The productivity industry has become absurd.
There are more apps, hacks, and methods than anyone could possibly try in a lifetime—and yet most of us still feel behind.
Maybe the problem isn’t that we’re unproductive.
Perhaps we’ve made productivity too complicated to be effective.
Productivity expert Ali Abdaal once said that 90% of all productivity advice can be distilled into three simple steps:
- Figure out where you actually want to go.
- Turn that goal into a measurable daily action.
- Put it in your calendar and hold yourself accountable.
That’s it.
Three lines. No fancy app. No secret framework. Just clarity, execution, and consistency.
Is it too simple?
So why do so few people follow this? Because it’s too simple.
We love the illusion of progress more than progress itself. We love tinkering with systems, building dashboards, and switching tools. It makes us feel productive without having to face the hard truth: success is boring. It’s showing up, day after day, to do one small thing that moves you forward.
- Writing 500 words a day.
- Reaching out to one potential client.
- Going to the gym for 30 minutes.
Small, measurable, calendar-bound commitments compound over time.
But first: clarity
But there’s a catch: you can’t fake clarity. Step one—figure out where you actually want to go—is where most people get stuck. They don’t know what they want badly enough to plan for it. So they fill their days with busyness, mistaking motion for progress.
If you’re feeling lost, start there, not with a new productivity system, but with direction. Decide what matters enough to earn a place on your calendar. Because once you know where you’re headed, the rest is logistics.
This might sound almost too simple to be profound. But that’s the point. The real challenge isn’t finding a new method—it’s committing to one that’s so clear there’s nowhere left to hide.
You don’t need another app. You need focus.
You don’t need another framework. You need courage to do the same thing every day.
And you don’t need to read another book about productivity. You need to decide where you want to go—and start walking.
Because productivity isn’t about optimisation.
It’s about direction, discipline, and doing the damn work.
