Thanks for being here.
There’s something peculiar about productivity: beyond output, it’s first and foremost a feeling.
We’re wired for it; we want to feel like our work matters and that we’re good at it. This is what sustains performance over the long run.
Yet paradoxically, we’ve all been there, hitting deadlines and feeling hollow.
I felt it vividly in corporate, making slides for a strategy I didn’t believe in. Busy, producing, and empty. I assumed entrepreneurship would fix it, that freedom would automatically create alignment, but I was wrong.
Creating content just to “feed the algorithm” leaves me restless in the same way. In both worlds, there can be a lot of output, countless slides, countless posts. But no feeling.
That’s because productivity isn’t about what you do. It’s about how you feel while doing it.
Your nervous system doesn’t care about job titles or to-do lists. It only responds to two things:
Safety: Am I calm enough to do my best?
Engagement: Is this meaningful enough to keep me present?
With this in mind, I designed my own productivity formula that keeps me grounded and moving:
Appropriate effort + a regulated nervous system + perceived meaning → concrete outcome
So when the feeling of productivity wanes, I recalibrate:
Am I putting in the right effort?
Am I calm and focused, or stressed?
Does this matter to me? If not, how can I reframe it?
What would concrete look like for me?
Often the task doesn’t change, only my state does. And suddenly, the feeling follows, and with it, the results.
As for you, if you were to create your own formula for productivity, what variables would you put in it?
Yours in productivity,
Azul
PS. I recently watched the movie Guru with Pierre Niney, who portrays a life coach. I’m still letting it sink in, but I’ll be writing about it soon. Stay tuned.
These notes are written in a penpal spirit. If something resonates, let me know.
If you think someone else would benefit, feel free to forward it.