r/productivity

So, in my Google calendar, out-of-the-box each email looks to be assigned 4 calendars: my name, Birthdays, Family, Tasks. These are stock and can't be renamed or removed.

I have my friends and family's birthdays, and you wanna guess which calendar its in? I'll give you a hint, its not "Birthdays", its in my name. Ok, fine, I'll just move them.... nope. I can copy it to Family, that's it. Birthday calendar, at this point I might as well just delete it since it doesn't have any birthdays in it.

Sure... I could remake all of them manually, but there has to be an easier way, right?

I can hardly even watch tv or videos. Why is this?

I struggle to wake up in the morning (most people fo tbh) . I wont wake up even after sleeping early . I just can't get out of bed. (Even if I keep my alarm far away) I wake up turn it off and go back to sleep (even if im not that sleepy) -- i have noticed during this phase of going to switch off my alarm , my mind is racing with completely random unrelated thoughts from my subconscious. Because of these flow of thoughts, im not able to think logically.

Could this be because i lack basic mindfulness, constant overstimulstion of today's society, social media?

Could having better awareness overall reduce my sleep groggyness.

Thoughts and advice please 🙏

Title is pretty self explanatory. Have a big test in over a month, wanna make sure I’m hitting all my study materials each day & looking for something to keep me on track. Would be nice to see my list on the lock screen if possible. Any decent apps out there?

"Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not."

Such a simple sentence, but slightly uncomfortable.

Made me realize half my productivity problems aren’t focus problems.

They’re priority problems disguised as busyness.

The days I know exactly what matters feel calm.

The days I don’t, I end up doing weird substitute work:
- replying faster
- checking dashboards
- cleaning docs
- optimizing systems

calling it progress.

Maybe focus isn’t about resisting distractions.

Maybe it starts with deciding what deserves attention in the first place.

I have the motive of course but, I feel it a little, but not enough to make me move towards and do the right things to do in the way of achieving my goals, I don't know if this is a depression or is this laziness or my will power damaged from p*rn, mast*rbate, scr*lling, I think Iam overstimulated and no thing make me happy or feel anymore, I think Iam an alive dead man.

sorry for bad expression, but that's exactly what I feel it's confusing and I don't know exactly what exactly I feel or how to solve it, I know there's a budy will telling me that do the right things to do and ignoring what you feel at the moment and so on, but is this the solution? cuz I don't see this as a solution

Please any advice to make me better, for knowledge Iam a 25 years and I graduate from communication engineer and no job yet (I feel frustrating & overwhelming)

doesn't have to be productivity related, genuinely curious what people would go back and tell themselves

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I have a severe procrastination habit it started about 2-3 years ago when I was 15..

I genuinely can't for the life of me sit down and fucking study man... I really don't know why there are times (very few and rare) when I do start studying and I understand stuff but after 20\~ mins I get bored and say that I will do it later and never return.

I don't understand why, and I just want to quit this shit, and no I don't waste my time because I FORGET the task.. I ACTIVELY procrastinate, ik it's bad and Ik all the reasons I SHOULD JUST START STUDYING but I still can't do it...

In the previous 2-3 years I literally don't want to do anything I just sit in my room staring at the wall meaninglessly it just watching my phone doom scrolling, the only social interaction I get is once in a while with close friends and daily in my coaching for studies and yes I don't watch my phone or be meaningless at that time but other times? I literally cannot focus on anything.

I thought I might have adhd for some reason and decided to test it out by 3-4 doctors over the span of previous 2-3 years and NOPE I don't have adhd, just severe procrastination habit..

And it's only regarding studies, I can play games for hours and do any dopamine stimulating things for hours.

Someone please drop any advice you think might help me....

I have a full time job but it can occasionally have weeks with no work leading to time off. With this time I usually do nothing other then scroll, video games and read. What are random activities or errands you incorporate into your day to day life to not make it feel so dull.

Note: I don’t even mind the mundane tasks, but the problem is that I have absolutely none and my to do list is almost always empty

I lose hours of productive time everyday because I just can’t wake up for the life of me, waking up in the morning literally feels like waking up from sedation. I’ve tried all the different hacks. Alarm across the room isn’t close enough to actually wake me up and when they eventually do I’m just irritated and go back to bed, sunlight alarm clocks don’t help, apps that use my sleep cycle to wake me do nothing, the alarmy app doesn’t help. I literally just can’t wake up. My alarm is set for 8 and I’m always trying to sleep before 11 so lack of sleep really shouldn’t be the issue. But I feel exhausted in the mornings and usually throughout the day too. I take medication in the evening that can make you sleepy but I don’t think this is the issue as I’ve struggled with waking up for as long as I can remember. If anyone has fixed this issue in their life pls tell me your secret lol.

