These two unrelated practices: diet plans and productivity tools are actually solving the same psychological problem in two different areas, health and productivity. They are making it easier to apply the basic principles to transform your health and productivity.

Why diets work

We all know the basic principles of weight loss. Oh how simple and easy they look on paper.

I can even say it in one sentence, a short one: Spend more calories than you consume and you can loose all the weight in the world.

I actually read a story about a severely obese man that stopped eating for 382 days until he reached his ideal weight. This was back in the 70s, I doubt any doctor has the courage to recommend this process today. Yes this is extreme but we can all understand why it worked, he didn’t need a diet or anything. The basic principles were applied.

On the other hand there are so many diet plans in the world where people eliminate meat or eliminate carbs or keep eating everything and they still get results. There are also people that try every diet under the sun and get no results, simply because the basic principles are not applied, they are still eating too much.

The main point is, all diet plans work if you apply the basic principles.

Same goes for productivity tools and systems.

Why productivity tools work

We all sort of know when we are productive, it’s when we are focused on what we’re doing, there aren’t any distractions and we are working on things that actually move us forward. The most concise definition I could think for productivity is: Work with focus on important things.

You know what are the important things in your life to get done and you know how to focus.

But you are still procrastinating right?

This is where productivity tools, techniques and systems come into play. Just like diet plans, they make it easier to apply the basic principles.

Organizing all parts of your life into projects makes it easier to move forward with everything without getting overwhelmed, the main trigger for procrastination.

The Pomodoro technique makes it easier to offset distractions by working in shorter time periods.

Creating your daily list the night before makes it easier for you to focus the following morning on important tasks.

Productivity tools and systems are like the engine that can keep you going.

Everyone can get motivated for a weekend, but to transform yourself into long term productivity genius you need a system to keep you going. The motivation is like a spark but your systems are the engine that moves you all the way to the finish line.

This is what productivity apps like LifeHQ offer, one place to define your projects, habits and processes to stay productive long term.

Until next time,

Stay productive.