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Disclaimer: This is not your average “7 tips to be productive” blog. This is for the sleepless creators, the procrastinators with good intentions, and the over-caffeinated dreamers who secretly hate the word “grind” but do it anyway. You’re welcome.
Productivity: The Scam We Love to Believe
Let’s not pretend. “Productivity” is just a nice little band-aid word we slap onto our existential panic. It’s the label we use to feel less bad about the 46 tabs open in our brain (and Chrome browser). But here’s the deal: if productivity is the placebo, reading is the actual prescription.
And not just any reading. The right books at the right time can put your lazy twin (the one who lives rent-free in your head) in a chokehold.
Enter: Rise and Grind by Daymond John and The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma. These two books didn’t just whisper productivity hacks to me — they basically grabbed me by the collar and said, “Get up. Outrun yourself. Time isn’t real, but your bills are.”
Rise and Grind: Outperform Yourself, or Enjoy Watching Yourself Lose
Here’s the brutal truth Daymond John throws at you like a dodgeball to the face: If you slack off, the shadow version of you — the lazy, excuse-making, “I’ll-do-it-tomorrow” version — will win.
This isn’t about competing with other people. Nah. This is about you versus you.
When you read Rise and Grind, you realize it’s a marathon. Not a sprint, not a casual jog in the park while sipping oat milk lattes. It’s you dragging yourself out of bed, even when your brain feels like a brick. Because while you’re debating whether or not to start, Time (if it exists) is moving.
“Rise and Grind” mindset isn’t just a motivational poster. It’s survival strategy. Especially for artists, filmmakers, writers, and entrepreneurs. If you take a day off, your momentum doesn’t pause. It reverses. Painfully.
The 5 AM Club: Silence is Your Competitive Edge
Now, let’s talk about Robin Sharma’s 5AM Club. Look, waking up at 5 a.m. feels like a hate crime against your own comfort. But — and it pains me to admit this — it works.
Why? Because 5 a.m. is when the world hasn’t yet started its full-throttle screaming match. Your phone isn’t vibrating itself off the table. Notifications? Silent. Social media drama? Still asleep. Everyone else? Drooling into their pillows.
This is when your brain is firing on all cylinders. The ideas come through cleaner. Deeper. The work you do at 5 a.m. often outperforms anything you squeeze out at 3 p.m. while you’re juggling Slack messages and existential dread.
Productivity hack for creatives: get up before the noise. Watch how your brain rewards you.
Reality Check: Distractions Are Winning (Unless You Read More)
Here’s the gut punch. Even with all this knowledge, it’s still hard. Ridiculously hard. Distractions are an Olympic sport now.
Every app is screaming for your attention. Every ad promises a shortcut to success. And let’s not forget the paralyzing thrill of starting a new project that might make you look cool (or might flop miserably).
That’s why reading is essential. Reading cuts through the noise like a laser beam. Books force you to slow down, focus, and think beyond your next notification.
If productivity is a scam, then books are the insider cheat code. They quiet the mental noise and bring you back to the work that actually matters.
Final Words: Productivity is Fake, But Books Are Real
Let’s not over-glorify the grind. Let’s not pretend like waking up at 5 a.m. magically turns you into an overnight millionaire.
But let’s also not underestimate this: when you feed your brain the right material (Rise and Grind, The 5AM Club), you give yourself a fighting chance against the chaos.
So read more. Not because it looks good on your Instagram feed, but because it might just be the thing that saves your creative career from collapsing under the weight of distractions.
And hey, if you’re still lost? Read more anyway. At least you’ll go down swinging, with better metaphors.