High stress job makes it tough to wind down at night (always wired when i finish up), then just wake up groggy. Anyone else with demanding jobs feel the same? What have you tried to actually wind down and wake up clear, also anything during the day that helps? looking for any tips, supplements, routines, anything. (My labs/physical health, etc are all fine, not worried about health issue)

I been struggling to be productive for long and im out for tips and tricks to gain energy to be productive even if your very tired but not in a sleepy way but how do yall easier help yourself regain energy to go be productive

I’ve got around 760€ (max) bonus to spend through my company on tech/office upgrades and I’m trying to make the smartest long-term choices.

Current setup:

Desktop: (For an idea on power draw)

• Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• RX 9070 XT
• 850W PSU

Monitors:

• 24" 144Hz + 27" 180Hz gaming monitors
• 34" ultrawide for MacBook work setup

MacBook Pro

3D printing setup:

• Bambu Lab P2S + AMS2
• SUNLU S4 filament dryer

Router + misc accessories/LEDs

I’m powering all of this through random cheap extension cords 😅 so I’m upgrading the power setup first.

Current plan:

• 2x Belkin 8-outlet surge-protected strips
• Maybe a UPS only for the desktop + gaming monitors
• Possibly a Thunderbolt dock/hub with SD reader for the MacBook setup

Curious what people here would do with the budget, so i'm asking for opinions of what you would in my situation 👀

I had been putting this job off for a long time, and I know I'm not the only one. Nearly 6,000 emails sitting there judging me every time I opened Outlook. Ignoring the fact that number was filtered.

So I've finally built a proper triage system, three tiers of keywords, two holding folders, with no perm deletes until I check a few hundred. Set the first rule running and watched it fly through 61,384 messages already.

My Outlook will never look so clean, genuinely can't believe I waited this long.

Whenever I talk to some people, they already know about world news, business, wars, economy, trends, politics, technology, sports etc. while I find out about things very late.

How do people actually stay updated with everything without spending the whole day on news?

What apps, Yt channels, websites, routines or habits helped you become more aware and updated overall?

I have realized very recently that sometimes working on yourself can actually take you away from the present moment .Like, sure habits/productivity routines etc help a whole lot of course! But I had gone through a period when I had been obsessively analyzing myself and working on every aspect of my personality and somehow I ended up becoming awkward in social settings!

While instead of just focusing on having a good conversation I would sit there worrying whether or not I sounded smart/interesting/confident etc.

And in actuality people do notice when someone is putting on an act and not just being themselves.

What helped me the most? Just to let go. Listen more, try less hard to make a good impression, focus more on putting other people at ease rather than always proving myself out.

Honestly I think being present takes priority in many cases over perfecting oneself.

Still trying to figure things out myself.

hi, I'm 17f and recently I've noticed that I can't focus any longer than 10 mins or less. And I have exam coming up and I don't want to fail. I want to study hard but how can I do it efficiently? Because I keep ending up doing other things or losing focus on what I'm working on. Plus I get tired pretty quickly like very very exhausted and all I wanna do is sleeping. Umm no matter how many hours of sleep I get, I always end up feeling exhausted afterwards. And I have a really hard time complete small tasks and it's annoying. It's been getting worse and worse for these past few years and I'm honestly so scared that I won't be able to concentrate in the future? Help me. And I can't remember things like at all after doing a revision and it's so annoying omg. I don't have any ways of studying and I have no motivation at all even tho i sometimes scared about failing but I do nothing like I have so much to do so I do nothing yk. Any tips or whatever works for you guys?? I really need help and your advice might help me. Thankyuu!

It feels much better than active learning. Reading again feels smooth, watching another explanation feels reassuring and highlighting feels organized, but none of those guarantee understanding.

The uncomfortable part is usually the useful part: trying to explain something yourself, solving without help and remembering before checking. I spent a long time mistaking smoothness for progress but now I trust effort more than familiarity.

I promise I’m not crazy. I am just genuinely curious if anyone has tried and noticed any benefits of staring at a wall for some time before starting work—it’s a trend on social media in the “productivitymax” call it realm.

Many a times in life we end up in a slump or don't even know what to do during a crisis. I personally go through these cycles a lot but then over time I've realized that you end up with a much better solution after the crisis itself get solved. i believe this is because after the crisis you are in a much better mental state and hence it provides you with a better eye for judgement. Also most of the times the advice happens to have already existed but only do we feel its importance afterwards.

So which such advice do you think your younger self knew but didn't want to follow it? or better your own piece of advice that you came up with after the crisis.