Avoiding Toxic Productivity Advice (Reaction)

[LucasPrigge]

What is the most toxic productivity "advice" you've ever heard? 👇

[GofelipeGraphicDesign]

I can relate to him but as I get older I realize that it’s all me, how I process information. I have an all or nothing mentality so I want to consume all the information and do it exactly like others are doing. I think we make things toxic.

[stphnrnwld]

I got diagnosed with ADHD only a couple of weeks ago and a lot of the things Jesse describes as frustration points with common productivity advice definitely resonate with me.
A huge frustration point for me was getting lost in the systems and tools themselves, trying to tweak and perfect my setup and workflow while never actually getting any work done. Things like Obsidian for example are a blessing and a curse for me. While it is amazing in the way that you can customize its look and functionality exactly to your preferences it's often more interesting to keep customizing rather than actually using it to take notes. And since you're working on your productivity tool you even get some sort of false sense of productivity.
To some extent this pitfall even applies to the genre of productivity videos on YouTube as a whole. Sometimes I would get lost in soaking up productivity advice and feeling like I was doing something productive while totally ignoring the things I should've been doing. Pretty ironic.

Something you have picked up on is very important and I wish more productivity tutorials had it: A disclaimer along the lines of "this app or tutorial may or may not work for you. You also don't need to adapt it to the letter. Take the things that work and toss the things that don't. If it doesn't work for you that's totally fine - maybe check out [tutorial for an app that uses a different paradigm]". Looking back, that disclaimer alone would've saved me a lot of frustration.

Anyway, I enjoyed the reaction video and I think it's great that you're interested in how ADHD brains deal with common productivity advice and that you're apparently trying to figure out what you could possibly improve to address those issues.

[rob]

8:30 you do not have to trust your brain instead you have to trust your personal processes that could be related to origin GTD process.

He said, that he didn't figured out why his process failed after some weeks. I guess he failed to establish essential GTD behaviours like periodic reviews or to distinct between capturing and organising.

[mruziicak]

The guy is attributing a LOT of normal behaviors and challenges with ADHD. Saying that things don't work just because of ADHD is silly. ADHD is overly diagnosed in the US... I've used GTD over 10 years and something I've only recently realized is that software/system switching is VERY damaging to productivity. You have to TRUST the system you're using, even thought it's not perfect. Agree with you on the inbox. I have so many different email inboxes, they are kind of a project list, rather than an inbox.

[gorcn]

I have a long life journey with habbits and behavoiur I didnt real unterstood in my life. How Im acting with people, family members, things that are/should be important and so on... Last Covid lockdowns gave me few months of fighting with depression (diagnosed by doc). I saw in my self, that my brain doesnt work like of most of the people. I thought also for longer, that I maybe could have adhd, but never went to doctor, cause, my brain is fit, has a lot of potential and Im also intelligent... I also had allways that feeling, that Im behind my potential. Like driving Lambo 30km/h all the time. I tried different methods to improve my life and work and be more "productive" (whatever this may mean)... But allways, after few days or weeks it disappeard. What happend? I saw this video few days ago and Like a bomb. Everything he said can be transformed to me. And since that day I started to implement what he told, because Im more able to accept, that my braindindeed, works bit different. When I was student, the best app for writing for me was a simple LaTex. I wrote all my papers, even I didnt study chemy or mathemtic... But it was clean - no shiny things. I never used word.

I discovered your channel last night, because I was looking for an alternative for apple reminders. On youtube are really tousends of videos dedicated to the maintheme "how to use apps" and I could stay every day for hours and watch them...but I would not move a step forward.
His video helps me a lot and I startet to understand myself much better (now with near 40 years).

Thank you for your content. English is not my main language. Sorry if maybe not all words could describe what I have meant.