Aside from the mental trap I’ve previously discussed—namely, waiting to be “ready” when no such state actually exists—the other trap I regularly fall into when attempting to track my productivity is, instead of tracking what I have actually done, or am actively doing, I instead track only what I intend to do.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good goals list—so long as I focus on the follow-up actions instead of patting myself on the back for the creation of the list itself.
To this end (and yes, I am aware of the irony here), I intend to post a follow-up update to my university task list next week.
Here, in the so-called western world—in the UK. In the US—when you say, “you tried,” it has unspoken context. “You tried,” translates to, “You tired—you ultimately failed—but you put in a little effort. We’ll grudgingly give you that.”