One of the reasons many people are not as productive as they want to be is not because they haven’t found the right ideas that can help them take charge of their lives.
They can’t be productive because they keep looking for “better” ideas instead of settling on a “good enough” idea and then putting it into rigorous practice.
Looking for the Best Can Be Counterproductive
This is comparable to weight-loss programs. People buy more and more books on dieting, but don’t lose weight by merely buying diet books. It’s easier to buy books than it is to go on a diet. Recognizing that most diet plans boil down to basic strategies—eat more fruits and veggies, keep portions under control, and stay physically active—and implementing these simple ideas purposely could be as effective a diet program as any out there.
Look, no productivity tool can fit all your requirements. The inadequacies of any productivity system you try out will drive you towards looking for a different tool. But this quest to define the best never ends.
Idea for Impact: Never underestimate the power of a simple idea that is well executed.
If you can identify a simple system and implement its key principles with discipline, you may not need the “best” system.
As Charlie Munger has stated in describing the simplicity of Warren Buffett’s philosophy at Berkshire Hathaway, “Our ideas are so simple that people keep asking us for mysteries when all we have are the most elementary ideas.”
Productivity porn and benchmarking with the gurus is not useful by any means. It’s yet another variety of procrastination.