You’re not failing. Your system is. Here’s how to reclaim your time and meaning.

I’m positive you can relate to the experience of closing your laptop after a long day of back-to-back Zoom calls, endless email threads, and urgent instant messages, only to wonder: “What did I actually accomplish today?”

Most of us grapple with this frustrating paradox of modern work: despite being constantly busy, we often end the day unsure if we were truly productive.

This is dangerous, as it impacts on the sense of meaning that you derive from your work. Work that feels like it lacks meaning will not lead you anywhere positive.

In an earlier industrial era, a day’s work might produce a certain number of widgets or widgets-per-hour – tangible proof of productivity. It was easy to know if you met the expectation. But in today’s knowledge economy, our efforts and outputs are often intangible, making it much harder to measure success and know if we’re contributing up to our potential.

In this article, we’ll explore why it’s so difficult to feel productive as a knowledge worker today, how this affects our sense of meaning and satisfaction, and what we can do about it. Along the way, I’ll share a personal story that might sound familiar, and offer practical strategies to redefine productivity in a way that leaves you more fulfilled.

Let’s dive in!

The Productivity Paradox in Knowledge Work

Modern knowledge work has been called a “productivity paradox”; we have more tools and technologies than ever to get things done, yet many of us feel like we accomplish less.

To understand why, it helps to contrast today’s work with the industrial era. In factory work, productivity was straightforward to measure: how many units came off your assembly line by closing time. Peter Drucker, who first coined the term “knowledge work,” observed that “20th-century work would no longer be benchmarked by volume of production, but by the outcomes of our decisions and ideas”. Doing the right things became more important than simply doing things right.

This is a critical insight. This shift means that the definition of success changed.

Success is now measured by outcomes, not output quantity. You aren’t told you’ve done well because you attended 20% more meetings and sent 22% more emails.

A product manager’s “productive day” might be one in which her team decides on a strategy that saves the company from pursuing a bad feature; an outcome that is valuable, yet not something you can count or see. A marketing director’s most important “work” might be the creative idea sparked in a team brainstorming session, which doesn’t show up as a deliverable today but seeds a campaign weeks later.

Knowledge work often lacks immediate, tangible results. Elizabeth Ayer captured this elegantly in her essay titled ‘Meetings are the work’:

“Manual labor has dignity in the physical: in immediate, tangible change to the world. Knowledge work doesn’t have that, and… has only a tenuous connection to external value”.

No wonder it’s hard to feel productive; the feedback loops in knowledge work are fuzzy and long.

Compounding this, we often equate busyness with productivity. In the absence of clear output metrics, hours worked or meetings attended become a proxy. We fill our days with emails, meetings, and messaging – tasks that give the sensation of busyness and responsiveness. Yet, a full calendar doesn’t always translate to meaningful progress. (In fact, it’s often a sign of the opposite!)

A recent Atlassian survey of 5,000 knowledge workers found meetings were the number-one productivity killer, deemed ineffective 72% of the time. Think about that: almost three quarters of our meetings might be time wasted. We’ve all sat in a meeting that “could have been an email,” or chased an email thread that solved nothing. It’s easy to see how one can work a 10-hour day filled with activity and still feel that nothing substantial got done.

A Personal Anecdote

Let me share a recent experience, one that is all too common in my circle. I rushed into work, knowing I had a busy day ahead of me. I opened my calendar, and it hit me: eight meetings booked for the day. Eight! A touch point with a client. Then a team meeting. Some departmental updates. A project update meeting. And so it continued on, one after the other, non-stop. Worst of all, because my schedule was so full, I was frantically replying to messages during the meetings, so my attention wasn’t where it should have been. By the end of the day, my brain was fried, and I had no time or energy to think about how to implement any of the ideas that were discussed (and frankly, had been for some time).

I was exhausted and on edge. But more than tired, I felt anxious. I had been “busy” for hours, yet I couldn’t point to a single concrete thing I had finished. My to-do list still towered over me, larger than it was at the start of the day. The meetings had generated more follow-ups to be tracked. I dutifully “did my job”, but did any of that move the needle? I wasn’t sure. It felt awful.

I know my experience isn’t unique. It’s not the first time I’ve had a day like that, and I know that many of us can relate to that experience. But at some point, it needs to be a wake-up call! It is worth reflecting on the nature of your work and what productivity should feel like. You need to understand how you measure meaning and success in your day-to-day work, or risk burning yourself out in a swirl of activity with brings no meaning.

