People Drowning in Productivity App Sprawl
Individuals, particularly creators and professionals, repeatedly build and abandon productivity systems. The core pain lies in the difficulty of maintaining these systems long-term, often due to overwhelm, complexity, or a mismatch between the system and their individual working styles. This leads to wasted time and a feeling of being unproductive despite efforts to organize.
SOURCES (60)
“hey guys, so this started from a pretty dumb but real problem i kept having while working i’d make a list of tasks feel productive for like 5 minutes then open linkedin or twitter “just for a sec” and suddenly 40 mins gone and nothing…”
“Not a dumb question at all. 8 days is honestly overkill — you could have all of those working by day 2. For a reading list, meal plan, and playlist you only need one concept: databases. Make a table, add properties (status, rating, genre, whatever), and you're 90% there. Everything else in Notion is basically text on a page. My actual advice: don't spend your 8 days "learning Notion." Spend day 1 watching one beginner video and building your reading list, ugly and simple. Then”
“In my opinion, it's quite intuitive and doesn't have not be overcomplicated. Besides, there's a practical guide available in case you wanna figure out certain features/settings.”
“Not gonna lie, this was kind of a wake-up call moment for me lol. I went through my Udemy + Coursera library last week and counted how many courses I actually completed vs. how many I bought "with good intentions." 12 bought. 2 finished. 😅 The problem wasn't motivation exactly — it was that I had zero visibility. Courses were scattered across platforms, I had no idea how much progress I'd actually made on each one, and there was no "system" pulling me back to finish”
“Learning how to automate. I could be so much quicker if I took the time to get rid of my gui tasks”
“mine only stopped rotting when i deleted the pages i built for the person i thought i'd become. had this whole content calendar and a goals dashboard i never opened once. the stuff that survives is boring, my client tracker and invoice log, cause i literally can't get paid without opening them. so now if a page isn't tied to money or a live client, i just let it die and don't feel bad about it.”
“Hello fellow victims of their own attention span.Every time I try to learn something useful, my brain decides to launch a completely unrelated side quest. I’m not sure whether this is generational brain rot, my ADHD leveling up, or me simply being incredibly lazy.The plan: review calculus for one hour. The outcome: spend three and a half hours learning how nuclear submarines make oxygen.So, naturally, instead of developing discipline like a functional adult, I procrastinated by building an entir”
“Im certain you'll get a lot of good tool recommendations, so I'll offer a slightly different perspective. A thing I've noticed is that the feeling of being "disorganized" isn't always caused by we having the wrong tool. Sometimes it's because we have different kinds of information living in the same place. For example, for me I try to separate: Tasks (What needs doing?) Decisions (Why did we choose this?) Meeting notes (What was discussed?) Project thinking (What”
[Notion] ★★★ 3/5 (v1.7.322) — Knowing there a such thing that carries all-in one daily space and ability to assort, design, undo, redo, professionally assembled essentials is the general task maker to…
“Might be a contrarian take but I'd actually revisit Microsoft Project before writing it off, with one big caveat: only use the basic 10% of it. Totally agree it's a monster if you try to use every feature. But for just building a project plan with milestones and dates, I always requested it, because nothing else laid out a plan as cleanly. I ran my meetings with my screen up and the whole team could follow the plan visually without any training. Basic functions only, ignore the rest, and”
“I regularly have 100+ browser tabs open. It's just become part of my workflow. I generally have a prime browser sesh that I'll actively use all day, but I'll open so many random sessions and just leave them. I'm not emotionally attached to the browsers. If I opened it once I can open it again so at the end of the day I just close them all.”
This is a good idea. A shared list of tasks I'm doing every week.
