An Argument Against Productivity and Optimisation

Here’s something that’s going to sound backwards: you don’t need to do more. You need to stop doing a lot of what you’re already doing. Do less.

I know. Bear with me.

You’ve been told that if you’re not moving, you’re falling behind. That if you’re not grinding, you’re lazy. That the answer to I’m not seeing results is always to add more, more habits, more effort, more hustle.

After ten years in health and fitness, and years before that as a social worker in behaviour change, I can tell you: that’s backwards.

The reason you’re not seeing results probably isn’t because you’re not doing enough. It’s because you’re doing too much, and most of it is the wrong thing.

You’re spinning your wheels.

You’re confusing motion with progress.

The way out isn’t faster. It’s fewer.

You’re not reading this in a quiet room with a cup of tea and nothing else going on. You’re reading this while doing something else.

You’re the person who listens to podcasts while cooking, cleaning, working out, or doing the school run. You’re not someone who lacks ambition or discipline. You’re actually the opposite.

You’re someone who shows up. Who follows through. Who’s read the books, done the courses, tried the systems.

And you’re fucking exhausted.

Somewhere along the way you got sold the idea that busy equals progress. That motion is the same as direction. But it’s not. You can be incredibly busy, going to the gym, meal prepping, managing your family, creating content, optimising your systems, and still not be moving toward anything. You can be spinning.

This is what I see over and over with the women I work with.

They’re not lazy. They’re overcommitted to the wrong things.

Once you can see these, you can actually do something about them. There are three types of work that fill your days and create the illusion of progress without moving you forward.

Noise work is the low-value task that fills time. It looks like scrolling for research when you could just start. Tweaking the plan instead of running the plan. Reorganising the system instead of using it. Reading about the thing instead of doing the thing.

For a lot of women, noise work is where they hide when they’re scared. It feels productive. It feels like preparation. But it’s procrastination with a productivity veneer. You’re doing so much about the work, but you’re not doing the work. Noise work is seductive because it feels like effort without the vulnerability of actually trying.

Should work is what’s on your list because someone, somewhere, told you it mattered. Not because you believe it matters. This is the 6am wake-up you hate but think you should do. The macro tracking you’ve never stayed consistent with. The workout style that doesn’t suit your body or your life, but it’s trending, or your friend had great results with it. The routine that looks good on Instagram and makes you miserable.

Should work doesn’t stick. You’re not going to consistently do something you hate just because you think you’re supposed to. The moment life gets hard and you need to drop something, should work is the first to go. Which means you fail at it, feel guilty, and add it back to your list so you can fail at it again.

Performance work is the thing you do to feel like a person who is doing the thing. It’s identity performance without substance. Buying the perfect gym outfit before you’ve committed to going to the gym. Getting the new app — maybe this one will be the one that makes it stick. Starting fresh on Monday with a new plan, a new system, the colour-coded calendar, the productivity planner, the new journal.

Performance work is about the feeling of being someone who does the thing. Not actually being that person. And it keeps you cycling through the same false starts because the feeling is enough to temporarily satisfy the urge to change.

Intentionality isn’t a morning routine or a colour-coded planner. It’s answering one question:

What are the two or three things that, if I did them consistently, would actually move me forward?

Not forty-seven things. Two or three.

• For your health, it might be moving your body in a way you enjoy and eating mostly foods that make you feel good. That’s it. Not the macro split, not the supplement stack, just those two things.

• For your work, it might be creating content that reflects your actual thinking and having conversations with people who might want to pay you. Not the email sequence, not the landing page optimisation. Just those two things.

• For your life, it might be protecting your sleep and showing up for the people you love. Not the morning routine and the evening routine and the journalling protocol. Just those two things.

When you know what your two or three things are, you build simple, repeatable systems around them and you let everything else go.

This is where most people get stuck, because letting things go feels irresponsible. It feels like you’re not doing enough. But you’re not leaving anything on the table, you’re clearing the noise so the signal can come through.

When you’re doing forty-seven things at forty percent, you’re not excelling at anything. You’re spreading your attention and your executive function so thin that none of it works and you don’t experience any transformation. When you’re doing three things at ninety-five percent, focused, dialled in, intentional, that’s when results compound. That’s when progress actually happens.

In the Long Game, when I tell women they’re going to start disgustingly easy, they feel a pang of something like failure. They feel like they should be doing more, that if every second of the calendar isn’t filled, they’re not being effective.

So we slow down. We pick something so ridiculously easy they can’t fail. And when they realise they’re not going to fail, that their success compounds, that they can keep going, that they’re not going to see the interruptions that come from burnout, that’s when things actually shift.

The women who make real, lasting progress are not the ones doing the most things. They’re not the ones with the most optimised system or the most impressive to-do list. They’re the ones who’ve gotten very, very clear on what matters, and built simple, repeatable systems around those things.

It’s slow. It’s intentional. It’s boring. It’s unglamorous.

And it works.

Because when you’re moving slowly and intentionally, you can feel what’s working and what’s not. You can adjust. You can respond to your life as it changes. When you’re doing everything and moving fast and hoping something lands, you’re praying that motion equals progress and you’re not achieving anything.

This is the difference between running as fast as you can with no idea where you’re going, versus knowing exactly where you want to end up and taking the most direct route. One looks impressive. The other gets you there.

Look at your list, your habits, your goals, the things you’re trying to build, and ask honestly: how much of this is noise work, should work, or performance work?

My guess is a lot of it.

And that’s not a character flaw.

That’s a design problem.

You don’t need to do more. You need to do less, but do it with intention.

You have permission to slow down.

To stop doing things that aren’t moving you forward.

To audit your life and let go of what isn’t serving you.

When nothing is certain, anything is possible.

You’ve got this and I’ve got you.

Bec Cameron is the founder of the Long Game Programme — a neurodivergent-affirming health, fitness, and identity coaching hub for women in caring professions. If this resonated and you want the structure that’s actually built for how your brain works, send her a DM on Instagram with the word “READY”.