TOR 053: I Decided To Become More Productive So I Upgraded To Stupidly Simple Technology

Here’s the latest edition of The Optimized Report newsletter, which features 1 actionable tip every Sunday to help burned-out business owners dramatically improve their performance, profit, and potential without sacrificing what's most important—TIME.

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I have a love-hate relationship with technology.

In the third grade, my teacher thought my ADHD was a curse, so she sat me on a t-shaped stool to help fix my fidget. Her goal was that if I fidgeted, I'd fall on my ass, embarrassing myself so much that I'd stop moving.

Her approach was idiotic, and so is most productivity advice, but the worst is all the distraction-inducing technology.

Here's some powerful advice to help you focus on what matters the most:

Get back to the basics—which means using simpler technology.

Most technology sells itself as an aid to your chaos, but it's a distraction factory.

Reflecting on the technology stacks I've used personally and for my companies, most were a waste—especially any task list software.

For example, everyone loves Notion, but it's an ADHD hellhole. I get sucked into so many bells and whistles that I become anti-productive.

I can't possibly be the only one. If you have a team, they likely get sucked into unimportant fidgeting with the software too.

Boring, single-purpose technology makes you more productive.

Richard Branson still uses a pen and paper to compile his priorities.

Focus first on the devices.

Make your devices as boring as possible by removing social media apps and switching your phone screen color to grayscale.

Then choose devices with a single purpose, like the Kindle e-reader, making it difficult to do anything but reading.

Then purge the software.

Choose simpler technology.

Instead of a task list software with hundreds of bells and whistles, use a notepad or a text-only file.

I love Roam Research which is used as my second brain.

Software is useful when it makes things less burdensome and distracting.

Look for areas of your life and business where you can leverage software to automate repeat activities out of existence, using software like Zapier.

Software alone doesn't make you more productive, but a relentless focus on a few most critical priorities does.

Maximizing productivity is no more complex than remembering that.