Why Busyness Feels Empty: Productivity, Meaning, and Satisfaction

The emptiness we feel after days like that goes deeper than just frustration; it touches on how deeply productivity and meaning are intertwined. As humans, we derive satisfaction from making progress on things that matter. We are hard-wired to push towards desired outcomes.

When we don’t see progress or don’t find meaning in what we’ve done, work becomes unsatisfying, even if we “did a lot.” Psychologists Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, in their research on workplace happiness, found that one of the top motivators for professionals is simply making progress – they called it the “progress principle.” A small win on a meaningful project can boost our mood and motivation, whereas spinning our wheels or working on trivial tasks all day deflates us. I know that happens to me!

Author Cal Newport talks about this extensively. He rightly points out that many of us spend too much time on “shallow work” (tasks like emailing, scheduling, administrative busywork) which make us feel productive because they’re easy and keep us busy, but ultimately leave us empty. Newport argues that shallow work, while necessary to some extent, cannot provide real satisfaction:

“We cannot find real satisfaction in efforts that are easily replicable… such efforts [cannot be] the foundation of a remarkable career.”

This is more true than ever as AI comes into play.

In contrast, what Newport calls **“deep work” **(focused, creative, problem-solving tasks that use our full talents) is what generates genuine progress and pride. When you spend an afternoon deeply crafting a strategy document, coding a new feature, or solving a complex problem, you end the day feeling accomplished. Not coincidentally, Newport notes that deep work not only produces more valuable output, it also yields “deeper satisfaction (aka ‘passion’) for your work.”

Another factor is the loss of clear boundaries in modern work. The industrial worker left the factory at 5 and couldn’t continue to work once they’d left. Today, the knowledge worker might log off at 5, but because the work is mental, it follows you around. You might be off the clock, but work is still on your mind. You know you could just write that one quick email, or put that little extra polish on the presentation you’re delivering. Add to that the always-on culture of digital communication, and it feels like you’re running on a treadmill, never reaching a finish line.

It’s no surprise, then, that feeling ineffective at work is linked to burnout. A study of Swedish knowledge workers found that perceived work-effectiveness was a key factor in preventing “low-energy syndromes” (burnout and fatigue). When people felt they were effective – that their work mattered and moved things forward – their energy and mental well-being stayed higher. On the flip side, constantly feeling like your day’s work was pointless or produced nothing of value can drain your energy and morale.

So, it’s not just you. The studies show that doing work that matters, matters. Big time.

Meaning and productivity are deeply connected to engagement. Take these away, and work becomes soul-sapping.

The encouraging insight here is that by reframing productivity around meaning and outcomes, we can regain some of that lost satisfaction, even if we might not be able to abolish status meetings or email threads.

But we can change how we measure our own productivity and allocate our time, so that even if our work is intangible, we can see and (more importantly!) feel the progress we make.

Measuring What Matters (Even When It’s Intangible)

If counting widgets or lines of code doesn’t capture knowledge work productivity, how can we measure and experience real productivity today? The key is to focus on meaningful outcomes and visible progress.

Here are some practical frameworks and tools to help make the intangible more tangible:

