Nir EyalSpeaker on Behavioral Science, NYT Bestselling Author, Former Stanford Lecturer

Stop measuring productivity by checking cute little boxes #shorts

Name: Stop measuring productivity by checking cute little boxes #shorts
Uploaded: 2025-01-24T13:01:16+00:00
Duration: 53 s
Channel: Nir Eyal
Description: Nir Eyal argues that checking off to-do list items is a false measure of productivity. Tasks take three times longer than we predict, and we often add…

24 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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Nir Eyal argues that checking off to-do list items is a false measure of productivity. Tasks take three times longer than we predict, and we often add completed work just to feel the satisfaction of checking boxes. Instead, timeboxing a single task in your calendar and measuring whether you stayed focused for the allotted time is what actually works.

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Tasks we know on average will take you three times longer to finish than you predict because we have no feedback loop. Stop measuring yourself by cute little boxes. I used to finish a task and then after I finish the task, look at my to do list and say, oh, I forgot to write down the task. Let me write it down just so I can check it off, because that feels so good. How stupid is that? This is your new metric of success. Your new metric of success is not did I finish? It's did I work on what I said I would work on or did I do what I said I was going to do for as long as I said I would without distraction. So only by having a timebox calendar and working on just one thing at a time and tracking not did you finish, but how far did you get in that period of time? Then you can say, okay, well, if I have that big task, I'm going to need nine more time boxes or whatever it is to finish the entire job. So to do lists are far, far, far inferior from planning out what you're going to do when you're going to do it and measuring yourself by that one metric.