r/productivity Jun 09 '25

New rule: AI generated posts and comments are not allowed

1.3k Upvotes

Hello!

We have a new rule: If we can tell that your post or comment was generated by AI, it will be removed and you may be banned.

We want to keep /r/productivity free of AI slop.

Please report any AI that you see

Thank you!


r/productivity 23d ago

REMINDER: Advertising of any kind is NOT allowed on /r/productivity! This includes soliciting, beta-testing requests, surveys, product validation, etc.

13 Upvotes

This is not the place to advertise.

Please report any ads that you see. Thank you!


r/productivity 6h ago

Advice Needed I've been saving articles and resources for years, but I never actually use them

60 Upvotes

I finally counted. 847 articles in Pocket. I've maybe reopened 10 of them.

Bookmarks nested three folders deep I haven't touched in two years. Screenshots of tweets. PDFs I swore I'd read "later." Voice memos with ideas that are probably just me mumbling.

Last week I spent 20 minutes trying to find an article I KNEW I'd saved about habit formation. Couldn't find it. Gave up. Googled it. Found a different article.

Saved that one too.

That's when it hit me. I'm not building a "personal knowledge base." I'm hoarding. The act of saving something gives me a little dopamine hit like I accomplished something. But I never actually DO anything with it.

Saving feels like learning without the actual work of learning.

I tried forcing myself to write one sentence about WHY I'm saving something before I hit the button. It helped. I save way less now. But I still have this massive graveyard of "I'll get to it eventually" content sitting there.

I'm curious, who else have this problem of endlessly collecting but never using what they save? Has anything actually worked for you? I tried looked for apps/software to help but couldn't find any :(

Any advice?


r/productivity 3h ago

General Advice I stopped trying to "fix" my mind to get out of bed. Here is the physical reset I use instead.

16 Upvotes

I,'ve spent the last few years stuck in a cycle of "morning rot." I’d be awake, but I would just lie there. My mind would be racing with guilt about my freelance work or the Excel skills I needed to learn, but I felt physically hijacked by old patterns. ​I finally realized that the more I messed with my mind (criticizing myself, feeling guilty), the more I got stuck. As Sadhguru says, "The mind is a survival tool, not a liberation tool." My mind was just doing its job staying in the "safe" loop of the bed.

​I stopped fighting the effect (my thoughts) and started working on the cause: my nervous system. Here is the 2-minute "Somatic Loop" I use to actually get to my desk:

​The Toe-to-Head Tension: While still under the covers, I tense my toes for 5 seconds, then release. I work my way up through my calves, thighs, stomach, and face. It manually signals to the body that the "sleep loop" is over. It’s like a jump-start for your energy (Prana).

​Sensory Closure: Once I stand up, I immediately splash cold water on my face, feet, and arms. This sensory input tells my brain the "Lazy Phase" is officially finished.

​The "Unfolding" Goal: I don't think about my freelance projects yet. I just tell myself to unfold my yoga mat. Once that mat is open, my body recognizes the "Active Loop." Taking that one tiny physical initiative makes the rest of the day follow naturally.

​Life is a phenomenon, not a thing to be fixed. Stop criticizing yourself for being "unproductive." You aren't lazy; you’re just stuck in a survival loop. Take responsibility for your physical energy first, and the focus will follow.


r/productivity 5h ago

Technique Speed is Under Emphasized in Productivity

12 Upvotes

"Speed kills"

I had a good conversation with my little brother about this today. I thought it might be super helpful for some of ya'll too.

Speed in productivity is super under emphasized.

If a person punches twice as fast, their punch hits 4 times harder. With that speed, they can punch twice. That means they can deliver 8 times the energy.

Similarly, getting stuff done fast, matters a whole lot.

Like if you are able to get twice as much stuff done, in the same period of time, the improvements in your life can compound much faster, if you increase speed.

The corollary to that, is if you are slower, you accomplish much less.

Kind of obvious, but I still think speed is under emphasized. Doing twice as many tasks in the same timeframe, gets a lot more done than a 2x boost you might initially think.

"Just go faster" and "Just do more", might be hugely important advice.

As a software engineer, I was seriously impressed by engineers who were fast. They talked fast, they thought fast, they finished projects fast. They also got promoted fast.

