There’s nothing wrong with your productivity.

Yes, I know the prevailing wisdom in our corporate cultures today is that we must learn to be more productive.  Work longer.  Do more with less.  Our futures, and that of the companies we work for, depend on it.

The never-ending pursuit of productivity has many of us running scared.  And for good reason, CEOs love to talk about how AI will revolutionize the workplace and unlock unprecedented levels of productivity.  Many employees rightly fear that the day management finds a way for AI to do their jobs is the day they will find themselves looking for work.

It’s no wonder we frantically chase ways to make ourselves more productive.  One doesn’t need to look far – productivity advice, hacks and tips are everywhere, especially social media.

A brief aside: perhaps the richest irony in our culture today is that the biggest time suck ever invented, social media, is the very place so many people go in search of better productivity.  A topic for another day.

But, I’ll say it again, your productivity isn’t the problem.  All the talk from C-suite about workplace productivity is a distraction from the bigger issue – a failure to prioritize.

Setting strategy for business in the end is about one simple thing: making choices.  Is it Door #1, #2 or #3?  You can’t do everything.  Choosing is hard work.  It’s risky.  It demands accountability.  Making choices can be existential for CEOs, especially when they’re about to present yet another unsatisfactory quarterly earnings report to impatient investors, analysts and journalists.  Short-term thinking is an epidemic in the boardroom. 

Under such circumstances, it can be very tempting for CEOs to succumb to the siren song of technology and the so-called productivity experts who tell them with the right systems and training, they don’t have to choose just one door.  They can go through all of them.  It is possible to do everything all at once.

We see this every day.  Companies frenetically reporting how they are simultaneously iterating on products, accelerating R&D, streamlining processes, roles, responsibilities, and optimizing marketing strategies.  Basically it’s throwing a ton of shit against the wall to see what sticks.  One of them is bound to work.

This is a nightmare for employees responsible for executing.  It can make for very schizophrenic and confusing days.  This approach can work in the short term – and as we said that’s all that matters in many boardrooms – but a company that avoids the rigors of true prioritization inevitably falls behind. 

This everything-all-at-once strategy is perfectly suited to our tech-driven age.  We’ve come to expect a perpetual busyness in our work lives.  The boundaries between home and work have been shattered.  If you aren’t juggling ten things at once and responding instantly to emails, slack messages or calls at all hours, you aren’t working hard enough.

In such an environment, is it any wonder that our feeds are flooded with productivity advice?

To be clear, I mean no disrespect to all the well-meaning productivity experts out there.  Many of them offer useful advice and insights that are worth checking out.  But at the risk of oversimplifying, we already know how to be more productive: get up earlier, focus on one thing at a time, remove distractions, like incessant phone notifications, and maintain good fitness, diet and sleep habits.

The truth is that there is a limit to how many things individuals and teams can do well at one time.  All the technology, systems and ultra-productive employees in the world can’t mask the consequences of a lack of prioritization.  Trying to do too much as quickly as possible will only accelerate bad outcomes.  “Failing fast” is no virtue in this environment.

If you’re hearing a lot of talk about productivity in the hallways at work, it may be time to think about your next move.  The best companies and places to work are the ones with leaders who value priorities ahead of productivity.  They understand that when it comes to productivity the timeless saying is true: working more is no substitute for working smarter.