The reason you learn productivity tricks is not so you can then be productive during more and more of the stuff that you weren't happy with doing.
No, be super productive in small bursts so that you can then have the greatest luxury of human existence: entire days without a schedule. This is productivity to leave productivity.
But more than that, the default life menu is not just bad for how to manage workflow, it is also bad for how you will entertain yourself in the free time you say you do not have.
I find that both television and the what is now a standard web-page leave you in either a) a torpor or b) a state of agitation -- neither of which feel right, or at least wouldn't feel right absent constant conditioning and social pressures. I know it is hard to do, but if you fast for while from tv or the internet, you will easily see the absurdity.
So maybe this post should be called "bursts of productivity to leave agitation." But that seems a bit wordy.
I think these mediums, because of commercial pressures, are designed for this kind of agitation. They must leave us consumers wanting to consume more.
I recently did a writing assessment with my students, and so I had two hours of free time on my hands, and I got sucked into the vortex of "web-surfing." At the end I felt icky, drained, empty, "hungry." Also, in using Memrise to work on some language learning projects, I found it quite addictive . . . and that's still not a good thing. When my wife comes in from work and says something to me, I should look up and smile. I shouldn't stare at a screen . . just . . . to . . . get . . . one . . . more .. . word. And for that reason, I am considering transferring over material from Memrise to flash cards. It's really easy to put down flash cards when someone walks into the room. (Update: never did that. I now use Anki, but only in the morning and for a far lower volume.)
Productivity tricks are tools, and us modern humans live under a constant threat of being enslaved in our own tools and systems. This is not an argument against either tools or systems; rather, it is an argument for first using the tools to optimize for some kind of good, but then to quit the tool (or take a break from it) when you have reached that good. Go find another pursuit, ideally highly meaningful, to fill the time.
Productivity to leave productivity.
