On the Road to Productivity
There’s a metaphor I use to think about productivity that I’ve found helpful. It lends itself to creating a taxonomy for the different challenges that people have in becoming more productive. Roughly, here are the six major challenges:
Identifying what their goals are
Prioritizing their goals
Creating a plan to achieve those goals
Following a routine/system that implements the plan
Identifying tools that can make implementing the plan less difficult
Developing a mindset that makes achieving one’s goals fun
And as the title of this post suggests, the metaphor I have in mind is a road trip. Each of the challenges listed above can be mapped onto this metaphor, making it easier to remember them and easier to think of solutions to whatever problems might arise. So let’s walk through the metaphor step by step.
1. Deciding your destinations
There are many goals that people have. Here’s a list of some common high-level goals:
Achieve financial stability.
Create a loving family.
Cultivate a friend group that supports your accomplishments.
Live a long, healthy, physically active life.
Explore the world.
Master a craft or hobby.
You probably have many others. Whatever your goals are, it’s helpful to practice some self-reflection to identify them so that you can more intentionally steer yourself in the direction of achieving them. So here’s the first element of the metaphor:
Stick pins on your map of the destinations that are important to you.
And what happens when people fail to do this? They wander around randomly, hoping to simply stumble onto those destinations by accident. And usually, this is not a winning strategy. The reason this is foolish is because many goals require long-term focus and sustained effort to achieve, and without the “pins on your map”, you’re unlikely to drive the 500 mile trip to those destinations. Every exit on the highway will be a new distraction for you, luring you away from those destinations that you genuinely value.
There’s also another benefit of having those pins on the map: When life gets tough, they serve as reminders for what you’re working towards.
Often when experiencing setbacks, people can lapse into asking themselves, “What’s the point, why does any of this matter?” This kind of frustration can be demotivating and lead people to abandon their efforts. In these circumstances, it can help to think back to your more reflective moments and remember what your answer to this question was. It can ward off the feelings of apathy and help you stay moving towards your goals.
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche
2. Prioritizing your destinations
After identifying your goals, it’s helpful to figure out which goals are more or less important than others at this time in your life. Maybe you want to start a family someday but you want more financial stability first. Or maybe you’d like to get to a senior position in your career, but starting a family is more important for now. Whatever the case, it can be helpful to create a ranking of your current priorities so that you can create a plan that more effectively lets you achieve all of them.
So here’s the second element of the metaphor:
Now that you’ve stuck the pins on your map of where you’d like to go, consider the order in which you’d like to visit those destinations.
One problem people have when they fail to prioritize is that they become paralyzed with indecision. Like Buridan’s donkey, they feel stuck between multiple competing options, and they end up not moving towards any of them.
Another is that they switch back and forth between their goals, never committing themselves to any particular course of action. For example, they might try learning a new language for a month, and then a new musical instrument the next month, and then rock climbing the next. And so because they failed to go all in on one particular hobby, they fail to develop any enduring skills despite all their efforts.
Prioritizing your goals means giving yourself a definite direction to travel towards, which can help you avoid bouncing from goal to goal.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
—Yogi Berra
3. Finding your route
After figuring out which of your goals are the highest priorities for you, it’s time to make a plan to get there. It’s one thing to say you want to achieve financial stability. It’s another to determine whether that means applying to higher-paying jobs, negotiating your salary, building a side business, investing consistently, or going back to school. Many goals require many years of sustained effort to accomplish. In these cases, it’s helpful to at least tentatively think through what your plan of action should be.
So the third element of the metaphor is this:
After deciding on the order of your destinations, map out the roads that will take you there.
When people fail to plan their route, they can encounter several problems.
First, they fail to foresee road closures ahead. On a literal road trip, this might mean construction, weather, or a bridge that is out. In life, it might mean financial constraints, skill issues, or competing obligations. With a bit of planning you can anticipate potential obstacles and either prepare for them or find an alternative path. Without it, people are liable to stumble into these obstacles that force them into avoidable detours that delay their journey.
Second, they take circuitous, inefficient routes. Imagine trying to drive across the country without checking a map, turning wherever looks interesting. You might still vaguely move in the right direction, but you’ll waste time and energy. Likewise, without a plan, you might spend an enormous amount of effort on activities that only marginally advance your goal.
And third, people often follow routes that others have picked out for them. They take the highway that their parents or peers have marked as “the correct way.” But that road may not lead directly to their chosen destination. It might lead somewhere socially desirable but misaligned with what they actually value. If you don’t deliberately choose your own route, you risk waking up years later in a place you never intended to visit.
