I can’t find where I read it, but a way to think about productivity systems is to view them as systems in a sandwich shop. Imagine you’re working at Subway, where incoming sandwich orders symbolize the tasks you need to complete. What matters most is that you get the sandwiches out quickly enough without sacrificing quality; otherwise, you’re going to have a lot of disgruntled customers. Yes, you need a system to keep track of and prioritize the orders, but you can’t spend more time managing this system than getting orders out.

It’s a pattern I’ve seen in underperforming members of my team. They think they’re being productive with elaborate productivity systems, yet they don’t realize they’re essentially procrastinating and not focusing on the main thing, which is getting sandwiches out.