UltraproductivityTM and How We Got Lost in the Sauce

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💭 ONE THING WE’RE THINKING ABOUT

For many people, productivity is just a means to an end — so you can hold down a job and make money to live a decent life.

But what about when our basic needs are covered? Why do so many of us keep grinding as if our actual lives are on the line?

Once you’ve met the expectations of your job — then what?

Are you being Ultraproductive™ because you feel like you have to? Why?

Once you have more “free time,” are you just gonna fill it with more… work?

Are you waiting for a lil’ pat on the head?

What’s the point? Is the juice worth the squeeze?

It is so easy to get lost in the sauce of productivity culture. It’s everywhere around us! And it’s complicated! Because it feels good to be productive. It feels good to do what you said you would. It feels good to know how you spent your time.

But if you’re constantly setting a goal that you can’t seem to reach, there’s likely something deeper going on.

For example, let’s take a look at the 5am club:

• If you’re trying to wake up at 5am because it helps you become a more confident, content, and relaxed version of you before the work day begins, great! We absolutely love that for you.

• If you’re trying really f*cking hard to wake up at 5am because that’s what all the hot, rich entrepreneurs on TikTok are doing in their daily vlogs and it makes you feel like a POS for not doing the same thing….. let’s talk.

If your self-worth revolves around being productive and doing enough, you will always feel the constant itch that you could be doing more, doing better.

This article does a great job of explaining why we’ve lost the plot with productivity — give it a read the next time you’re spinning out about a few lingering tasks.

🧪 ONE THING WE’RE TESTING

We’re huge fans of finding tiny, low-effort tweaks we can make to improve our lives — here’s one that makes it far less tempting to scroll the entire night away:

Switch your phone into grayscale mode to immediately make your device less interesting and addicting. Here’s how!

This issue of The Portal is brought to you by

⭐️ Priority Planner ⭐️

It’s okay to admit that your super idealistic to-do lists (full of things Ideal You should be able to get done… in theory!) aren’t actually working for you.

Priority Planner is an interactive Notion tool to help you get real with yourself about what’s possible this week.

It’s perfect for you if:

🤓 You want to visualize and plan your days and weeks more realistically

🤪 Rigid schedules haven’t worked for you, and you need a flexible tool to easily shuffle sh*t around when things don’t go according to plan

😅 You’re a perfectionist who tends to overestimate the urgency/importance of things… and your plate is always overflowing

🎧 ONE THING WE’RE LISTENING TO

THE ATLANTIC:
How to Rest (37 min)

We’ve been enjoying the “How to Keep Time” series from The Atlantic (we shared the How to Look Busy episode last week!) so here’s another one we loved.

🤔 ONE QUESTION FOR YOU

⭐️ ONE LAST THING

Hot tip for Spotify users:

If you type “daylist” in the search field, you’ll find an always-changing playlist that curates highly-specific vibes based on your listening history.

For example:

MJ’s morning daylist this past Bare Minimum Monday was called ambient space weightless monday morning

Anna’s seems to know it should play Megan Thee Stallion at the time she’s usually running on the treadmill

Give it a try — it’s great for those times you have decision fatigue about what you want to listen to 😌

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