Being more productive won't always fix having too much to do

The idea

Productivity helps when work takes longer than it needs to.

It doesn't always help when there is simply too much work.

If every hour you save is quickly filled with another task, another productivity trick may not be the answer. You may need to look at how much you're trying to do.

Try this

1. Think about the last thing you did to become more productive.
2. Did it give you more breathing room, or did you simply fit more work into the space?
3. Look at everything currently competing for your time.
4. Choose one thing to stop, reduce, delay or say no to before looking for another way to work faster.

Keep this

Sometimes the answer to too much work is less work.

Why this helps

Productivity advice is appealing because it gives us something we can change. We can use a better list, improve our routine, automate something or concentrate harder.

And sometimes that works.

But if every improvement simply allows more work to arrive, you can become much more efficient without feeling any less overloaded.

If what you actually want is more time or less pressure, judge your productivity changes by whether they create that — not by how much more work you can now get through.