Let’s face it, we have all tried to do more tasks each day, to squeeze our calendar as much as possible to achieve those goals that have been spinning in our heads for a long time. The day seems too short for everything we want to do. In our mind there is a utopian world in which, finally, we will be able to beat the clock and the almanac. That day, as we think, we will be a kind of superheroes who own our own destiny.

We have reasons for this longing, modern life becomes more and more hectic with time. The internet, along with its majestic range of possibilities, brings us the feeling that there is too much out there that we have not tried and, above all, that we have not achieved.

Then what do we do?

Well, the natural thing to do, find a way to achieve everything that seems so easy on the screen of our smartphone. It is right there where we look for the solution with brief questions to Google. The answer to our questions is commonly called PRODUCTIVITY, a keyword that has made many people earn money through their courses, books, tutorials or YouTube videos.

Don’ t get me wrong. I believe that we can and should be more productive. However, there are serious issues with this market and with the productivity narrative that I would like to address. These problems are yours too, as they have been mine for a long time, because not only do this tips completly useless, but they can hinder you and cause you to fail in your projects.

Problem no. 1. Productivity guru tips generally set the bar too high

If you are reading this, I am almost completely convinced that you have seen some YouTube video about the habit of getting up at 5am and how it improves your personal development. But, let’s face it, how many times have you really been able to get up at that time in the morning of your own free will if you don’t have any urgent stuff to attend?

I confess that I have tried, and sometimes succeeded, getting up very early in the morning, like 5 am. However, this has been an unsustainable habit for me over time. Now I understand that the main reason for this is that it’s basically unnatural. If the sun doesn’t come out until 7 am, why would you have to be up earlier, unless you have an urgent obligation to attend to?

This is, sadly, just one example. Productivity tips can be so extreme that instead of making your life easier, they become a difficult weight to carry. Let’s put it this way, productivity in the end should be about making you happy. That is, you want to be productive to achieve your goals and that this ultimately results in your happiness. Wh, then, should you have to impose on yourself a lot of impossible burdens that destroy all enthusiasm for the tasks you want to do?

Problem no. 2 Constantly learning about productivity robs you of time to be productive.

It has surely happened to you, like me, that you watch 20 videos on how to make your day more productive. However, when you finish watching them, your eyes are so tired that it is impossible to concentrate on your tasks at school or work.

Something that I have come to realize, and that terrifies me a little, is the fact that online productivity content can be one of the main sources of procrastination for conscientious procrastinators, including myself. Consuming this type of content makes us feel that, in some way, we are not being unproductive, but… that is exactly what is happening!

Problem no. 3 Productivity tips don’t work well for everyone or in all contexts.

This seems to me to be the most serious problem. Networks set us standards of productivity, but those standards do not serve all people and that does not mean that they are failures.

Not everyone is a good early riser, not everyone can keep their attention on a task for more than 10 minutes, and so on with everything else. In my opinion, almost no productivity tip will work well for 100 percent of people. However, we are usually led to believe that it does.

To give a concrete example: I am Cuban, I live on an island with thousands of difficulties to do or achieve anything. The productivity tips I see on the Internet is sometimes so out of date that it’s not really worth paying attention to. Many productivity apps are blocked for my country. Also, how am I supposed to make a daily schedule and a weekly plan if I don’t know if I will have electricity today?

Of course, everyone can do the best they can in their context and according to their possibilities. My point is that many times we adopt online productivity advice that does not apply well to our reality.

Now, it’s not that you can’t look for ways to be more productive and, of course, you will find many of these on the Internet. However, keep these three issues in mind so that the productivity tips don’t make you more unproductive.

Let me know what you think about it in the comments.