I don’t usually wade into the swamp of “productivity culture” here, but lately it’s been impossible to avoid. Open YouTube, TikTok, Instagram—boom, there they are: productivity gurus telling you that if you just wake up at 4:30 a.m., down a shot of wheatgrass, meditate for 47 minutes, write your goals in blood (okay, fine—fancy fountain pen ink), then plunge into an ice bath, you too can become an unstoppable powerhouse.
Meanwhile, I’m just over here celebrating that I got my laundry folded before midnight.
The Problem With Idolizing “Perfect Humans”
People idolize these gurus like they’ve cracked the cheat code for life. And I get it—who doesn’t want to feel like they’ve got everything under control? But trying to copy their lives is like trying to live inside an Apple commercial: sleek, sterile, and completely detached from reality.
The harm is this—ordinary folks start feeling inadequate because they don’t have the time, money, or energy to maintain a 27-step morning routine. You finally get up on time, drink your coffee, and make it through the day without screaming into a pillow, and suddenly it doesn’t feel like enough. All because some guy on Instagram claims he writes a novel, runs a marathon, and scales Everest before brunch.
Spoiler: he doesn’t.
The Productivity Gimmick Carousel
Then there’s the constant gimmick-chasing. One week it’s bullet journals, the next week it’s Notion dashboards so complicated they look like NASA flight software. Don’t forget Pomodoro timers, habit-stacking, AI assistants, and color-coded calendars that resemble abstract art.
I’ve wasted whole afternoons tinkering with these things. Once, I built a writing schedule in Notion so elaborate it had more layers than an onion. Guess how much writing I got done? Exactly zero words. But boy, that dashboard was ready for liftoff.
That’s the con productivity gurus never mention—half the time you’re “working on your system,” you’re actually procrastinating. Fancy procrastination, sure, but still procrastination.
Work Gets Done When You… Work
The unsexy truth? Productivity boils down to actually doing the thing. That’s it. No life coach, no cold plunge, no $120 planner will magically make the work appear.
Some of the most productive people I know don’t even bother with apps—they use sticky notes, legal pads, and plain old Google Calendar. And they get more done than the guy on YouTube who spends two hours filming his morning ritual with soft lighting and acoustic guitar in the background.
So, yeah…
I’m not saying you should ignore every productivity hack—sometimes you do stumble on a trick that makes life smoother. But worshiping these gurus as if they’ve unlocked the holy grail of efficiency? That’s where it gets dangerous. They don’t have it all figured out. They just package their quirks into content and make you believe you need to copy them to succeed.
If you find yourself watching “10 habits that will change your life” videos at 1 a.m., maybe pause and ask: am I actually learning something, or am I just being entertained by someone else’s to-do list?
My Motto
My new motto is simple: use what works, ditch the rest, and for the love of all that’s good—stop chasing the next gimmick. I’ve got my paper planner, my reminders app, and the stubborn willpower to sit down and do the work. It’s not Instagrammable, but it gets the job done.
And no, I’m not about to film myself writing this blog post at dawn in a Himalayan salt cave. Sorry gurus.
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