Was tun um produktiv zu sein translates roughly as “what to do to be productive,” and the honest answer is less exciting than the productivity industry suggests. The most useful research points to a small number of changes: stop treating a full calendar as an achievement, protect blocks of time for difficult work, and make starting so easy that you cannot talk yourself out of it. This guide sets out the techniques that have practical evidence behind them, the habits that quietly undermine productivity, and a simple sequence you can start with tomorrow morning.
The Problem With “Busy” as a Measure
Most people judge their day by how full it felt, not by what it produced. That is the first pattern worth breaking. A day packed with meetings, messages and small tasks can feel exhausting and still leave the important work untouched.
The Eisenhower Matrix is the standard tool for separating the two. It sorts tasks into four boxes: urgent and important (do now), important but not urgent (schedule), urgent but not important (delegate), and neither (delete) . The box that matters most is the second one. That is where long-term progress lives, and it is the box most easily crowded out by the urgency of everything else.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England’s bulletin makes the point with a striking example: surgeons spend only about 20% of their NHS time performing elective surgery. How efficiently they manage the other 80% determines their job satisfaction and their time outside work . The same logic applies to almost any job. The work that matters is rarely the work that shouts loudest.
Deep Work: Protecting the Hours That Actually Count
Cal Newport’s Deep Work method is the most cited framework for focused productivity. The premise is simple: high-value work requires long periods of undistracted concentration, and most working environments are designed to prevent exactly that .
Newport distinguishes between deep work, which demands cognitive effort and cannot be done while distracted, and shallow work, which is logistical and can be done in the gaps. The practical response is to schedule deep work blocks and treat them as seriously as a meeting with your manager .
The 7Mind guide to Deep Work describes several approaches, from the monastic (cut yourself off entirely) to the bimodal (long retreats of a day or more) to the rhythmic (a fixed daily block). For most people in normal jobs, the rhythmic approach is the most realistic: a protected 90-minute block in the morning, before the day fills up .
Slack’s productivity guide adds a useful warning about the cost of interruption. Research cited by the psychologist Larry Rosen suggests people check their phones at least every 15 minutes. A separate estimate suggests it takes at least 15 minutes to recover focus after an interruption. Those minutes add up to hours of lost productivity over a week .
The Two-Minute Trick That Actually Works
The hardest part of any difficult task is starting. A paper published by the Association for Computing Machinery describes a simple solution: break the project into steps so small that starting feels trivial .
The author’s rule is to aim for tasks that take 15 minutes or less, and to make the first few steps genuinely easy. “Search for something on Google.” “Send one email.” “Open the document.” Crossing these off gives a small dopamine hit that builds momentum. The paper describes this as overcoming inertia: little wins add up and make it easier to keep going .
Derby College’s productivity guide offers a variation: commit to working on the dreaded task for just five minutes. The small commitment makes starting feel less daunting, and it often builds enough momentum to keep going .
This is not a gimmick. It is a recognition that the brain resists tasks it perceives as costly, and that reducing the perceived cost is more effective than trying to force willpower .
Time-Blocking and the Pomodoro Technique
Time-blocking means assigning specific tasks to specific slots in your calendar, rather than working from a list and hoping the day cooperates. The UK government’s Incubator for Artificial Intelligence publishes a prompt for exactly this, using the Eisenhower Matrix to categorise tasks and then building a realistic schedule with breaks .
The Pomodoro Technique is the simplest way to implement it. Work in 25-minute focused sessions with short breaks, and take a longer break after four sessions . The technique works because 25 minutes feels manageable even when the task does not. You are not committing to finishing the project, only to focusing for 25 minutes.
Derby College suggests combining the two: schedule a 90-minute deep work block, then use Pomodoro sessions within it. Three focused sessions with short breaks can produce remarkable results .
The Habits That Undermine Productivity
Slack’s guide identifies three common habits that work against productivity, and they are worth naming because they are so easy to overlook .
Working longer hours. A study by Erin Reid at Boston University found that managers could not tell the difference between employees who worked 80-hour weeks and those who did not. There was no evidence that the overworked employees produced more . Longer hours are not the same as more output.
Leaving all notifications on. Every ping is a potential interruption, and each one costs recovery time. Turning off non-essential notifications is not a productivity hack. It is removing a barrier you installed yourself .
Saying yes to everything. Optimism is a virtue until it comes to time management. Every commitment you accept is time you cannot spend on the work that matters.
A Note on State and Energy
One German-language source makes a point that the technique-focused guides often miss. Tony Robbins’ material argues that productivity starts with your physical and mental state, not your to-do list. If you are exhausted, scattered or anxious, no scheduling system will fix it. Physiology, focus and beliefs determine what you are capable of before you choose a single task .
The Men’s Health Germany guide to self-management makes a related argument: aligning your goals with your values makes effort feel lighter. Goals pursued from internal motivation are easier to sustain than goals imposed from outside .
This does not mean techniques are useless. It means the techniques work better when you are not fighting your own body and motivation. Sleep, movement and a realistic sense of what you can achieve in a day are not soft extras. They are the foundation the rest sits on.
A Simple Starting Sequence
If you want to change one thing this week, start here.
Tomorrow morning, before you open your email, write down the one task that would make the day feel worthwhile. Not the most urgent task. The one that matters.
Put a 25-minute block in your calendar for that task. Treat it as an appointment. Set a timer.
When the timer goes off, decide whether to continue. You probably will, because starting was the hard part.
At the end of the day, look at what you finished, not how busy you felt. That is the only measure that matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was bedeutet “was tun um produktiv zu sein”?
It is German for “what to do to be productive.” The most useful answers are not complicated: protect time for difficult work, make starting easy, and stop measuring productivity by how busy the day felt.
What is the single most effective productivity technique?
The evidence points to protecting uninterrupted blocks for deep work. Cal Newport’s Deep Work method is the most widely cited framework, and it centres on scheduling periods of distraction-free concentration rather than relying on willpower .
How do I stop procrastinating on difficult tasks?
Break the task into steps so small that starting feels trivial. The ACM paper on getting things done recommends tasks of 15 minutes or less, with the first few steps designed to be genuinely easy so you can build momentum . Derby College suggests committing to just five minutes as a way in .
Why do productivity tips stop working after a few weeks?
Most tips address behaviour, not the underlying state. If you are exhausted, scattered or unmotivated, a new scheduling system will not fix it. Tony Robbins’ framework argues that physiology, focus and beliefs determine what you are capable of before any technique comes into play . The techniques work better when the foundation is in place.