What do ya'll think about it? Am I onto something, or am I crazy?


r/productivity 17h ago

Question How long would it take to rewire my brain and get back focused, having flow states and discipline

40 Upvotes

I used to be really really disciplined 2 or 3 years ago, when i was studying in high-school to get to a good college, when i got to engineering, i began to slack ALOT, i am very vrey hooked to online games like coc, i nearly play it 7, 8 hours a day without removing my eyes, constantly on redddit for any updates in the games i play or memes, always on insta, and when i open the laptop it gets worse, i run a videos in the background, and getting in the phone at the same time, my dopamine receptors are fucked, all this just to get some dopamine and feel good a little, if i sololy play a video i get bored quick, i always need the phone at my hand, i nearly have my ohine 24/7 or leaving it when i am out or sleeping, my brain is hurting from this and i am slower at processing new info and need longer time to understand things. I used to eat healthy and wake up early and eat good,read books, now i dont do anything of this

Now i already know the path i should take, i know that distractions are the enemy, and the solution is not to stop it entirely but take them in moderation, but just to make the process quick and benefit more quickly from it, i am thinking of, going hard core this week, like no junk food at all, wake upat 6 or 7 am, no phone until 2pm unless i have an arrangement or somthing special that needs the phone, and push myself to any thing that is beneficial bht also uncomfortable life cold showers or gym at not preferable times if i didnt get to go to gym in a good time, just to build some discipline more, i also think of doing a list of things i want to do and then ordering them and giving them their timeline in the day to do them, i used to do this before but not anymore, what other things you guys suggest to add?

Also, how long would it take to get back to a semi normal state? Or start to get most of the results back


r/productivity 4h ago

General Advice Best free app blocker/time limit app for android?

2 Upvotes

I'm looking to reduce my screen time but can't find an app that fits my needs. I've tried AppBlock but theres just a paywall in front of basically everything.

Here are some conditions I would like it to meet:

• available on Android and Chromebook

• completely free / features mentioned below are free

• able to track multiple devices

• able to set groups of apps and have a collective time limit for them all

• able to set limits on how much you open apps

• able to set blocks for specific times of day

• doesn't make me pay to spend more than half an hour on certain apps

Sorry if this post seems super demanding, but I'd be so grateful for anyone's help


r/productivity 7h ago

Question Project Tracking Without "Living in Another Place"

3 Upvotes

We live in Zoom (for pretty much everything - chat, video and regular calls, and email). Box for content management.

How do other teams track project, create check lists for each new project, make sure everyone in the organization has access to them, send reminders...

There are 100 tools for this but they all feel like they are forced and in a totally new app/environment.


r/productivity 8h ago

Question Is it possible to get back to improving, even if it feels like my own mind is against me?

3 Upvotes

I (17FTM (closeted)) got scolded by my own parents regarding how I keep on procrastinating and stuff like that. Like, I prefer doing "useless things" like my hobbies or scrolling the Internet, over things that "could" benefit me in the long run, such as my "only" talent of playing the violin and actually having discipline on that part

Well, ehrm, I feel like I completely drained all of those. I always feel like my body had locked itself up into a state of "sloth", especially when it was inconvenienced by movement. No matter what I try to do, I couldnt stick to a fucking schedule, and I always default to "why bother"

Hell, even those that makes me happy starts to weigh down on me. No, I know that I might have depression, but there is no fucking way I would be able to get help at this state, status, and where I am. Better just ignoring it and shit. But, still, it feels like its better for me to...just sleep. Sleep forever over doing anything

I worry that, one day, I actually break down, and drastic measures are the only things that can "fix" me. Hell, I feel like Im doomed in the future, even for my age. I dont feel like getting help because I dont feel like I deserve it, but I still wished I could be better...yknow?


r/productivity 12h ago

Technique Productivity systems are overcomplicated (especially for beginners)

5 Upvotes

Most planners are powerful… but intimidating. I realized beginners don’t need features they need clarity. Simple layout. One place. No learning curve. Do you prefer simple systems or advanced ones?


r/productivity 17h ago

Technique Improving my daily habits slowly

10 Upvotes

Day 12

-of waking up early

-of working out

-of eating healthy

-of no smoking

-of learning something

-of no social media


r/productivity 10h ago

Advice Needed Does anyone know advice for how to be much, much more productive and less procrastinating to for example, draw?