“Filtering from april to now Last year I got kind of obsessed with the idea that calendars are the one productivity tool that never actually got better. Like everything else has some AI thing bolted on now that at least tries to save you time, and your calendar is still just a grid you drag boxes around on. So I started building one that you could just talk to instead, tell it what changed and it figures out the rest. Worked on it seriously for a couple of months last summer, got a rough version”
“This is the top of my setup. I use Notion daily and have done for a long time - End of the week I do a review (weekly ASR) see what things went well, what didn't (like tasks completed/not completed) then I plan the next week - all tasks and important dates so I know ahead of time. Then as I come to Notion each day I am reminded of what is on. https://preview.redd.it/ftn37hv3bedh1.png?width=962&format=png&auto=webp&s=9a1e84203177ff0e7f8b44fb1f1145c4d713bfbe”
“I don't think hardware is ever going to replace something like Notion. But I can see the argument that software is great for storing information while hardware is better for keeping today's priorities visible. I recently saw a physical AI planner designed to sit on your desk, sync with existing calendars, and surface only your next actions instead of your entire workspace. Would you ever pair something like that with Notion, or do you prefer having everything live inside one app? s”
“What do you think would help? If you were to hire someone to do this for you, what’s the first thing you would say you struggle with? submitted by /u/Dazzling-Guess1983 [link] [comments]”
“Hi everyone, I’m trying to understand the context switching pain better. Not “productivity” in general. More the specific moment when daily work gets scattered across tabs, apps, files, docs, messages, calls, Slack/Telegram, notes, etc. Then you come back and need to rebuild the whole context again. For me, this usually happens when I’m doing GTM / marketing / product work. I’ll have a few docs open, website copy, AppSumo, Stripe, analytics, customer messages, Reddit, maybe some notes... Then on”
“I was recently accused of putting too much time into my entrepreneurial efforts and forgetting to prioritize "elevating our family" more and taking initiative on certain things. I admit this is not untrue. But I'm also in a place where I feel like I'm just trying to get through each day by doing a little bit that I enjoy, getting things done around the house so the wife isn't annoyed, and being a good dad. I'm unemployed, I'm not meeting any personal goals as of now”
“I just started doing this a couple years ago for personal goals - pick a theme for the year! It's fun and doing similar kinds of goals helps you get in the mindset to get them done 💪 The theme for me this year is "feral and 40" 🤪 So I've been picking wild / outdoorsy adventure type goals. Lots of camping, adventure competitions and general shenanigans! I did have to do a couple pivots this year, but ended up picking other goals with a similar theme, so technically I'm sti”
“I looove this. So organized. It must be the PM in you. I could never go back to not running my life this way but I did take up too many goals at once like I'd mentioned. For personal goals though, what criteria would you prescribe it in order to decide that, that's the next big goal for the year? And what would make you decide to pivot mid year?”
😝 but afterall it's always about productivity not aesthetics
“I feel this. I wasn't even checking multiple platforms, just WhatsApp and Instagram, and somehow it still ate hours every day. Same questions, same replies, same copy paste from my notes app. Felt like I was doing actual work, but I was really just being a human FAQ page. I did something similar with a simple setup using Whacka. Nothing fancy, just a way to funnel incoming messages into one view so I'm not bouncing between apps or scrolling through threads to find who still needs a reply”
“Is there a guide available for people with ADHD because I think notion is a nice app, but I can't wrap my mind around all the extra. Just the facts ma'am Is really appreciate anyone's help submitted by /u/j-n-th-n [link] [comments]”
“That depends on how you're defining "productivity" -- but was also the point of my comment.”
“weird little thing i didnt expect. the second a task had an estimated time on it, people stopped reading it like a next step and started reading it like a price tag. i do the same thing in todoist honestly. if i see 35 min my brain starts negotiating before ive even started. in beedone i ended up hiding the estimate till after someone was already moving and completion got less weird, which feels backwards if youre into tracking stuff. now im kinda wondering if some metrics work better as reflect”
“I need a physical blocker from Reddit or social media apps during the work day. Maybe some undiagnosed ADHD or something at play but I cannot concentrate and find myself reaching for the phone out of habit. Constantly breaking my concentration. I used to just put my phone on a charger out of reach, but there are other relevant things I need it for. Any recs? submitted by /u/unoriginalname22 [link] [comments]”
“I've been looking for a scheduling app that's built around jobs/projects instead of employee shifts , and I'm surprised I'm not finding many options. I'm mainly looking for something that can: Schedule crews to specific jobs Estimate payroll costs for each job before it's scheduled Keep track of labor costs per project Handle employee time tracking Most of what I've found seems focused on shift scheduling for restaurants and retail. Does anyone here run a cleaning com”
“I can recommend Planka, it is a kanban and was really helpful to organize my life. Tried Vikunja and it was to complex to just write things. I was also a heavy user of Google Keep and recently migrated to Anchor (self-hosted server + Android app). The rest (what to pay, day to workout, etc), I go with the old multi calendar approach using Baikal (server) and Calino (web ui), and OneCalendar (app).”
