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The Limits of Personal Productivity
3 truths about life that you just can’t hack
I’ve been writing about productivity for close to a decade now. I learned things, piece by piece, and owe whatever career I have in large part due to my research on psychology, motivation, and getting things done.
Putting my learnings into practice has paid off. I’m working on a full-time assignment as the editorial director of WorkOS. I previously worked with a lot of clients and people with my own editorial studio Wonder Shuttle. I wrote a book and compiled another. I could do side projects like Prologue.
I do the time blocking. I did the pomodoros. I procrastinate productively. I tried the dymaxion sleep cycle (don’t do it!). I’ve made SMART goals. I write regularly. I do deep work. I go for walks.
But 10 years into my career, I am also definitely starting to bump up against the limits of personal productivity. There is an asymptote that no amount of personal productivity can change. Here are three, of many, limits that I’m experiencing:
Finitude: The limit of the body
Software might make a person feel infinite, but absolutely no amount of productivity is going to be enough to drown out the screaming limits of the human body. I am just one person, and I don’t…
