I tried every productivity system (Here's what actually stuck)
Years of testing, one simple system you can use today
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I’ve been obsessed with productivity for years.
You name it, I’ve tried it.
GTD. Pomodoro. Time blocking. Eat That Frog. Bullet journaling. The Eisenhower Matrix. Second Brain. PARA method.
Some worked for a week. Some felt like overkill. Most ended up abandoned in a drawer or a forgotten app.
But here’s what I learned after burning through dozens of systems:
None of them are perfect. And that’s actually the point.
The goal isn’t to find the “one true system.” It’s to understand what works for YOUR brain, YOUR life, YOUR work—and build something custom from the best pieces.
Today, I’m breaking down the 5 most popular productivity systems I’ve tried, what’s actually useful about each one, and the hybrid approach that finally stuck.
#1: Getting Things Done (GTD)
The promise: Capture everything. Organize it perfectly. Your mind will be clear and stress-free.
What it looks like:
Brain dump everything into an inbox
Process each item: Is it actionable? What’s the next action?
Organize into projects, contexts, and waiting lists
Review weekly
What I loved: The brain dump. Getting every task, idea, and worry out of your head and onto paper is genuinely liberating. Your mental RAM clears up instantly.
What drove me crazy: The system is exhausting. It requires constant maintenance. Weekly reviews. Multiple lists. Endless categorization.
GTD works great if you’re a project manager juggling 50 moving parts. For most people? It’s productivity theater—spending more time organizing tasks than actually doing them.
What stuck: The habit of capturing everything immediately instead of trying to remember it.
#2: Pomodoro Technique
The promise: Work in 25-minute sprints with 5-minute breaks. Beat procrastination through time pressure.
What it looks like:
Set a timer for 25 minutes
Work with full focus
Take a 5-minute break
Repeat 4 times, then take a longer break
What I loved: It works incredibly well for tasks you’re dreading. The “just 25 minutes” psychological trick actually gets you started—and starting is 80% of the battle.
What drove me crazy: Some work doesn’t fit into 25-minute boxes. Deep creative work needs longer stretches. Getting interrupted by a timer mid-flow is jarring.
Also, the rigidity feels artificial. If you’re in the zone at minute 25, why stop?
What stuck: Using timers strategically for tasks I’m avoiding, but ignoring them when I’m already in flow.
#3: Time Blocking
The promise: Assign every hour of your day to a specific task. No more decision fatigue about what to work on next.
What it looks like:
Block out your calendar in advance
Each block = one task or type of work
Follow the schedule
What I loved: This is the closest thing to a silver bullet I’ve found. When you know exactly what you’re doing at 9 AM, you don’t waste 20 minutes figuring it out.
It also forces you to be realistic about how much you can actually accomplish in a day.
What drove me crazy: Life doesn’t respect your calendar. Unexpected things pop up. Some tasks take longer than planned. When your blocks fall apart, the whole day feels chaotic.
What stuck: Planning my day the night before in rough blocks—but leaving buffer time for reality.
#4: Eat That Frog
The promise: Do your hardest, most important task first thing in the morning. Everything else gets easier.
What it looks like:
Identify your “frog” (biggest, ugliest task)
Do it first, before anything else
Ride the momentum through the rest of your day
What I loved: It works. When you knock out the hard thing early, you feel like a champion for the rest of the day. No dread hanging over you.
What drove me crazy: Not every morning is created equal. Some days your brain isn’t ready for deep work at 8 AM. Forcing it feels like torture.
Also, sometimes the “frog” isn’t urgent—and spending all morning on it means urgent things pile up.
What stuck: Tackling one high-impact task early (but not necessarily THE hardest task every single day).
#5: Bullet Journal
The promise: A customizable analog system for tracking tasks, habits, and goals in one notebook.
What it looks like:
Daily logs of tasks, events, and notes
Monthly spreads for planning
Custom trackers for habits, goals, moods, etc.
Rapid logging with symbols (dots, x’s, arrows)
What I loved: The flexibility. You design it however you want. It’s tactile, creative, and satisfying to physically check things off.
What drove me crazy: It takes time. Setting up spreads. Migrating tasks. Rewriting things.
And if you’re not artistic or organized, it quickly becomes a messy notebook that stresses you out instead of helping.
What stuck: Writing things down by hand for important tasks and reflections—but skipping the elaborate spreads.
What actually works (The hybrid system)
After years of trial and error, here’s the system I actually use every single day:
1. Capture like GTD Every task, idea, or worry goes into one place immediately. I don’t try to remember anything.
2. Plan like Time Blocking Every evening, I plan the next day in 2-3 big blocks (not hour-by-hour). I protect the morning for deep work.
3. Prioritize like Eat That Frog I identify 1-2 high-impact tasks that matter most. Those get done first (or at least attempted).
4. Focus like Pomodoro (when needed) If I’m procrastinating, I set a 25-minute timer to get started. If I’m in flow, I ignore the timer.
5. Reflect like Bullet Journal At the end of each week, I write down what worked, what didn’t, and what I learned. No fancy spreads—just honest reflection.
The result?
Clarity without overcomplication
Structure without rigidity
Focus without burnout
It’s not perfect. But it doesn’t need to be. It just needs to work.
The lesson
Here’s what nobody tells you about productivity systems:
They’re not magic. They’re just frameworks.
What works for a software engineer won’t work for a freelance writer. What works for someone with ADHD won’t work for someone without it. What works for you in your 20s might not work in your 40s.
The secret isn’t finding the perfect system. It’s understanding why certain elements work for you—and building your own.
Bruce Lee put it well…
“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”
Take what works. Leave the rest. Build something better.
If you’ve been struggling with productivity, here’s my challenge:
Pick one system you’ve tried before (or one from this list). Identify one thing from it that resonated with you.
Then do just that one thing for a week.
Not the whole system. Just the piece that felt right.
Maybe it’s time blocking your mornings. Maybe it’s capturing everything in one place. Maybe it’s tackling one big task first.
Start small. Build from there.
The system that works for you is the one you’ll actually use.
See you next week!
-Jett
P.S. After trying every system under the sun, the one tool that made everything click: Sunsama.
It lets me plan my day in blocks, capture tasks as they come up, and review what actually got done—all without the complexity of GTD or the rigidity of pure time blocking. It’s the hybrid approach, built into one simple tool.
If this changed how you think about productivity, try Sunsama with my link below. It’s the easiest way to support me while getting a tool that helps you build sustainable discipline.
14-day free trial → Sunsama.com
Having experimented with most of these techniques myself, this was very helpful. Nice one!
I love that you broke all these systems down! I’ve been wondering about them since it seems all the systems require a lot of work and time. That’s where I get stuck and seeing what works best for which tasks is extremely helpful.