2 Ways to Stop Shiny Productivity Objects From Blocking Your Best Work
Simplifying can reveal how you think and what you need
If we’re surrounded by shiny, clever apps (and we are), will the abundance eventually make them look ordinary, and thus not so attention-suckingly attractive?
That’s kinda what happened to me with all those AI-assisted notes apps that are popping up everywhere. There are so many new players in this space that none of them are standing out to me any more. I know what I value most, and they don’t have it.
I recently heard someone say, “No one wakes up in the morning and hopes they’ll have new software to learn that day” — and I thought, brother, you do NOT know me…!
Happily, I found the path out of productivity/note taking app addiction/compulsive switching. It’s so nice to wake up each morning and feel like diving into my real work, rather than feeling compelled to search for a better tool, a better way, to approach it. Learning new software is still something I enjoy and indulge in from time to time, once my most important tasks for the day are done.
Are shiny objects keeping you from your best work? Try paring things back to the basics and see what happens. What might you learn about the way you think? About what’s needed for you to do your best work?
Use a notebook for a week instead of an app
Plain text users: do things manually for a while, without plugins
Any time you run into friction, write it down. No need to analyse (yet).