Productivity advice will transform your life, but there’s a catch.

Anything that does not belong where it is, is an “open loop” pulling on your attention. ~ David Allen [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( Anything that does not belong where it is, is an “open loop” pulling on your attention. ~ David Allen The productivity catch is at the end. _ Good email tip: a “waiting for reply” label. A big chunk of email productivity is just having a refined system for processing, filing, and acting on inbound email. That’s how you get to inbox zero every day. So I picked up a nice tip that I’d never considered in [A better way to manage email]( by [Serban Constantinescu](: Create a label for “waiting for reply” and file emails there. That is a big gap in my own email system. Appreciate the value of moving fast. This resonated with me from [The Life and Career Changing Magic of Rapid Execution]( ([Srinivas Rao](): When it comes to rapid idea execution, the friction that slows individuals and organizations down is mental instead of physical. Fear, doubt, and indecisiveness become reasonable justifications for procrastination. There’s no time for excuses when you develop speed as a habit. Related, when you go fast, you make a lot of mistakes. But if you have a clear vision and mission, you can fix those mistakes quickly. If you go slow, you still make a lot of mistakes, only those mistakes stick around longer and cause more damage. Fixing your sleep. I was going through the Better Humans back catalog and found this gem about [fixing your sleep](. It’s the kind of deep, thorough tutorial that I like. It says what to do and why and keeps in mind the realities of life. A reminder I took away for myself, especially because I’m working out so much this year: “Sleepiness and fatigue are not the same things. Sleepiness is a need to sleep, whereas fatigue is a lack of energy. Both sleepiness and fatigue can be caused by a lack of sleep, but fatigue can also be caused by other factors, like prolonged efforts or depression. It’s important to understand this distinction to avoid misinterpreting signals your body sends you.” Feeling tired could be sleepiness, muscle fatigue, food-related, or dehydration. Recognizing the difference is subtle. A currently popular form of clickbait. I like getting into the weeds of marketing tactics because they feel like another lens on psychology. So I noted people are using more clickbait headlines that have the format, “(Statement Goes Here), But There’s A Catch.” I used that format with the headline of this issue (and I will deliver the catch). I spend a lot of time in these newsletters talking about the way our subconscious drives us and then how we can use mindfulness training to notice those drives. So if you clicked wondering what the catch was, can you notice that feeling? The source for noticing this headline format comes from: [There’s A New Form Of Clickbait I’m Seeing That’s Highly Effective]( by [Tom Kuegler](. The catch about productivity. People love to talk about productivity hacks, but then often leave out a sense of greater purpose. For what purpose are you trying to become more productive? At first, being more productive is intrinsically satisfying. But if you don’t have a greater purpose, then you stagnate in busyness. That’s the catch. Thank you for your patience with this cheap headline trick. _ What do you wish I knew about you? I’m curious to know more about you so that I don’t give clueless advice. So much of the topics we cover here are context-dependent. Usually, it’s obvious to you if I’m sharing something that doesn’t apply to your life. But the more I know about you, the more I can tailor the newsletter. Two examples. First, in a recent assessment, 72% of you had kids. That’s great. But I don’t have kids and so I wonder what blind spots show up in the newsletter. Parents, do you notice? Second, on a given day, I read a lot about growing a business and so I wonder how many of you are entrepreneurial, either as your primary job or as a side project. I see entrepreneurship as a niche within self-improvement where you are trying to make an impact on the world and your finances. Don’t miss out on the other issues by Coach Tony [Become a member for $5 per month]( Did you enjoy this issue? [Yes]( [No]( [Coach Tony]( Coach Tony [@tonystubblebine]( Tips, inspirations, and knowledge on productivity, happiness, health, and making an impact on our world. Official email of the Better Humans publication on Medium. (@bttrhumans) You can manage your subscription [here](. In order to unsubscribe, click [here](. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe [here](. Created with [Revue by Twitter](.