Let’s talk about the productivity industry — you know, the one now worth nearly $65 billion globally and still somehow convinced that women have the time, space, and silence of a monk to use their systems “properly.”
Some tools actually help.
Some shame you.
Some act like your life isn’t held together with caffeine and sheer willpower.
Here’s the breakdown.
Actually helpful tools (C2M APPROVED)
1. Monday.com — useful only when you keep it simple
Monday.com can genuinely make life easier if you resist the urge to turn your personal planning into a corporate Olympics.
It’s great for:
✔ simple weekly planning
✔ visual task lists
✔ separating work vs. life
✔ seeing everything in one calming board
✔ tracking projects without drowning in them
BUT.
The moment you add automations, dashboards, workflows, dependencies, colour-coded chaos, and widgets you absolutely did not ask for… You’re suddenly the unofficial COO of your own life.
And absolutely nobody needs that.
C2M Tip:
Use one board with four simple groups:
• Work
• Life admin
• Maybe later
• Don't want to but must
No automations. No dashboards. No team-level settings. Just simplicity, clarity, and a place to put the mental load.
2. Google Tasks + Calendar — not sexy, just reliable
It’s plain. It’s simple. It’s soothing.
Your tasks sit beside your calendar.
Your brain doesn’t have to hop between six apps to figure out if you’re free at 3pm.
No shiny gimmicks. No punishment. Just structure.
C2M Tip:
Only attach dates to tasks that truly have deadlines.
Everything else should live in a no-pressure list.
3. Time-blocking lite — three buckets, zero guilt
This is not the nightmare where you break your day into 15-minute micro-slots like you’re a robot running a lab experiment.
Time-blocking lite = three buckets:
🌿 Focus work
📋 Admin
🏡 Life stuff
Assign loose chunks of time. Then let your day unfold however it wants.
Why it works:
Women’s schedules don’t flow. They cluster, collapse, spiral, and resurrect.
This method respects reality.
4. Brain-dump journals — messy, chaotic, cathartic
This is the anti-aesthetic tool.
Your brain-dump journal is a judgement-free zone for:
✔ intrusive thoughts
✔ to-dos
✔ rants
✔ stress spirals
✔ brilliant ideas
✔ grocery lists
✔ emotional clutter
Spill everything onto the page, close the notebook, walk away.
Your brain feels 40% lighter immediately.
5. Habit trackers with grace built in
Habit trackers are great — until they start treating you like a malfunctioning robot.
The good ones:
• let you skip days
• never guilt-trip you
• track effort, not perfection
• don’t demand 27 daily habits
• celebrate small wins
They should NOT emotionally terrorise you.
I prefer a paper tracker for that very reason. They you can update it once a day, once a week or whenever you remember without the harassment and added pressure.
Here are some places to find some pretty ones:
• Papier
• Amazon (I particularly like this ADHD planner)
• Simple Beautiful Things
• Saint Belford
If it gives you dread? Delete. Immediately.
Tools that expect you to be a robot (C2M DENIED)
1. Apps that track 47 habits a day
Sis…
Some days my only habit is caffeinating and inhaling oxygen.
Please leave me alone.
These apps are built for astronauts.
We are not astronauts.
2. Bullet journals that require artistic talent
If a productivity system expects you to draw vines, watercolour banners, and magazine-worthy spreads, it’s not productivity — it’s arts and crafts.
Bullet journaling isn’t the problem.
Instagram bullet journaling is.
3. Systems that shame you when you fall behind
No, I don’t need a reminder that I’ve missed 6 days. I need you to:
- calm down
- stop asking questions
- and maybe mind your own business.
If the system guilt-trips you, it goes to the bin.
4. Productivity methods designed for single men with zero responsibilities
If it doesn’t consider:
- hormones
- emotional labour
- caretaking
- mental load
- school forms
- life admin
- unpredictable chaos
…it’s not built for women.
What SHOULD be built in:
-
flexible weekly resets
-
energy-based planning
-
no perfection requirements
-
chaos buffers
- ability to pause without losing progress
We need tools designed for humans — not bachelors with three socks and no dependants.
5. Anything requiring daily perfection to function
Productivity shouldn’t break the second your life gets messy.
That’s the entire point — life is messy.
If a tool collapses when you miss a day?
Hard pass.
Verdict
The best productivity tools are the ones that:
- reduce pressure
- simplify your life
- adapt to your chaos
- help you feel capable, not criticised
Everything else?
Straight to the bin.