Look, I’ve been there.
You look at a packed calendar and feel productive. But are you? For years, my calendar was a source of anxiety, not clarity. I was trying to optimize time, but I was losing the fight on impact. I was relying on motivation, which runs out fast.
I stopped relying on willpower and started building systems that make progress automatic. If you don’t control your mornings, everyone else will.
Two Systems That Kill False Productivity:
📈 The Truth: Start Every Monday with “The P&L Power List.” This is my confession: I used to have a huge to-do list that made me feel busy while avoiding the actual hard work. Now, I force myself to name only 3 high-leverage outcomes for the week. This is a firewall against managing fake urgency. It forces me to ask: Is this driving P&L impact, or am I just hiding from a tough conversation?
🛡️ The Hard Stop: Block 90 Minutes of Deep Work Every Morning. If you lead a big team, everyone is trying to take a piece of your energy. My 90 minutes is protected time. No Slack, no meetings, no email. This is when I do visionary thinking, plan the roadmap, or solve the hardest Product Sense challenges. It’s my admission that I can’t “fit in” complex thought, I have to force it into existence.
I don’t chase productivity. I build engines that produce clarity and steady output.
What’s the one takeaway from this that resonated with you most? Drop a comment below!
Richard Ewing is a Product Executive and the creator of The Product Economist framework. He serves as a Strategic Advisor to B2B SaaS organizations, helping leaders audit their roadmaps for capital efficiency and prevent “model collapse” in their business models.
Stop guessing. Start auditing.
Connect on LinkedIn: Richard Ewing (MBA)
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