I remember when I was around 12, I became addicted to deadline adrenaline. We had been given months to write an essay and now there were five days left. The impulses kept me alive. I would stare at the blinking cursor, my eyes tracing the bright white Google docs page in my dimly lit room. It was a cycle. I would write a few words. Then go on YouTube to watch a TED Talk about mastering procrastion. Ironic. Eventually, the fear kicked in. I got it in at 11:59. And I got a decent grade for it. Which just perpetuated this behavior.

The consequences were not there at 12 years old, but they became real later when I had to pick 2 out of the 3: Sleep, Friends, School. Naps were my best friend during that time. Around then, I became obsessed with productivity. Instead of doing real schoolwork, I actually read around a book a day on these topics (sadly I’ve probably read ~100 self help books). I became a good test taker, which mostly meant learning the system and breaking it. I spent a lot of time trying different tools, techniques, and I probably read every book possible. At a certain point in my life, I could tell you every method of just “getting stuff done”.

Here’s the truth: Unfortunately, none of that involved actually getting anything done. Most of what I learned was useful boils down to:

1. Calendar: time is precious. what are you spending it on?

2. Todolists: you can basically get 3 things done today. What are they?

3. Journal: reflect on what’s working and plan around what’s not

The other truth about productivity is it’s the art of knowing yourself. What no one will say about hard work is … it’s hard. None of those techniques will solve those issues. What I realized is that I was already quite productive … so long as I didn’t procrastinate. I conflated the two. The only technique relevant for doing hard work is showing up, trying, and not giving up.

Procrastination is functionally your brain telling you that you have better things to do. The problem sets I need to do will be painful and I will probably get only most of them right. The videogames I play will be much less painful and I’ll level up with a 100% easy. My brain will pick playing a level everytime.

You already know what you need to be doing. On every lull, I practically ask myself What should I be doing? And it works. My calendar notification just remind me. My todolist is also just a reminder. You do need to figure out what works for you. You do not need to think that hard or set up a million apps or tools. Civilizations were built without them. Make it easy: do it right now, one step at a time.