Define Your “Big Rocks”. Start by identifying what truly matters in your role or for that week. These are the outcomes that, if achieved, would make you feel it was a productive period. They could be project milestones (e.g. “Finalize Q3 marketing strategy”), deliverables (“Draft client proposal”), or important decisions (“Hire the new team member”). By clarifying your top priorities, you have a clearer target for productivity. Instead of measuring hours worked, you measure progress on these big rocks.
Set Outcome-Focused Goals. Try using a light version of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for yourself. For example, an objective might be “Improve onboarding process for new clients.” Key results could be specific outcomes like “Complete first draft of new onboarding guide” or “Implement a feedback survey and get 10 responses.” Notice these are measurable in a yes/no or number sense. By defining such results, you give yourself something concrete to achieve and check off, even though the work to get there is more abstract. This makes success observable. At the end of the week or quarter, you can point to those key results and say, “I did that!”
Time-Block Deep Work. To ensure you actually make progress on meaningful tasks, schedule time for them like you would for a meeting. For instance, block 9–11 AM for writing that strategy document – and protect that time. Turn off email and chat, if possible, to dive into deep work mode. It may feel odd to schedule an appointment with yourself, but this helps fight the tide of shallow tasks. By the end of a focused block, you often have a tangible output (a few pages written, some analysis done), which is immensely satisfying compared to a dozen half-written emails. Research and anecdotal evidence alike suggest that prioritizing deep, focused work leads to more and higher-quality output, and a greater sense of accomplishment .
Make Meetings Meaningful (or Skip Them). Not all meetings are avoidable, but you can regain some control over your schedule. Before accepting or scheduling a meeting, ask: What is the purpose? What outcome do we need? Insist on agendas and clear next steps. This ensures meetings result in decisions or actions (i.e. something moved forward). If a meeting has no clear purpose or deliverable, consider politely declining it or combining it with another. By trimming the fat of unnecessary meetings, you free up time to do real work. And for the meetings you do take, you’ll feel better if you can say, “In that 30 minutes, we solved X or decided Y,” rather than “talked for an hour and nothing changed.” Remember, each meeting you cancel or shorten gains you time for productive work. Treat your time as a precious resource (because it is!) and invest it where it counts.
Keep a “Done” List or Journal. One simple but powerful habit is ending each day by writing down what you achieved. We’re great at focusing on what’s left undone, but we rarely acknowledge all the small wins we accumulate. Jot down everything from “Resolved a tricky customer complaint” to “Brainstormed three ideas for project X” or “Finished reading a research report”. By maintaining a “done list,” you create a running tally of progress. This not only gives you a sense of closure at day’s end (yes, you accomplished things!), but over time it becomes evidence of your contributions. Jot it in a notebook, or use some digital tool. Find what works for you. The key is to consciously recognize your progress. Those small wins are fuel for motivation. (Bonus tip – these notes are very helpful when it is performance review time!)
Align Work with Meaning. Whenever possible, connect your daily tasks to a bigger picture. It’s easier to feel productive if you know why your work matters. For example, answering 20 customer emails might feel dreary until you reframe it as “helping 20 people solve problems today,” which ties into a value of service. If you lead a team, maybe those endless one-on-one meetings are actually about coaching your people (a meaningful outcome) rather than just calendar-filler. Sometimes the meaning is there, but we need to remind ourselves. Other times, we might discover some tasks truly lack meaning or impact – those might be candidates to minimize or delegate if possible. Regularly ask yourself, “How is this activity contributing to something important?” Even if the answer isn’t obvious, the act of reflecting can prompt changes that make your work more fulfilling. Ultimately, feeling productive comes not just from quantity of work, but from knowing our work has purpose.

By implementing these practices, you create a personal system to measure and experience productivity in a healthier way. You shift from counting hours or emails (which are infinite and never “done”) to acknowledging outcomes, progress, and impact (which give a sense of completion and value). Over time, this can dramatically improve your day-to-day satisfaction. Instead of anxious emptiness, you might find yourself ending more days thinking, “I moved something forward today,” even if it’s not a physical widget in hand.

Conclusion: Redefining Productivity for a Fulfilling Career

The modern knowledge-worker’s plight is real: you will probably never return to the simple days of clear-cut widget-count productivity. But perhaps that’s a good thing. Your work today, though less tangible, has the potential to create value and meaning beyond what a factory worker could dream of – if you approach it correctly. The challenge (and opportunity) is learning to redefine productivity on your own terms: to prioritize meaningful work, to measure progress in new ways, and to give yourself credit for the often invisible accomplishments you achieve.

If you’ve been feeling that mid-career fatigue, wondering whether all these meetings and emails are worth it, take heart. You’re far from alone, and there are ways to break the cycle. Start small: pick one or two of the strategies above and try them out. Cancel an unnecessary meeting, block an hour for that project you care about, or jot down your wins for the day. Observe how you feel afterward. Do you end the day a bit more satisfied, a bit more in control of your work life? Productivity, meaning, and satisfaction are deeply personal, and they’re intertwined. By consciously tweaking how you work and what you focus on, you can experience that satisfying sense of “Yes, I accomplished something important today.”

This week, I encourage you to reflect on your own experience of busyness vs. productivity. Ask yourself:

When do I feel most productive and why?
What was a recent day when I felt great about my work, and what made it different?
What changes could I make to feel that way more often?

You might even discuss these questions with a colleague or friend. You’ll likely find they share similar struggles. By opening up this conversation and experimenting with small changes, you can redefine what productivity means for you in this modern era. After all, your career is a marathon, not a sprint of emails and meetings. Let’s make sure each mile feels worthwhile.

(Hit reply and share your thoughts or experiences on this topic – I’d love to hear how you are navigating the productivity paradox in your own work!)

Quotation I’ve Been Pondering

“The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.” — Naval Ravikant

Journal Prompt

“If your life were a story, who is the hero you’re becoming? When you look in the mirror, do you see them yet? If not, what bold step would bring you closer?”

Until next week!!

Work and live well.

Tim

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