The Only Productivity Trick You Will Ever Need

Right now, what is the most important thing you should be doing? What is it that you need to do that is going to produce the biggest result when it comes to what’s important and what’s meaningful.

Do that. Don’t do everything else.

There is no task management software that can or will do that work for you. Trying and buying new software is avoidance, not productivity. While you are exploring new tools, you could be doing that work. Your task management system isn’t your problem. It’s good enough. Now you have to be good enough.

There is no new methodology that is going to suddenly complete your real work for you. I use a modified version of David Allen’s GTD methodology. You might keep everything on a yellow legal pad or index cards. Whatever works. But if you don’t work, if you don’t do the first item on the yellow pad or what’s on the first index card, it is all for naught.

There is no productivity list post on Facebook, or article in Fast Company or Wired Magazine, or on some secret list of the rich and fabulous that is going to supercharge your productivity or help you produce the results you want now. The only list that matters is your list, and the most important, most meaningful task on that list is what matters most.

Productivity is doing what is most important to the results you want. It’s not the software, the methodology, or something that someone else is doing.

You know what you need to do. Now go do it.