I spent four hours yesterday watching YouTube videos about productivity.

The irony wasn’t lost on me. There I was, consuming content about being productive instead of actually being productive. But here’s the thing - I wasn’t just being lazy. I was overwhelmed.

I have too many interests that all matter to me. I love to code. There’s something magical about writing text and making computers do things. I’m supposed to be working on an iPadOS app for my wife.

I love cooking, which means meal planning and grocery shopping - two huge time sucks.

I like working out, though I rarely do it anymore.

Roleplaying games fascinate me. I want to set up the next adventure for friends.

My wife has her own projects that need my support. Then there’s my reading backlog - books, stories, technical manuals.

Oh, and I spend twelve hours a week getting dialysis.

The Multi-Interest Trap

Most productivity advice assumes your interests are frivolous. “Just eliminate the time-wasters,” they say. “Focus on what matters.”

But what if everything matters?

Coding isn’t just a hobby - it’s creative problem-solving that feeds my soul. Cooking isn’t just sustenance - it’s how I care for my family. RPGs aren’t escapism - they’re collaborative storytelling that connects me with friends. Reading isn’t procrastination - it’s how I learn and grow.

The problem isn’t having meaningless hobbies. The problem is having too many meaningful ones.

Traditional productivity gurus don’t account for this. They assume you’re scrolling TikTok for hours, not trying to choose between legitimate creative pursuits. When all your interests have value, choosing becomes paralyzing.

The Chronic Illness Factor

Then there’s the reality most productivity advice ignores completely: chronic illness.

I spend four hours, three days a week, lying in a bed with needles in my left arm. I can’t move that arm. I can’t use both hands. I’m physically constrained in ways that make traditional “hustle culture” advice feel like a cruel joke.

My energy fluctuates wildly. Some afternoons after dialysis, I feel energetic. Other days, I’m completely drained. The days between treatments are usually my most productive, but that’s only four days a week at full capacity.

Most productivity experts have never had to plan their creative work around medical treatments. They’ve never had to factor in recovery time or energy management. Their advice assumes consistent daily energy levels that simply don’t exist for people like me.

The Consumption Trap

This is where YouTube becomes dangerous.

When you’re tired, when you’re overwhelmed by choices, when you’re physically limited, consumption becomes the path of least resistance. Watching someone else code feels productive without requiring the energy that actual coding demands. Food videos scratch the cooking itch without the meal planning overhead.

I recently watched a video that hit hard (see The Habit that forces your brain to stop consuming). The creator talked about how our brains crave novelty and dopamine, and social media provides artificial hits of both. But creation provides them in more sustainable, meaningful doses.

The insight was powerful: shift from being a consumer to being a contributor.

But here’s what the video didn’t address - what happens when your ability to contribute is limited by physical constraints? What happens when you have the drive to create but not always the energy or physical capacity?

Adapted Strategies

The solution isn’t to eliminate interests or ignore physical limitations. It’s to work smarter with the energy and time you actually have.

Work with your energy patterns, not against them. My most productive days are the in-between days. Instead of feeling guilty about low-energy days, I’ve started planning for them. Dialysis days are for rest, planning, and light consumption that feeds future creation.

Batch similar activities. Meal planning happens on Sundays. Coding happens in focused blocks on high-energy days. RPG prep gets batched with other reading activities.

Combine interests strategically. What if I coded tools for my RPG campaigns? What if I built meal planning apps? What if I listened to coding podcasts while prepping ingredients?

Make consumption serve creation. Instead of random YouTube videos, I queue up content that feeds my active projects. iOS development tutorials during dialysis recovery time. Cooking videos during meal planning sessions.

Use constraints to make decisions. The physical limitation of one-handed iPad use during dialysis actually clarifies what activities are possible. The energy limitation of post-dialysis afternoons helps prioritize what matters most.

It’s Not About Choosing Less

The traditional productivity advice of “just focus on one thing” doesn’t work when you’re a creative person with multiple meaningful interests. And it definitely doesn’t work when chronic illness adds layers of complexity to your energy management.

The real solution is learning to work with your constraints instead of fighting them. Your limitations aren’t failures - they’re data points that help you make better decisions about how to spend your energy.

I’m still working on this. Some days I still end up in YouTube rabbit holes instead of making progress on projects that matter. But I’m getting better at recognizing when that’s happening and why.

The goal isn’t perfect productivity. It’s sustainable creativity within the reality of the life you actually have, not the life productivity gurus assume you’re living.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is take a nap.