“❤️ love this. I actually had 11 goals running at one point with a min of 2 metrics measured against each. Overwhelm city lol. Took me 5 years to clean it up since I kept pushing.”
“Wearables track sleep, HRV, heart rate, and exercise but what about the mental demand created by meetings, deep work, constant context switching, and a lack of breaks? Could calendar patterns help explain why your energy or focus drops, even when your physical data looks normal? Has anyone noticed whether a more demanding schedule changes how they feel or function throughout the day? I’m curious what patterns others have observed. submitted by /u/building_irvo [link] [comments]”
“Make a time and date on your calendar for each task - from "buy milk" to "balance budget" nothing too big or small. Think of every task as an important meeting with a duration.”
“I am finding receiving loom for check ins not productive. I feel like I can’t verbalize my goals and have that continued engagement and excitement to continue sticking to my goals. I’m new and it won’t be forever as I’d eventually like to lessen visits but I feel that’s something I need right now. I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel as engaging. I’ve done coaching myself before so I’ve been on the other end so loom is new to me. I always found an actual interaction and engaging was successful. Wh”
“You know how every December you set goals for the new year, but after a few weeks they become hard to track and even harder to stick to? Most productivity apps focus on managing tasks. I wanted something that connects Objectives → Milestones → Tasks, so every task contributes to a bigger goal instead of becoming just another item on a to-do list. submitted by /u/Pleasant_Republic_84 [link] [comments]”
“Look into Planner Premium. It’s basically what Project turned into, so you’re not really going around anything, that’s just the current version. It looks and feels almost exactly like regular Planner, same cards and buckets, so your PMs won’t feel like they’re learning something new. But it has Gantt charts and dependencies, and it connects to Power BI a lot easier than regular Planner does. If they’re ever open to stepping outside Microsoft a bit, Smartsheet is worth a look since it’s spreadshe”
“Hey, I always thought I needed the "perfect" tool to organize every single aspect of my life. My journey over the last few years basically looked like this: Notion -> Word -> Notepad++ -> back to Notion. A few years ago, I tried to build the ultimate Life OS in Notion. I spent hours setting up complex relational databases and massive dashboards. But the motivation required just to maintain the system was exhausting. I ended up abandoning it completely and went back to managing”
“The prioritization freeze is the real ADHD tax here, not the forgetting. What's worked best for me is ripping out priority levels entirely - everything ends up marked "high" eventually anyway - and replacing it with a single do-date. If it doesn't have a date, it's not real today, and it lives in one backlog I only review during a weekly reset instead of staring at me all day. Less about finding a smarter app, more about only ever letting yourself look at 3-5 items instead”
“I have a task database. (Filter personal vs work, Priority: Low, Medium, High. Finally then the actual deadline date and then my deadline date. I try to make them 3 days apart.) Then I sync it with my TickTIck app on my phone. That way I don't have the Notion app on my phone and don't get distracted. I set reminders to check my database, status of tasks, during the day and week. It keeps me focused.”
“Anybody else out there struggling to turn off the need to be productive/busy all summer long? This isn’t a flex.. I genuinely wish I could just unwind, relax, couch rot, binge watch Netflix all summer long. But so far it’s 5 weeks into summer and I haven’t had one singular day of rest. I didn’t teach summer school but I’ve done about 100 hours of contract work for some projects I’m doing for my school district. Once I finished that I immediately moved on to tackling house projects, diy, declutte”
“Coding on the train, judged by strangers, locked tf in. Nothing else like the feeling of public productivity. Sometimes you just have to open your laptop anywhere and get things done. P.S Ignore the .env file on my screen this is for people that want to win. And what am I working on? ha💸ha💸ha💸. you already saw me post here before- you know what I built alr submitted by /u/Important_Pomelo_407 [link] [comments]”
“I want to make games, but I never seem to have enough time. Long days at work, commuting, family, rest... Trying to make games on top of everyday life quickly starts to feel like working two full-time jobs. You could tell me I should spend my free time doing something else. Something less time-consuming. And you'd be right. I tried. But there's something about this particular creative outlet, this art form that constantly pushes me beyond my own limits, that feels like a genuine need. Wi”
“I have to agree. This area is completely oversaturated. Every day I see a post about someone who has made or is making a new productivity app that will solve all our problems. I think you would be better off going in another direction...just my opinion.”
