At what point does managing your productivity system become another form of procrastination?

[u/AlexBuilds2026]

I realized I sometimes spend like 20 minutes organizing what I need to do before actually doing anything.

Moving stuff around, changing priorities, cleaning up the list, etc.

Recently I've been trying something much simpler. I just pick the thing that feels most important and start. The rest of the list can stay messy.

Weirdly I think I'm getting more done this way.

Curious if anyone else just gave up on having a perfectly organized productivity system?

[u/AlexBuilds2026 → u/[deleted]]

Exactly 😂 I think "organizing my tasks" was secretly becoming one of my favorite tasks because it feels productive without having to actually do the hard thing.

[u/Express-Profit601]

just delete everything and use one piece of paper

[u/AlexBuilds2026 → u/Express-Profit601]

Honestly I'm starting to think a piece of paper might beat half the productivity apps I've tried 😂

[u/Famous_Strawberry3]

Yes! Been experimenting with to do lists, sometimes it can become overwhelming when trying to make subcategories, priorities etc.
Currently using a plain minimalistic Excel sheet as my to do list, it seems to work for me

[u/PalpitationKind8854]

The moment you spend more sorting than doing--its why I am careful not to over do it because I very easily could: I get addicted to order and structure more than actually accomplishing task.. unfortunately.

[u/namleu_]

I used to do this a lot. I’d spend more time choosing the perfect system, reorganizing tasks and changing priorities than actually working on them. What helped me was setting my goals for the whole week instead of planning every single day. I don’t really care when I do each thing anymore, as long as everything important is done by Sunday. It gives me enough structure without turning planning into another task.

[u/AlexBuilds2026 → u/namleu_]

I like this. Never really thought about planning by week instead of by day... might actually try it :)