This post is all about these 5 productivity myths.

Have you ever found yourself staring into your computer screen, mind blank, eyes unblinking, and then looked up at the hour only to say: “There aren’t enough hours in the day”?

I feel like we have all sat at our desks in the morning, or started work with the promise to stay focused on our to-do list, to be productive, and get things done.

But no matter how hard we try or the pressure we put on ourselves that to-do list keeps being as long and intimidating as always.

We’ve become so desperate we start trying any and all tips for productivity without realizing some of this advice is actually wasting our time.

Yes, you heard me right. Not every tip you hear from “productivity gurus” is good.

But don’t worry because, in this article, you’ll find the top 5 productivity myths wasting your time and what to do instead to get the most out of your days and time.

Let’s begin!

Consistency is more important than intensity

I want to start our list of productivity myths with a controversial one. And although it’s true that consistency is more important than intensity, you should take this with a grain of salt.

Let me explain. 

Yes, putting in small amounts of effort consistently over time is how you get long-term, lasting results.

But with this whole movement, we’ve given intensity bad fame when there is nothing wrong with being intense about something.

Not everything in life is a marathon where you need to pace yourself.

Some things can be sprints. For example, if you’re trying to .

In the long term, these moments are not going to be sustainable. You cannot dedicate 10 or 12 hours to that side hustle you want to try. 

But that is not the aim of “intense working periods of time”. It doesn’t need to be sustainable forever it just needs to help you work toward your goals.

The bottom line is consistency is super important in most areas of our life, and it should be your top 1 priority. But if you know how to use them, small periods of intensity are incredibly helpful to help you get that project out, start a new business, or achieve your goals.

And how exactly can you do that?

Choose a task you are excited to work on and focus solely on it. Dedicate it as much time as you can to it for a max of a couple of days. 

Try to learn and get done as much as you can. 

And after that let your mind and body rest. Refocus your energy towards being consistent in your action and investing time in things that are going to bring you real results. Even if it’s one step forward a day. 

Top productivity myths wasting your time. Motivation leads to action

Motivation doesn’t lead to action. It’s actually the complete opposite. Action lead to motivation, results lead to motivation.

Did you know the number one reason people fail to achieve their goals is because they lack consistency and perseverance? 

We rely so much on motivation, on that spark of creativity and inspiration to get us up from our sofa.

And even though motivation is great at the beginning, it will not help you achieve your goals. Because you will not feel motivated to do something every day of your life.

In fact, you already know this, because you’ve felt it. So why do you keep relying on it?

But Sofia, if I shouldn’t rely on my motivation, then how can I take action?

By developing your self discipline.

I know, probably not what you wanted to hear. But discipline is the difference between the people who got it and the ones who want it.

Because being disciplined about something leads to creating new habits. habits that lead to consistency and ultimately growth.

Self discipline doesn’t have to be your enemy. And even though it’s not always easy to push yourself to do something you don’t want to do, there are some shortcuts to make it easier.

For example:

• Count down to 5 and take action. When you think about something you don’t exactly want to do, your brain will start bombarding you with reasons why you should not do it. And these reasons win almost 99% of the time. But this is where this tip comes in. 

Instead of letting your brain ramble about why you shouldn’t do something, count to 5 and put yourself immediately into action. Even if it’s something small like standing up or turning off your phone to get on with that task.

What you are doing with this technique is stopping the rambling by distracting your mind with the counting.

I personally love this technique and especially use it to get out of bed when waking up in the morning feels a little harder.

• Have your goals present every day. Writing your goal down makes it real. But having that goal present every day is altogether more powerful. You can do this in several ways. You could create a vision board for your dream, place that goal in your calendar or your fridge. You can also choose a picture that represents that goal and put it in your workspace or your wallet.

Click here to discover 4 more tips to master self discipline!

Hustle culture is bad

Continuing with the list of productivity myths, we have the hustling culture.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about hustle culture is a type of mindset that encourages us to keep working hard day and night to live the life of our dreams without being present in the moment.

It’s basically a fancy word for “constantly working”. There are actually doctors saying that hustle culture is about being a human doing rather than a human being, which is dangerous in many ways.

People who have this type of mindset:

• Are workaholics
• Have an obsession with productivity
• Have a fear of failing and/or falling behind
• See rest and relaxation as something negative and that they should minimize

This type of mindset is the one that will inevitably turn into burnout, stress, anxiety, and fear. And it will also create the idea that success and your worth are only determined by your achievements.

