I’m sure you’ve seen the countless articles online about “life hacks” and “boosting productivity.” These articles typically list 5 or 10 tips to “find your mission” or “control your impulses.” Especially in the previous two to three years, these blurbs of generalized tips have gained prominence. It’s like people are more obsessed with the process of productivity rather than the results of productivity.

If anything, the goal of the aspiring productive person is to do things and refrain from constantly researching ways to be better. All that time spent on finding ways to be productive could be used to actually be productive.

I recall the time Guitar Hero was a popular. People would spend hours on the game and achieve mastery of the hardest songs on the hardest difficulty. Watching someone with this speed and accuracy was quite astonishing. Yet, the veneer of excellence quickly faded as you realized that person could have become proficient with an actual guitar rather than pretend to be good at a digital instrument. People are more obsessed with the possibility of being good rather than the actual hard work it takes to get good at the real thing.

This obsession with productivity is ultimately an unproductive one. The articles on productivity are ultimately a racket because they never tell the reader to stop reading and go out and develop your own tools and use them in the real world. So I tell you…

STOP. Develop your own tools and your own process to get good at whatever you want to get good at. I’ve tried every shortcut. Let me tell you: there is no substitute for honest, hard work.

Happy hunting!