“The prioritization thing is the real problem for me too, not the remembering. Twenty tasks that all feel equally urgent means none of them get done. What actually changed things wasn’t a smarter tool. It was refusing to let unfinished days sit there. That backlog is what turns week two into guilt, not the tasks themselves. Once I stopped letting yesterday carry into today, the spiral you described mostly stopped. Not because I got more disciplined. Because there was nothing left to look back at”
“I got an AI voice recorder I keep on my wrist (Plaud) because i am extremely unreliable at remembering my phone. Whenever i think of anything, whatever, I just yap. It converts the transcript into a template you choose. I do this with info heavy tasks like research and such. Otherwise I carry around a notebook that I scribble absolutely everything into.”
“In hindsight, I see I was spending way too much time getting things perfect, rather than just publishing. The moment I started working on consistency, writing content became so much less stressful. One habit or lesson you wish you had learned earlier? submitted by /u/tresheasnitrha [link] [comments]”
“I hate to say this but the thing that worked best for me was one large apple notes page. I’m trying to ditch apple notes in favor of more fancy planning apps (including obsidian). Looking back what also worked was bulletjournal and notion on odd occasions. The trick was not so much the app but a system that forced me to prioritize.”
“In my case it is an endless spiral of total enthusiasm for my latest improvement in my Notion system, that then ends in frustration, guilt and shame when I start ignoring it. I am responsible for a small team and client jobs. So I need a system that holds things together. I am its weekest link though. I am totally with you, OP.”
“I have adhd and I find having a ‘open loops’ list the most helpful. I brain dump everything I can possibly think of into the open loops list. Categorise it in order of priority and then work my way through it a little at a time. The most urgent things get done first. Every day new things are added to the list so it never ends but it’s the only way I can keep track. I use google tasks so I can drag whatever I’m working on into my calendar which helps me see how much I can get done in one day as I”
“I have an actual person, an assistant, for this purpose, so I meet with her, and she keeps me on track. But also Everything I need to do is in put asana. I open that asana task list before i look at email or have coffee. My assistant reminds me, and the updates asana ping me too, and also my assistant adds the weekly tasks as appointments in my calendar so i can see how i could/should use time and make good choices. When i can glance ahead and get a look at asana early in the day and line up tas”
“Do you keep all the task on one list? I have so many scattered across paper notes and then just a different apple Notes.”
“it's because most setups get designed for an ideal week, not a busy one. the second you're behind you dump stuff wherever's fastest and that's what turns into the mess. the setups that actually survive have one messy dumping ground on purpose that you clear once a week, instead of trying to file everything perfectly in the moment. lowers the friction enough that you actually keep using it.”
“Ok after reading all your replies about how your keep getting bored and tired with many different hobbies, have you ever been screened for ADHD?”
“I used to be able to see to fully visualize the solutions I wrote manually in my mind and navigate these solutions line by line, having a strong mental model of how things connect, what lives where, what are the alternatives etc. But then I took a LLM to the brain... Anybody else seeing people's mental models degrade gradually over time? In some cases - a significant degradation? Also - people over-relying on tools, offloading their thinking to the pattern of "just 1 more question...&qu”
“What systems do you use to keep thriving? What does your daily activities look like ? submitted by /u/WidespreadRichboi [link] [comments]”
“They serve very different purposes. So they love at specialized apps / software for each one. My calendar is used to organize my day, with time blocks, places I have to be at, meetings (virtual or not), etc. My notes are to organize my brain. So they have different contexts, hypothesis, contradictions, etc. They also serve as reference when I'm working on something or documenting something. They are not time bound.”
“I used to sit down and think, “Okay, I have a few hours to work on my blog. What should I actually do?” More often than not, I’d end up writing a new post because it felt easier than figuring out where the real opportunities were hiding. When I audit my blog now, these are the first things I check: ✅ Look for posts sitting on page 2 of Google. Open Google Search Console and look for posts ranking in positions 11–20. You’re already close. Sometimes updating the content, improving the headings, or”