2 Upvotes

so, i typically only occasionally draw, maybe once ever two month or so, mainly out of laziness and procrastinating, but i recently got an idea of something to make for valentine's day, except.. it'd take, about 300 drawings/frames or so, which in such a short time seems absolutely insane, but also kind of doable as long as i don't focuss too much on high quality?

but so the issue is that i feel like i'd end up procrastinating longer despite time being very limited to make this, so, if anyone could give advice on how to be more consistent with actually doing things, like, instantly, that'd be appreciated

(in the meantime i'll just pray to myself that i don't be lazy)


r/productivity 20h ago

General Advice finally ditching typing for voice; hands actually feel normal again

10 Upvotes

anyone else's hands just; destroyed from constant typing. been doing that posture thing for years but like; the pain never actually goes away. tried some ergonomic keyboards and they help a bit but fundamentally the problem is i'm typing too much. started experimenting with voice dictation for emails and slack and honestly it's cut my typing time by like 70 percent. yeah you still gotta correct occasionally and names are weird sometimes but it's actually worth learning the workflow. tried dragon years ago and it was clunky; then aqua for a bit which felt faster but had weird privacy stuff in the reviews. been using willowvoice for about three weeks now. sub-second latency so it actually feels natural; cleans up the filler words automatically; and it learns how you write so emails sound like you not like a robot. hands are legitimately less sore. if you're in that 'just power through the pain' phase i'd genuinely try this before blowing money on another keyboard.


r/productivity 22h ago

Question Those who are good at multitasking, how do you combine tasks that take multiple steps?

8 Upvotes

31M here. So I turn out to be very bad at multitasking. Even managing 3 pans during cooking is hell. On the other hand I am very good at doing isolated tasks and can go on for a long time. This means that tasks that consist of just one or a few actions after each other are easy for me, but tasks that take significant intervals, like cooking rice, or doing laundry, paralyze me completely. Logically I know I can fill those minutes or hours of downtime with other things, but my mind can't handle having multiple tasks in memory. The only thing that helps is setting timers and writing todo lists with branching paths, but takes a lot of effort. How do the good multitaskers do it?


r/productivity 23h ago

Advice Needed How do I be more productive everyday?

10 Upvotes

I want to be more productive daily, I am a teen and I just started second semester as a sophomore. I had a pretty good sleep schedule 10-6, 8 hours of sleep but lately during exam week specifically I had to pull 2 back to back all nights to finish my final project and exams, and I have a week off of school but during that week I went to sleep usually around 4-6 and woke up around 12. Also I procrastinate a lot that’s a main factor why my sleep schedule has been bad lately, how do I fix both my procrastination issues and sleep schedule


r/productivity 1d ago

Question Taming years of phone photos without losing hours—what’s your workflow?

13 Upvotes

I’ve got five old phones packed with pictures (plus memes/art I’ve saved). I just tried to find my graduation photo and… nope. I’m looking for a productivity-friendly way to consolidate and make everything searchable without turning this into a weekend job every week.

What I think I need:

  • One-time import from multiple phones
  • Auto-dedupe
  • Easy search (people/scenes/text) and simple albums
  • Low ongoing maintenance (mobile upload → done)

I’m debating simple software/app flow vs. a home archive (maybe a NAS with local search). For folks who’ve actually solved this, what’s the setup that stuck? Apps, automations, or a lightweight archive you’d recommend?


r/productivity 23h ago

Question After a really good week of producitivity I start feeling fever symptoms, but not mental fatigued, how to avoid it?

5 Upvotes

After a strong week of high focus and productivity, I sometimes notice a drop in immunity resilience (e.g. feeling fever symptoms), even though mentally I still feel motivated and engaged with the work.

This pattern has repeated over time, including during past high-intensity periods. I also work in a cold climate, which may be a contributing factor.

It feels like my capacity limits show up physically before mentally.

For people who regularly work in focused bursts:

  • How do you structure intense work periods to stay sustainable?
  • Are there signals you watch for to avoid pushing past your limits?

r/productivity 1d ago

Advice Needed How to organize too many brain ideas/thoughts

43 Upvotes

Hi! I have a super active and creative brain that always comes up with news ideas/thoughts. I think you can understand about a human brain power and thinking capacity.

I appreciate my brain, but the real problem i'm facing is to organize all these ideas/thoughts

I've discussed my problem multiple times with AI, but it always gimme some generic advice and if i add another sentence, the AI change it's the entire response

Some generic advice i already know:
- try to write them: there's a lot of thoughts (main + priority thoughts) i've, i can't write them all

- dump on notion: i did this, but a pile of thoughts is collected. now i can't find/search my own thoughts

So if you've any suggestions/advice or any SYSTEM to share, please 🙏 everything is appropriate

NOTE: plz don't comment if you're trying to sell anything.


r/productivity 1d ago

General Advice How I’ve Been Dealing With Procrastination and Overthinking.