Planning your route means reducing avoidable surprises, minimizing wasted motion, and ensuring that the path you are on genuinely leads to the destination you chose.
4. Moving toward your destination
Even with a well-designed route, nothing happens until you start driving. Planning can feel productive. It allows you to imagine progress without risking failure. But the map is not the journey. The only thing that gets you closer to your destination is the time you spend on the road.
So here’s the fourth element of the metaphor:
Get in the car and drive.
In practical terms, this means implementing a routine or system that consistently executes your plan. If your plan is to write, your system might be: sit at your desk at 8am every weekday and write for an hour, regardless of how you feel. If your plan is to get healthier, your system might be: prepare meals on Sunday, go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and track your workouts.
And the key here is consistency. If you simply floor the accelerator for ten minutes and spend the next three days in the backseat scrolling through Instagram Reels, you’re unlikely to go far. Instead, find a comfortable speed where you can set the car cruising, and you’ll make steady progress towards your goals.
“Vision without execution is hallucination.”
—Thomas Edison
5. Equipping your car
So you’ve identified your next destination, you’ve mapped out a route to get there, and you’re making progress on the road. That’s amazing!
But every long trip will have unexpected issues. Maybe you get a flat tire, maybe you get a little sleepy and start drifting, maybe you forget to take an exit. For these and other problems, it can help to bring along some tools to aid you in your journey.
This is the fifth element of the metaphor:
Find tools that make the journey easier and help you quickly recover when problems arise.
For example, it’s wise to drive with a spare tire in the trunk. You might not need it. No one intends to use it. But it’s helpful to have it just in case. Without a spare, you risk stranding yourself on the highway, forcing you to make a lengthy trek to the nearest rest stop on foot, and delaying your arrival to your destination.
In productivity terms, a spare tire is any form of contingency planning. For those days when you’re feeling especially low on energy, consider developing a minimum viable version of your habit in advance. Consider a shorter workout or a lighter study session. On these difficult days, having these contingencies in place can help keep your momentum going.
Another great addition to any road trip is having someone in the passenger seat to keep you driving straight. On a long, monotonous stretch of highway, it can be easy to drift slightly out of your lane without noticing. A second set of eyes can help correct you before a small deviation becomes catastrophic.
This corresponds to accountability and feedback. This might mean having regular check-ins with a friend or family member about the progress towards your goals. Or it could mean talking with a coach or mentor who gives you guidance on your approach. These extra pairs of eyes and ears can help ensure that you’re moving at the right pace and that you’re aligned with your intended direction.
A third kind of tool that’s helpful is a GPS device. It can tell you in real time when to make the next turn. And when you accidentally miss an exit, it can help you recalculate the route to your destination.
This could mean having a to-do list that shows you what you’ve accomplished so far and what the rest of your day or week will look like. It offloads your plan onto a physical or digital device, so you can spend your time getting things done rather than trying to remember what to do next. And when new challenges or opportunities arise, it’s simple to erase old entries and pencil in your new priorities.
Together, these tools make your journey resilient to setbacks. None of them replace the need to drive. But with them in place, you are far less likely to stall, drift, or become lost on the way to your destination.
6. Choosing your music
Finally, there’s your choice of music.
Two identical road trips can feel entirely different depending on whether you’re playing Taylor Swift or Black Sabbath (I’ll let you decide which is better). You might be travelling to your destination all the same, but the music can change how you experience the journey.
So here’s the final element of the metaphor:
Curate a playlist that makes the journey fun for you.
This is the mindset you bring to your daily living. Because many worthwhile goals take years to achieve, the quality of your inner soundtrack matters enormously. Are you internally punishing or insulting yourself? Do you see life as a boring grind? Do you see yourself as someone’s victim or a victim of the universe more broadly?
People sometimes believe their negative self-talk is necessary to motivate themselves to keep moving forward. I encourage you to try out an alternative: Try to instead live a life of love, joy, and fun. It’s a much more pleasant experience, I promise. And probably, these feelings are much more sustainable motivators for pursuing your goals.
Conclusion
That’s the metaphor in a large nutshell. Productivity can be broken down into these six distinct challenges that map onto traveling on a road trip. And if you’re feeling stuck, it can help to consider which part of the road trip you’re struggling with.
Are there no pins on the map? Is the order confused? Is the route unclear? Is the car not moving? Are you unequipped for obstacles? Or is the music draining your energy?
And when you more specifically identify the problem, the solutions become easier to identify as well. You can more quickly clear the bottleneck and return to what matters most: making steady progress towards your ultimate goals.