How to Be More Productive (3 easy steps for when you feel lazy)

Do you know what most productivity “experts” hope you’ll never find out?

The tips they spout and the apps they sell are total BS. The experts themselves don’t even use them!

When was the last time you downloaded an app that you were sure was going to make you more productive, used it for less than a day, and then forgot about it?

Was it this month? This week? This morning?

What about the last time you killed the afternoon’s productivity reading articles like “100 Successful People Teach You How to Be More Productive” instead of actually getting things done?

Honestly, are you doing that right now?

Consider this: you’re playing a basketball game against LeBron James. You have the best shoes, the most expensive pair of athletics shorts, a fancy headband, and the best jersey in the world. And he has no shoes, ripped shorts, and a dress shirt. Who would win?

It sounds ridiculous, but we play a similar game against productivity every day. 

The tools don’t matter as much as we think.

Novices LOVE to focus on productivity hacks, apps, and tools. It’s easy — and frankly, more fun — to play with shiny new things than to do what works. 

Usually, the fundamentals — things like a calendar, pen, and paper — work as well as (if not better than) some app. Take a look at a sample of my calendar system.

, Ramit Sethi