Rediscovering the key to productivity—Forget everything else

You’ve probably tried everything & learnt that the ‘productivity hacks’ don’t work.

Everyone wants to know the secret to being more productive.

It’s the same reason why fad diets work as clickbait even though you know too well they don’t actually work.

Discipline and motivation is what moves the needle — every method of ‘being productive’ is just a framework.

Early mornings in Singapore’s East Coast park, a favourite place and time. Photo by me.

There is no way to “hack productivity”. Anyone promising that is lying. Creating a habit starts with discipline.

Finding discipline & building a habit

Last year, I surprised myself by running a marathon. The declaration of my goal was a half-joking, apprehensive idea at first—but slowly grew into a personal challenge.

Achieving the full distance run was the goal. But the real challenge was lacing up and setting out for that 30–180 minute run around the muggy streets of Singapore. And I found myself enjoying that the most.

The journey was becoming enjoyable. It drove the motivation, and in turn, created discipline.

It was going great, until…

Just as my training program was hitting its stride, I caught food poisoning. And then two weeks later, I caught covid. It was a big hit to my confidence. I’d never run 42km before—were my chances blown?

Estimated fitness from Strava during Jul-Dec ’22, tracking the increase during training for my marathon, and the decline due to sicknesses during that period.

Missing once is an accident.
Missing twice is the start of a new habit.
— James Clear

Despite a month spent being unwell, the discipline to showing up each day had created a habit, which drew me back as my health returned.

I pushed on for the last two months of training, and the doubts soon fell away. I finished the race, a little slower than my (realistic) goal, but I was ecstatic.

When habits fall, only you can set them straight

For a long time, exercise and outdoor stuff had been a way to clear my mind, take a break from the madness of life, but this accomplishment had been a reminder, just as much as it had been a release.

The habit had made returning to my training, my productive work much easier. I had chosen a plan and worked through it. It wasn’t my chosen training plan, of the 1000s, that had made the difference—it was starting out each morning or evening, showing up.

Similarly, there is no perfect productivity approach. You can choose any method to keep track of your tasks, some people like pen & paper, you’ve probably tried many approaches, personally I love using Legend.

My biggest suggestion, instead of scrolling, procrastinating, distracting, is to look at the big picture:

Set yourself a realistic goal that you can work towards, for this week, this month and this year.

I reassessed my run time twice during my training, just as you should be reassessing what you are working towards, constantly.

It is incredibly difficult to be disciplined without a goal of what you are working towards. I haven’t run as much as I was back then, the discpline is not motivated by a goal anymore. I still run, but far less frequently.

Achieving your goals requires discipline. The technique you choose provides a structure, but you need the big picture first.

Chances are this isn’t a groundbreaking perspective to you, we all know doing great things takes discipline, but hopefully this is a timely reminder for you.

Turning this epiphany into action

Unlike the promises made by other ‘productivity influencers’, reading this isn’t going to turn you into an ultra-productive, superhuman— we all have triumphs and struggles.

For the rest of your day, I hope this serves as a suggestion of what helps to give you direction and reframe the things that are motivating you. Here is a framework for you to get through your tasks and achieve your goals:

1. Set yourself the goal you want to achieve,
2. Figure out what you need to do and how you will track your progress (almost anything works),
3. Show up & start,
4. Reassess progress & repeat (give yourself a break as well 😴).

What’s your takeaway for boosting productivity, or what’re you trying to do more of? I’d love to hear from you :)

• If you’re looking for a productivity tool, Legend is my go to for keeping track of things
• My main work is Bravely, a mental health company focused on supporting therapists and their clients
• As part of that we have a directory of independent therapists available, in case you are looking for support: GetTherapy.in/anywhere
• I also do freelance work, supporting companies and small teams with their operations, product and business development. If you are interested, here’s my page to find out more

This was an article sparked by watching a conversation from Steven Bartlett with his guest Rich Roll.

I have dozens of unfinished articles, but it was something in this one hour of conversation that kickstarted a productive streak, a reminder of what discipline looks like and so far I have had four great days in a row, I’ve finished this article and have avoided my standard distractions.

I hope you’ve found something useful here, thanks for stopping by.