Person A and I talked about productivity today. Person A often gets in their own way — “I don’t know what I can or cannot do.”

I asked, “tell me what got in your way yesterday.” Turns out the issue is not knowing what can or cannot be done; instead, it’s “not know what to do next.”

I offered a solution:

1. Get things out of your head. Write down everything you need to do.

2. Prioritize the things you wrote down.

3. Act.

Person A’s output improved in the course of a day — dramatically.

I don’t think it’s the solution I proposed that made the difference. I think Person A benefited from getting things out of their head.