The Productivity Paradox: 7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Earlier

💡 This post is part of my ongoing Paradoxical Productivity series. (If you missed the earlier ones, you can catch them here.)

Without any further ado, let's begin!

I used to be that person.

You know the type—colour-coded calendars, seventeen different productivity apps, and a religious devotion to "best practices" I'd read about online.

I was also miserable and constantly behind.

A few days back, I started questioning everything. What if most productivity advice is wrong? What if the stuff that works is actually the opposite of what everyone preaches?

Turns out, I was onto something.

An animated illustration of a young man in a blue sweater, shown in a thinking pose with his hand on his chin. A glowing yellow lightbulb appears beside his head, symbolising new ideas. The background is bright orange, and above him, the text reads: "The Productivity Paradox: 7 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Earlier."

The Day I Started Breaking the Rules

Picture this: I'm managing three Salesforce implementations simultaneously. My messages are exploding. My project management tool is sending me notifications every few minutes. And I'm switching between tasks like playing a game of productivity whack-a-mole.

Then I met my friend at a conference. Dude was shipping incredible stuff while working what seemed like half the hours of everyone else.

His secret? He ignored most of the productivity advice floating around.

"I do one thing at a time," he told me. "Everything else is noise."

That conversation changed how I think about work.

7 Productivity Rules I Broke (And You Should Too)

1. The Multitasking Lie

What everyone says: Multitasking makes you efficient.

What actually works: Single-tasking gets shit done.

I used to take pride in juggling fifteen things at once. Felt productive. Felt busy. Felt important.

I was also making more mistakes and taking twice as long to finish anything.

Now I block out chunks of time for one thing only. Two hours for that Apex class I'm debugging—ninety minutes for writing documentation. The phone goes in the drawer, and the chat gets closed.

Try this: Pick your most challenging task tomorrow. Give it 25 uninterrupted minutes. No email, no messages, no "quick questions." Just you and that one thing.

You'll be shocked at what you accomplish.

2. The Magic of Strategic Nos

What everyone says: Say yes to opportunities.

What actually works: Say no to everything that isn't essential.

This one was hard for me. I'm a people pleaser by nature. Someone asks for help? Of course! New project opportunity? Sign me up!

Then I calculated how much time I was spending on stuff that didn't matter. Sixty per cent. Sixty fucking per cent of my week was going to things that had zero impact on what I was actually trying to accomplish.

Now I have three questions I ask before saying yes to anything:

• Does this help me get better at what I'm already great at?

• Will I care about this in six months?

• Am I the only person who can do this?

  
  

If it's not three yeses, it's a no.

Works every time. And people respect you more for being honest about your capacity.

3. The Technology Trap

What everyone says: More tools = more productivity.

What actually works: Fewer tools = less chaos.

I once counted the number of productivity apps I had. Seventeen. SEVENTEEN.

I was spending more time managing my systems than actually working. Of course, money as well! :(

Last year, I did something radical. I went back to basics: a Physical Daily planner for life and work-related tasks, Apple Notes for note-taking, and a calendar for scheduling. That's it.

My productivity didn't crash. It soared.

Try this: List every tool you use for work. Pick the three that actually move the needle. Uninstall the rest.

Trust me, you won't miss them.

4. Done Beats Perfect (Every Damn Time)

What everyone says: Proper planning prevents poor performance.

What actually works: Good enough plans executed are better than perfect plans never started.

I used to spend weeks crafting the perfect project plan—complete with details such as timelines, risk matrices, and contingency frameworks—the whole nine yards.

Meanwhile, I see there are a lot of things, updates, and changes going on by the time I am done with perfection.

Now my planning process is simple:

1. What's the outcome I want?

2. What's the fastest way to test if this works?

3. Just do it.

Try this: Next time you catch yourself "researching" or "planning" for more than 10% of a project's timeline, stop. Start building instead.

You'll learn more in one day of doing than in a week of planning.

5. Failure is Data

What everyone says: Avoid failure at all costs.

What actually works: Fail fast, fail cheap, fail forward.

I used to be terrified of screwing up. Every decision felt permanent. Every mistake felt like the end of the world.

Then I began working with a startup founder mentality, adopting a different approach. I would try wild experiments, document what happened, the results, and iterate on them. I didn't care.

And as the days passed, each failure brought me closer to what works.

Now I deliberately attempt things I might fail at. This week, I'm testing a new approach to revamp my Chrome extension, Hidden Automation Detector, with advanced capabilities using agentic AI-driven development. If it does, I'll learn something valuable about what doesn't work.

Try this: Pick something small but ambitious for this week—something with maybe a 50/50 chance of success. Document what happens either way.

6. The 80/20 Reality Check

What everyone says: Work harder.

What actually works: Work on the right things.

This hit me like a truck last year. I tracked everything I did for two weeks and then mapped it to actual outcomes.

Twenty per cent of my activities generated eighty per cent of my results. The rest? Busy work disguised as meaningful work.

Now I ruthlessly protect time for high-impact activities. That means saying no to most meetings. It means delegating or deleting low-value tasks. It means being okay with some things not getting done.

Try this: For one week, write down everything you do and roughly how long it takes. Then, honestly assess: which activities actually move your career or business forward?

Double down on those. Question everything else.

7. Humour is a Productivity Tool

What everyone says: Be professional at all times.

What actually works: Lightness and humour make everything better.

I used to think fun was the enemy of productivity. Work is serious business, right?

Wrong.

The most productive members I've worked with are also the ones who laugh the most. They crack jokes in meetings. They celebrate small wins. They don't take themselves too seriously. It turns out that humour reduces stress, builds trust, and opens up creative thinking.

Thanks, Gaurav. I've learned a great deal from you over the years we've worked together.

Try this: Find one way to add lightness to your workday. Maybe it's a stupid meme in your team chat. Perhaps it's about turning tedious tasks into personal challenges. Maybe it's just allowing yourself to smile more.

See how it affects your energy levels.

The Meta-Lesson: Build Your Own System

Here's the thing about productivity advice (including mine): it's not a universal truth. It's just what worked for specific people in specific situations.

Your brain is different. Your work is different. Your constraints are different.

The goal isn't to follow my system. It's to build your own.

Every week, I pick one small experiment to try. Last week, I tested doing all my calls while walking. The week before, I tried batching similar tasks together. Some experiments are successful, while others are not. All of them teach me something about how I work best.

What I'd Do If I Were Starting Over

If I could go back and give my overwhelmed, app-obsessed, people-pleasing past self one piece of advice, it would be this:

Stop looking for the perfect system. Start experimenting with what works for you.

Pick ONE thing from this list that made you think "that could never work for me." That resistance is usually a sign it's worth testing.

Try it for a week. Not a month, not forever. Just one week.

See what happens.

Then try something else.

The best productivity system is the one you actually use, not the one that looks prettiest on Instagram or sounds smartest in blog posts.

Your Turn

What productivity "rule" have you broken that actually made your life better? I'm genuinely curious—drop a comment and let me know.

Some of my best ideas come from hearing about the unusual things other people do. Feeling overwhelmed by all the productivity advice out there (including this post), remember: you don't need to fix everything at once. You need to fix one small thing.

Start there. Just do it. Swoosh.

P.S. If you found this helpful, I write about Salesforce, AI tools, and productivity stuff that actually works: no fluff, no generic advice, just real experiences from the trenches. For more information, please visit my website's home page and subscribe, making sure to do so. Thank you for reading this.

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