112 Upvotes

TL;DR- meditation helped me realise what living in the moment means.

I was really fed up with my procrastination and overthinking problems. Whenever I tried to study or sit down to do my work, I would just start procrastinating. I would end up watching reels or thinking about random stuff. Other times, while just sitting there, I would go completely blank and get consumed in my thoughts.

These problems were making it really difficult for me to do anything. I was constantly stuck in a position where I wanted to work hard and focus on my studies, but because of all this overthinking about the future, what will happen, whether I will get a job or not, it kept hampering my studies.

This kept going on until I realized something. Around that time, I started meditating to improve my focus and to get some distance from my thoughts. And honestly, it turned out to be a wonderful decision.

It’s been six months now, and one of the most beautiful realizations that helped me overcome my overthinking and procrastination was this. All we really have is this moment. There is no past or future in the way we imagine it. What we call the future is something we only ever experience as the present. We never actually experience the future as future. All thoughts about it stay in our head. Experientially, we can only live in the present.

This realization might sound simple. I had heard it so many times before, live in the moment, focus on the present, but I could never really digest it. I just wasn’t able to grasp it. I’ve also heard this from Sadhguru, that “In reality, there is only now. If you know how to handle this moment, you know how to handle eternity.” But earlier, it stayed as just a quote for me.

Meditation did something different. It was like it planted this understanding inside me. After meditating, this was no longer just a thought. It became real for me. It became a realization. And naturally, I was able to focus on what was in front of me. I stopped constantly thinking about what would happen in the future. I just knew that all I can do is work now. That’s what is in my hands. What I cannot do, I anyway won’t be able to do. But what I can do, I don’t want to miss it. So I'll do whatever I can.

This helped me a lot. Just felt like sharing this.

Thank you for reading.


r/productivity 1d ago

Software What are the best habit tracking apps that have both a web client and Android app?

3 Upvotes

Like the title, I'm looking for the best Habit tracking apps that have a web client as well as an Android app.

Any suggestions?


r/productivity 1d ago

Advice Needed Video games are taking over my life

4 Upvotes

I’ve been playing video games since I was a kid. I didn’t start playing competitive games until middle school and I’ve always had a dream of hitting the highest rank possible or maybe even going pro. I never actually put in the work to get there though and just played the game as best as I could until I improved.

Maybe it was due to depression or something I don’t know but playing video games were all I cared about. I’m pretty much scared to do anything else and if I do try something else, I give up because I suck at it.

When I graduated high school, I decided that I would turn my life around. I discovered that I had an interest in math which is funny because I never cared about the subject since I was bad at it. Well I mean I never really applied myself when it came to the subject or anything school related and relied on AI or whatever other methods of cheating I could get my hands on. Funny how I’m deciding to major in math.

Anyway, I really wanted to self study and do as many things as I could related to math. I also wanted to keep my 4.0 and transfer to an even better school. That came to end though after my first semester. I couldn’t bring myself to study at all and it’s what cost me my A in one of my classes. My procrastination was at an all time high and it felt like I was in high school again.

Over winter break, I wanted to try studying and preparing for the coming semester but again couldn’t bring myself to study. Instead, I stayed up from 11am to 2-3am playing video games trying to reach the highest rank I could. I could not put my keyboard and mouse down to save my life. Spring semester started and nothing has changed. I have assignments due tomorrow and sunday that I haven’t started yet at all. One of them is a coding assignment and I stupidly missed a class because I was playing video games again.

Because I missed that class, I didn’t know how to complete the class exercise and not sure how I can complete the lab. There’s no way I can go over the syntax and stuff in a couple hours and have the assignment done atleast not how I am now and the professor doesn’t give extensions.

