Stop Over-Optimizing: The Productivity Trap That’s Keeping You Unproductive

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how easy it is to get stuck optimizing your life instead of actually living it. You know what I mean—spending hours tweaking your Notion setup, testing the latest productivity apps, building perfect morning routines, and watching endless videos about how to do more in less time. It all feels like progress, but often it’s just motion without meaning.

And don’t get me wrong—I love systems. I believe in habits. Routines are powerful. But at some point, they stop serving you and start replacing the actual work you’re supposed to be doing.

Routines and Tools Are Not the Work

Somewhere along the way, we started treating planning, organizing, and consuming productivity content as if they are the work. They’re not. Watching 10 YouTube videos on how to be more productive won’t make you productive—it’ll just make you an expert on productivity theory.

I’ve seen people (and I’ve done it too) spend more time setting up tools and systems than actually using them. That’s not productivity. That’s the illusion of progress.

Virtue Signaling in the Productivity World

Let’s talk about virtue signaling, because it’s everywhere now. People love to post their color-coded calendars, perfectly aligned to-do lists, or screenshots of their “deep work” time blocks. But posting your system isn’t the same as doing the work. It's just showing people that you care about productivity.

Productivity has become a personal brand. A style. A look. But the results—the actual outcomes—don’t show up on your Notion or your Instagram.

The $10K-in-10-Minutes Nonsense

One of my favorite red flags is when you see content like:

“How to make $10,000/month in passive income or side hustle in 10 minutes a day.”
Or:
“Lose weight doing this one 5-minute thing.”

Let’s be honest—if anything worthwhile could be done in 5 minutes a day, everyone would be doing it. You can’t shortcut consistency. You can’t fake effort. Most of this content is just clickbait, and the only people making money from it are the ones telling you how to make money.

And the worst part? It feels productive to consume this stuff. You tell yourself, “I’m learning something. I’m preparing. I’m getting inspired.” But no—you’re just scrolling, avoiding the hard part: actually doing the thing.

When Books and Content Become a Distraction

Even reading books—something I genuinely love and recommend—can become a subtle form of avoidance. I’ve noticed this in myself and in close friends: the more we read, the more we feel like we’re working. But if you’re on your fifth book about habits and haven’t implemented a single thing from the first one, that’s not learning—it’s stalling.

One shift that works for me is this: I only consume content—books, videos, podcasts—when I’m actively doing something and looking for help. If I’m building a new system, launching a product, or solving a real problem, that’s when a specific book or video becomes incredibly valuable. It’s content used with purpose.

But just passively watching or reading, hoping it will “help somehow”? That’s entertainment. And that’s totally fine—as long as you don’t confuse it with work. The issue is when we lose track of the volume and forget why we started in the first place.

My Only Real “Hack”? Unsubscribe.

Here’s the only “life hack” I’ll suggest:
Unsubscribe from anything that promises easy money, overnight success, or effortless results.
If you see titles like “Make passive income in a few minutes” or “This one trick changed everything,” hit Do Not Recommend Channel. Clean your algorithm like you’d clean your kitchen—get rid of the junk.

Because the real work? It’s not flashy. It’s not fast. It’s not algorithm-friendly.
It’s showing up. Doing the hard thing. Repeating that again and again—until you get better.

Back to Basics

So if you’re caught in the trap of optimizing, organizing, planning, watching, reading, but not doing—pause.

You don’t need a new tool. You don’t need another book. You don’t need a better setup.

You just need to do the thing.

Even imperfectly.

Especially imperfectly.