

If I'm not going to get ahead in life and even get punished for busting my ass like I'm supposed to, what's even the point in working hard?

I'm just so tired.

If you would like to join to hold each other accountable and post our weekly goals in let me know

Hey all,i am a person that has always been struggled with productivity.I am a student,and this is my exam season so i am expected to study.I have realized that i am studying just to study,not to actually learn something.For example;when i am reading,i am passively reading.Or when i am doing practice problems,i am looking forward to finishing the test i dont focus to the problems,or when i have problems i couldnt manage to solve i dont learn it.Its like i am afraid of learning because i have this belief i will not be able to learn it.This is affecting my overall productivity so badly and i dont know how to cure this.Not studying and not being a hardworker makes me feel guilt all the time but this guilt never makes me actually get to the action,or when it does,it is very passive.Is there anyone who experiences this?Can anyone help me with this?Thank you.

does anyone know a way to block yt shorts in android device in chrome?
not the app it self.

i've downloaded yt revanced yeah. but i still tend to go to chrome and view it, even a way to block yt website in chrome would be great

My workout habits are so much more consistent when there’s a long period of sunny days. However, computer work could sometimes suffer a bit (especially since I work remotely all the time), since I’m spending more time outside. Wondering what kind of impact have you experienced on your life, moving to a location with more sun?

Hi. I'm not sure how to post, so I guess I'll post in the standard way. My name is Ren (18M), and I've fallen off recently. I know, I know, the title says that I picked myself back up, so let me explain.

I've posted here before, about my problem with listening to videos on YT while doing tasks and chores. I've been working on that, and progress is going steady. About a month ago, my best friend came to me asking for my help. He said he'd been falling off academically, that he's been slacking on his tasks and groupworks.

So I offered him a solution that would benefit the both of us. I gave him advice like setting alarms to remind him to check Microsoft Teams, his to do list, and the school website for any tasks. And in return, we keep each other accountable. We remind each other to do our tasks, and to check our lists. It was going very well, my productivity increased, I've been participating in classes more, I've been passing things on time.

Until my dog died. Yep. My dog of 10 years and 4 months died 3 weeks ago and it hit me like a truck. Since then, I've been sloppy, I've been procrastinating more often, and I've put off tasks just to play games. But I'm slowly getting back on my feet. I'm taking things one step a time until I get back on my feet again. It'll take great effort and time, but I can do it.

Even so, things don't feel right yet. Any advice/suggestions?

I was unexpectedly thrown into a role (my job), a position where I was supposed to have all the knowledge & expertise already. Now, I have to speed up to my learning and would require tools to help me reach this goal.

Any platforms/ tools to recommend? Nothing too costly please, im seeking around USD20 hopefully! And no scams.

I looked around, I found some things, but not really what i want.

I want something that replicates the way battlefield award work.

They have awards/medals/ribbons you get for achieving certain tasks. and you can see a progress bar on how far you made it. And then in a different view you can see how many of each you have collected.

So for example a "7 days in a row insta post medal"

30 pull ups ribbon, if you get 7 ribbons in a row you get a bronze medal, if you get 30 in a row you get a gold medal etc. And you can get these repeatedly, if you repeat the tasks.

You would be able to obviously pick these goals and upload images of what the medals look like, and then you can look back on your progress.

I saw habitica, but it really doesn't fit with the style I want.

Anyone have any useful suggestions?

I had an issue where I would lay in bed and scroll on my phone all day. My phone causes me to doom scroll. To combat the issue, I bought a loft bed and made a rule to never bring my phone to my bed. It had worked for about 6-12 months where I occasionally bought the phone up but usually never did. Now, I am moving to a new place and wondering if I should continue using my loft bed setup, or do you think I should be ready at a stage where I can go back to using a regular bed. The issue with the loft bed is changing the sheets, it's a hassle to change it every-time climbing up.

So I've breathed some life into an old laptop, and was thinking about adding it to my Productivity workflow if I can, and thought I'd ask if anyone had any ideas? The best I've come up with are a dedicated video conferencing device for teams/zoom etc, a dedicated note taking device and media device for music playback etc.

I work in Broadcast support (Think IT support for studio equipment) and it's a personal device so there are some limitations for work tasks.

Anyone else get one and have it stop working properly? Then you realize it's a horrible company that doesn't honor warrenties. They don't offer any customer support or answer emails. The problem is the colored part just gets stuck part of the way through and the timer continues to run out. The company is in Korea so they are out of the bounds of the better business bureau I guess. Amazon also didn't post my review... Unbelievable.

hi guys,

I have an idea and my goal is that NGOs nationwide will pick it up because I think that idea would make us as a society more successful. Should I use the backward or the forward planning method?

Because with the forward planning method you would be more inclined to say: Let's start this idea small at the local level and then scale it up nationwide (my country is not as big as the US) from there - people copy the good local example or the local organization grows into a nationwide one.

And with the backwards planning method you would say:
- NGOs nationwide use this idea
- 1 Million people like the idea to get enough volunteers for the NGOs
- my idea gets circulated in the media of a certain subset of the population to get people to like idea
- my idea convinces important people in that media subset and they pick it up
- my idea gets circulated on my channels of that media subset (facebook, ytube, twitter, a book I write etc.)

So both planning methods would reap very different plans - so which planning method is better here?
Or in other words which plan sounds more ridiculous to you, lol?

Im planning on studying tomorrow, and I'd like to be efficient at it. This said which one is better:

Time based goal example: I will study continuously and focused for 3 hours (with breaks between each hour for example) whatever the work I do

Work based goal example: I will study until Chapter 1 and 2 of this math class is fully understood and a few problems per chapter is completed

For years, since I moved out of my family home, I have moved into new homes with boxes and boxes of things, all of which seem to hold some kind of memory for me; I even have bags of clothes that, when I look at each, I have an attached memory to or reflect a time in my life. But all of these things also seem like clutter and cause me stress that they're there. I definitely don't have a home full of just crap like on a hoarders programme, but enough that I feel it's overwhelming and yet I worry that I'll lose those memories or that part of me will be lost if I let go of the item?

I'm at a loss of where to start and felt productivity was relevant because I feel I need to get productive to start this process and also that productivity will increase when my home isn't so cluttered!

Please help/share advice