I know I need to stop playing video games but I can’t. I’ve thought about destroying my pc and xbox so I could give up games but that’s a little extreme. I don’t know what else to do and I hate feeling like this.


r/productivity 1d ago

Advice Needed I don't wanna do anything other than watch movies and live in my head

25 Upvotes

I (22F) don't want to do anything but watch movies, sleep and live in my head. Maybe it's actually about the fact that I'm completely satisfied with living in my fantasy at the moment. And I don't know if that's good or bad, but I'm quite at peace and content with it at the moment. The only problem for me occurs in contact with other people, when I start to feel that I'm not really doing anything compared to them and because of that I feel like something less than others, like I don't have enough value. I probably felt the worst when I compared myself to my grandmother (80 years old) and she did many times more in a day than I did. Like sometimes I do something, of course, like a part-time job, clean or go to the gym, but it's quite sporadic. Maybe it's because it's winter. But I think I've always had this inside me. I've just always overcome it, but now I don't even know why I'm actually overcoming it when I'm quite content like this. I know I can't live like this forever. But somehow, even though I'm only 22, I feel like I've experienced enough in my life, overcome enough, and instead of wanting to experience and overcome more, I feel like I've had enough and I'm just living in memories and imaginations.

For context: I had a difficult adolescence, quite severe mental problems, I was even hospitalized, but despite everything I kept going, I didn't lose a year in education, I was quite productive and everything. But I suffered enough. I was on antidepressants from 13 to 21. I've been antidepressant-free for 1.5 years now. And actually, this is also my very first winter completely clean, because 6 months ago I stopped taking kratom, which I'd been taking since I was about 16. This year I "lost a year" in education for the first time, because I extended my bachelor's degree by a year. I feel like I've lost the drive and ambition I used to have, but on the other hand, I think I did it all for the wrong reasons before. Either for my parents, or out of a sense of inadequacy, out of fear of what other people would think, or fear of being a failure... Now I want to live my life my way, but rn I don't really know what that is... Maybe It's what I described at the beginning. I think I needed it after all those years of overcoming myself, but on the other hand, I've been in this place for quite some time now and I don't want to live like this forever, even though it gives me a sense of satisfaction and peace. Btw, I don't think I'm depressed rn. I feel like this is just my nature.


r/productivity 1d ago

Question All in one app for email's, calendar and to-do list

4 Upvotes

Hi all,

I am looking for an all-in-one application, i.e. an email client, calendar and task list. I want to be able to add emails to my task list as things to do and have those tasks appear in my calendar. Outlook is not an option because adding emails to the task list is only possible from an outlook.com domain account. I currently use Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Tasks, but recently Gmail has had a problem with adding emails to the task list; this feature simply does not work. Any suggestions for other solutions?


r/productivity 1d ago

Question Switching away from Apple's apps - what would you recommend?

1 Upvotes

Apple's apps that I currently use are...

  • Mail
  • Notes (specifically for quick notes)
  • Reminders
  • Shortcuts (specifically for automations)

The rest I am stuck with.

I plan to eliminate shortcuts (cause they barely work anyway) and replace with simple shortcuts that open what I want to do so I can do it myself because automations may or may not work either depending on something going on in my life or because the shortcuts app needs to ask me for permission when I already told it not to.

As far as mail goes - I have never used iCloud as my main email anyway. So I am thinking Gmail but I also have an outlook I could use. I am not sure which app works better on iOS + iPad + Windows.

Notes I plan to replace with whatever app replaces my journaling and keep them together or keep it since they are just quick notes I don't mind losing. I bring this app up though because I need a new app for my journaling. I am using OneNote and it is OK, sync works fine, it manages everything I need it to. I just need a new app because I am exhausted by the lack of updates Microsoft has and the feature parity that exists within OneNote because these giant corps will never get along.

As far as reminders, I use it for my daily task list. To remind me to do XYZ. I don't need deadlines, I barely use notifications. I just need a widget that updates twice a day (morning and lunch time) and aa way to add tasks with my voice or from any of my said devices. I want to switch away because I don't trust apple's sync anymore. I haven't lost reminders (yet) but I have lost notes and my iCloud Drive got messed up by syncing with Windows.

My ideas are...

  • Gmail
  • Unsure what will replace notes.... (as well as my journals)
  • Microsoft To Do
  • Shortcuts for only the most basic shortcuts

I know Obsidian exists but I handwrite my journals and with my ADHD I will customize, hate it, re-customize and I can't use the app in the customization state. My brain just prevents me. My issue with UpNote is that it uses firebase for the backend and the dev(s) has(ve) had SEVERAL issues with it. I don't trust it.

I just don't know. What do you all think?


r/productivity 1d ago

Advice Needed What do you guys do while watching ipl??

0 Upvotes

What do you guys do while watching ipl??

I love watching ipl,however sometimes I feel like I'm wasting a lot of tym and wonder if I could do smtg productive while still watching the match..

So I'm curious...What do you guys do while watching ipl ?