We Don't Do Important Work, We Do Easy Work

My productivity friend,

It's 4:42 p.m. Friday. The proposal you promised your team this week—the one that will secure next year's funding—is still a skeletal outline. “Just needs a quick polish!” you lied this morning. You've had three weeks to write it. It has to go out today. By 11:59.

Your stomach tightens as you minimize the proposal to answer "just one more" email. Then you reorganize your desktop folders. Check LinkedIn notifications. Clean up your Spotify playlists. Research the perfect productivity app....

Oh no. It’s almost 6:00.

If only this were the first time you did this to yourself. Last month it was the presentation that could have showcased your expertise. Before that, the course you paid for but abandoned after module two. The novel you've been "writing" for six years. The website redesign your clients are “gently inquiring” about.

Each time, you've watched yourself choose the easy path—updating your task list, alphabetizing your bookshelf, falling into a YouTube tutorial rabbit hole—over the important work that feels inexplicably difficult to start.

Each time, the quiet voice of disappointment grows a little louder, a little more familiar: "Why can't I just do work that actually matters?"

What matters doesn’t matter

Forget “eat that frog.” Forget “do the most important thing first.” The uncomfortable reality of human behavior is this: We don't do important work. We do easy work. And that's why most productivity advice falls short.

The problem isn't your lack of motivation or willpower. Just as water flows downhill and never “decides” to flow uphill, we naturally follow paths of least resistance in our work and lives. This isn't a character flaw—it's human nature. Constantly pushing against it is exhausting, and as a result, mere willpower is not sustainable for long.

The question is: how can our systems account for human nature? If we always do what’s easy, how can we ever do what’s important?

The Delusion of Goal-Setting

Traditional productivity advice starts with setting goals—preferably SMART ones (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). The assumption is that once you know what's important, you'll naturally know what action to take.

But this gets the causality backward. Knowing what's important rarely guides our action. If the path to our goals is littered with friction and complexity, we simply won't take that path, regardless how meaningful the destination might be.

The real innovation of Action-Powered Productivity isn't about identifying what's important. It's about making important work easy.

Your Productivity Toolkit: Making Important Work Easy

The function of an effective productivity toolkit isn't just organization for organization's sake. It must provide methods to align your natural tendency to take the path of least resistance with the work that matters most.

In Action-Powered Productivity, we start with the work that’s already on your plate. Make that work easier first, even if it’s not aligned with your long-term aspirations, because it’s what you’re doing now.

To be clear, “make that work easier” isn’t lip service. Action-Powered Productivity provides real mechanics. I teach people to capture notes that show up when you need their information, to write tasks that are clear and immediately actionable, to plan days that are intentional without being rigid.

I also help clients “capture recurrence”—to use recurring tasks, procedures, templates, and automations to make work easier and easier over time. These mechanics aren't just theoretical concepts. They're practical tools that systematically reduce friction in your workflows.

From Mechanics to Meaning

Once you establish friction-reducing mechanics, you free up the time and bandwidth to align your action with your roles—the identities you embody in your life and work. Maybe you’re a Proactive Leader, an Engaged Parent, a Creative and Prolific Professional. Whatever your roles, you make sure the action you take supports them.

This is the point where productivity transcends work and touches your life's purpose. The question shifts from "How can I get more done?" to "How can I make it more likely that I'll engage with what's truly valuable to me and the people I care about?" Your “make work easy” skills reach maximum power when they’re directed toward the most important work.

The Action-Powered Approach

Traditional productivity systems tell you: "Set goals. When you know what's important, everything else falls into place."

Action-Powered Productivity tells you the truth: "When you know how to make work easy, then when you encounter your 'why,' you know how to make the action that supports it easy."

Because we don't do important work. We do easy work.

Your job—and the job I help you with—is to make important work easy.

What Action Will You Take?

Identify a task that you do regularly, but that you always dread. What’s the friction that makes it so onerous? What makes you put it off until the last minute every time? Is there information you need but never have handy? Is there a bunch of “busy work” involved that you find tedious?

Don’t try to solve the whole process at once. Ask yourself what little friction point you could improve. Is there any information you could aggregate over time, or any process you could formalize? Is there work you could store in a template? Is there a step you could automate or delegate?

Once you’ve solved one little problem, and then another and another, you can watch as your natural tendency to follow the path of least resistance begins working for you rather than against you.

Join our free APP community to start making your important work easy, or explore the Action-Powered Productivity website for additional resources.

Water flows downhill. Engineer the slope so it leads somewhere that matters.

Your productivity friend,
R.J.

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