Don’t get me wrong burning yourself out, making your life solely about working, and always wanting more money and success is not healthy.

However, having a hustling mindset is only bad when you take it to the extreme and don’t know how to set healthy boundaries in your life.

The truth is anything worthwhile in life takes time and energy and effort. Your dream relationship needs effort, your dream business needs effort, and your dream life is built on hard work. Even that super easy side hustle takes effort.

Because to build something good and valuable in your life you need to invest time in it. Nothing worth it comes handed to you in a silver plate.

What I’m trying to say is that success isn’t easy, because if it were everyone would be successful.

And you know what most of us could be successful. But most won’t because they want the easy route. Because they don’t want to put the hard work in.

And this is where the hustle culture comes in. If you ask any successful entrepreneur or anyone who has done something you aspire to they will often tell you how hard they hustled and how much effort they put into their dreams.

Once they started to see results and became successful they started to care more and prioritize work like balance.

Ultimately it all comes down to what is your goal. If what you want to achieve is something extraordinary, then know you will probably have to put in extraordinary amounts of effort.

If your goal is to have a chilled and balanced life then you won’t probably have to put in that much effort.

It really depends on the goals you have and your starting point. 

And I’m not saying this to discourage you or tell you to give up on your dreams. I truly believe you are capable of achieving anything you set your mind to.

But whatever you want to achieve, be realistic about what it will take for you to achieve your dreams and if you are willing to put in the effort.

Here are a couple of tips to help you balance hustle culture and not end up burned out:

• Prioritize work-life balance. Remember what we said about being a human being and not a human doing? Even though having a balanced life means something different for all of us, it’s important to define and find that harmony. Are you happy with your current life? What are the kind of things that make you happy? Do you prioritize these kinds of things in your life? Do you feel like your work takes up most of your time and thoughts? If yes are you okay with it?

These are some questions that you can ask yourself to reflect on and discover the things you want (and need) to start changing in your life.

Right here you will find an article with the top 5 worst mistakes keeping you from having a balanced life.

BONUS: Download the free balanced life workbook. This guide will provide you with the tools to evaluate and address various areas of your life!

• Focus on the 80/20 rule (a.k.a. the Pareto principle). The 80/20 rule says that 20% of what you do results in 80% of your outcomes. This means that 20% of the time you spend on vital tasks is going to give you 80% of your results. While 80% of your time spent on numerous repetitive tasks give you 20% of your results.

For example, if you have a business 20% of your most valuable clients will bring 80% of your income. This gives you a hint on where you should invest most of your time in. 

On time management, 80% of the time spent, brings in 20% of the returns. For example, checking emails over and over, writing memos, taking a long time to make basic and unimportant decisions, etc.

 Even though this principle is mostly used for business and time management, it can be applied to almost all areas of our life. 

And although not everything fits tightly into this 80/20 rule, think of it as a tool. A lens to view aspects of your life. Sit down and think about it, maybe even write it down. You’ll be surprised by the things you discover.

• Know when to rest and take strategic rests. Did you know that the average person can only be productive for about 4-5 hours a day? There are studies that prove that past that time productivity and focus starts declining.

It’s important to listen to your body and find a schedule that works best for you. Experiment with your work sessions to find a routine that allows you to stay focused, be productive, and avoid burnout. 

Remember, productivity is not solely about the number of hours worked but the quality and effectiveness of your work during those hours.

• Delegate. Obviously in the beginning you might not be able to delegate much- especially when starting a new business. But at the early stages of these types of projects, you could find other ways to delegate for example using automatization tools like Hive.

Bonus tip: At the beginning of any project you start I want to focus on ROI (return on investment). Basically, ask yourself if this task that is taking up your time is going to benefit you in the long run. Is it going to help you grow and improve? Will it help you achieve your goals faster? Does this task have any positive/exponential benefits in the future?

• Set realistic goals and expectations. Success takes time and effort. And rushing or sacrificing everything in the short term might not be the move to achieve it. Mainly because it’s not sustainable. Remember to find the balance between consistency and intensity. 

Related: how to set healthy boundaries in your life

Worst productivity myths to believe. Productivity is about doing more

You’ve probably heard this already somewhere. But I’ll say it again so that there is no doubt.

Being busy doesn’t equal being productive.

Because productivity is not about doing more. It’s about doing more of the right things. 

Here’s how. I like to think of productivity as this equation (don’t worry this has nothing to do with maths):

And in this equation, I want to underline two things: meaningful output and fun.

Your results need to be meaningful. And this is what I mean by being busy doesn’t equal being productive.

