i spent 3 months chasing productivity and got less done than when i just played a dumb game

ok this is gonna sound like im joking but hear me out. last summer i went full productivity mode. i bought a notion template, set up a whole system, color coded everything, watched like 6 youtube videos on time blocking. i was so ready to crush it

three months later i had a beautiful empty system and had accomplished basically nothing. every morning id open notion and feel this weird pressure to use the system "correctly" instead of just doing stuff. i was spending more time organizing tasks than doing them and honestly i knew it but couldnt stop

then one day i just said screw it and downloaded this goofy app called beedone thats basically a todo list but with quests and xp like an rpg. i figured itd last two days like everything else. but the thing that got me was there was nothing to set up. you just add tasks and do them and it gives you points. no dashboards no templates no hour long onboarding. its embarassingly simple

three weeks in i was actually finishing stuff. not because the app is magic or anything, i think its because it removed the setup trap i kept falling into. i still use apple notes for random ideas and google calendar for actual appointments but for day to day tasks the less thinking about the system the better

anyone else find that the more "productive" you try to be the less you actually get done? feels like a weird paradox but i keep seeing it everywhere