There is no point in driving super fast down the road if you are driving in the opposite direction. This it’s actually counter-productive.

Productivity is a balance of all these different terms. Because even though it’s about doing more with the time you have, it’s not about doing whatever. It’s about recognizing and prioritizing more meaningful things.

Secondly, we have fun. One of the best things that I have applied in my life is making an effort to make things fun.

Don’t like working out? Experiment with different workouts, try including things that you love like creating a bomb-ass playlist, or plan cute outfits for your week.

Have trouble eating healthy? There are tons of original and delicious recipes out there that will make your mouth water.

If you approach productivity in a way where you can try and enjoy the things you are doing that’s going to result in a massive multiplier for your productivity.

Because the real problem (and mistake) with trying to get things done is when you are forcing yourself to do things you hate.

Productivity is not self care

There is a huge misconception when it comes to self care to the point we’ve ended up with two “radical” groups.

First, there’s group A the productivity geeks that are all about working, and hustling. And then we have group B, the self care enthusiasts that are all about rose baths, skin care and walks in nature.

But the truth is that both these groups are two sides of the same coin and they actually go hand in hand together. 

Sometimes the greatest thing you can do for your own self care is to be productive. It’s to get that project on time, it’s to spend a couple of extra hours on that assignment because that is the best thing that you can do for yourself.

Self care is not self compassion, it’s not self love and it’s not healthy when you use it as an excuse to not push yourself to be and do better.

We’ve gone too far in the direction of separating our productivity and self care. When sometimes productivity is self care and self care is productivity.

(BONUS PRODUCTIVITY MYTH) I should have been more productive

And before we finish the list of productivity myths wasting your time I want to include a little bonus here. Even though it’s not technically a productivity myth, I feel we all say this to ourselves.

“I should have more productive instead of a lazy couch potato”.

We’ve all used this phrase as a way to beat ourselves up for leaving out to-do list halfway through.

But beating yourself up at the end of the day for not achieving as much as you could have is doing you no good.

Even if it were true, the day has already past there is nothing you can do to change that. The only thing at your hand right now is how you respond to this and how you plan to be more productive tomorrow.

How you can correct the mistakes you’ve done today?

That is how you get a little better every day, not by beating yourself up. The only thing you are going to achieve by doing this is making you feel terrible about yourself destroying your self confidence and self esteem.

So at the end of the day whenever you feel tempted to beat yourself for not being productive, just remind yourself that you can simply choose to be satisfied with how much work you got done and you can always begin again tomorrow.

Final thoughts on productivity myths

And that concludes the list of productive myths wasting your time.

The bottom line is that although being productive and getting things done is important so is your mental health.

Work is not everything there is to life. You are a human being as well, not a machine designed to work and get as much done as possible.

Here are the productivity myths at a glance:

• Consistency is more important than intensity. Although consistency should be your top 1 priority, there is nothing wrong with being intense and passionate about something.

What to do instead: Learn how to use intense working hours followed by periods of rest. Having a balance between these two will help you achieve your goals faster and work on

• Motivation leads to action. The truth here is that results and actions lead to motivation, not the other way around. So stop waiting for that spark of motivation to get you moving, because chances are you won’t feel that way most days.

What do to instead: Learn not to rely on your motivation and develop your self discipline

• Hustle culture is bad. You should never base your worth and success based solely on your achievements. But having a hustle mindset is actually great when it’s not taken to the extreme. Your dreams and goals are going to need hard work and effort

What to do instead: Create healthy boundaries in your life and use the tips we mentioned in the post to have a healthy hustling mindset.

• Productivity is not self care. Again remember to find a balance between these two and instead of using self care as an excuse to not do better see these two as two sides of the same coin. 

What to do instead: Sometimes the best form of self care is being productive. And other times the best for your productivity is self care and taking a rest. Learn to recognize these moments and listen to your needs

• Productivity is about doing more. Say this with me: “being busy doesn’t equal being productive”. It’s all about doing more meaningful things. And remember that making things fun will skyrocket your productivity. Find ways around the things you don’t like, try new approaches, and experiment with different things to make them more enjoyable.

Posts and tools mentioned during the article:

• How to build healthy boundaries in your life
• How to master self discipline
• How to balance your life. 
• Download your free balanced life workbook

If you made it to the end of the article, thank you so much for investing your time in it.

Remember that you are worth it of even your deepest and wildest dreams!

Now I’d love to hear about you. What’s your favorite productivity tip? Read ya in the comments!