How I Fixed My Burnout With a Complete Productivity Reset 🔥

Six months ago I was completely burned out. I was juggling too many jobs, multiple projects, and honestly, I felt like I was drowning in my own productivity system. So I made some changes. Not just to my apps, but to my entire approach to work and life. It completely turned things around.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by everything on your plate, this might change how you think about productivity for good.

Burnout isn't about being busy 🎯

Burnout is about feeling like you've lost control over your time, your priorities, and your life. And for someone who reviews productivity apps for a living, admitting my system wasn't working was pretty humbling.

But sometimes the best solutions come from the worst situations.

Here's where I was six months ago:

• ✅ Tasks scattered across multiple apps
• ✅ Meetings bleeding into each other
• ✅ No clear boundaries between work and personal time
• ✅ A constant feeling of being behind

If that sounds familiar, the problem probably isn't that you don't have enough productivity tools. It's that you've got too many, and none of them are working together.

The reset 💡

The turning point came when I realised I needed to completely reset. Instead of trying to do everything, I needed to focus on doing just the right things well. And to do that, I needed a proper break.

So I booked a trip to Vietnam and did a complete digital detox. When I came back, I rebuilt everything from scratch.

The apps that actually changed things

Fantastical: the "freedom calendar" 📅

I know calendar apps sound boring, but hear me out.

The game changer wasn't just viewing multiple calendars in one place. It was creating a new calendar I called a freedom calendar. Instead of only putting meetings and deadlines in there, I started blocking out focus time for all the mundane stuff you never normally account for: checking emails, admin, the repeat tasks that eat your day without ever making it onto a to-do list.

I invited my work account to those blocked-out events, so my work calendar got blocked out too. That meant people couldn't drop meetings into that space, and the time was always protected.

The effect: repeat tasks moved out of my to-do list, where everything feels like a chore you have to find time for, and into my calendar, where the time is already mine.

Things 3: cutting active projects down to three 📁

I was already using Things 3 with the PARA method (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive), where every active project got its own list.

The problem was volume. I had 10 to 15 active projects on the go at any one time.

Now I run two sections: active projects and holding projects. I got this idea from Slow Productivity by Cal Newport, and the rule is simple: a maximum of three active projects at any time.

Everything else sits in holding until one of the three active projects is finished.

This single change probably had the biggest impact on my stress levels out of everything here.

Apple Notes: for capturing, nothing else 💬

For thoughts and ideas, I simplified down to just Apple Notes. No fancy formatting, no complex systems. If I have a thought, it goes straight in. I review it regularly and file it into a folder from there.

Sometimes simple really is better.

Streaks: habit tracking that sticks ✅

I started using Streaks again for habit tracking, and it's genuinely helped me build better habits around the things that matter for my wellbeing: morning routine, exercise, proper breaks. Small daily actions that compound over time.

Claude AI: the real game changer 🚀

The biggest shift has been building master prompts for repetitive tasks inside Claude, using Projects to keep everything organised: email templates, content planning, meeting prep.

Instead of reinventing the wheel every time, I've got refined prompts that handle the heavy lifting. If I need to reply to an email, I drop it into the relevant project, tell Claude how I want to respond, and it nails the tone almost every time.

It takes upfront effort to build these prompts properly. But once they're built, they save serious time every single time you reuse them.

The technical setup behind it all

Meeting transcription: I use an AI transcription tool on Mac to record and transcribe meetings automatically. Instead of frantically taking notes, I can actually be present in the conversation and get a clean summary afterwards.

Apple Shortcuts: Massive for one-tap solutions to things I do constantly. Starting a focus playlist, turning on my VPN for work. Small friction points, but removing them throughout the day adds up to real mental energy saved.

Focus playlists: Specific Apple Music playlists for different types of work. Lo-fi for deep work, house for more energetic tasks.

Three iOS focus modes:

• 🌅 Planner - for morning and evening routines, minimum notifications
• 🔔 Low interruptions - small interruptions allowed, only from relevant people
• 🚫 Deep work - nothing gets through, activated automatically via the Forest app when I start a focus timer

A deliberately boring home screen: Clear icons, minimal colour stimulation, widgets showing only essential information, and every app I don't use regularly deleted. The goal is making your phone a tool, not a source of distraction.

A stripped-back Control Centre: One page, only the toggles I actually use, positioned where I can reach them easily.

A few honest caveats ✅

A lot of this is Apple ecosystem specific. There are Android and Windows equivalents out there if you're not on iOS, and Things 3 has plenty of good alternatives.

The subscription costs add up too. Premium calendar and task apps, plus AI subscriptions, aren't cheap to run together. But compared to the cost of burnout on your health and happiness, it's been worth every penny for me.

And it's not a quick fix. It took about a month to fully implement everything, and another month to really feel the benefits. I spent a good chunk of my time off actually thinking through what would work for me, not just installing apps.

Some of this might not work for you exactly as described. But hopefully it inspires your own version of it.

The real takeaway

The key insight here isn't any single app. It's about creating boundaries, limiting active projects, and designing your tools to serve your goals instead of creating more chaos.

Productivity isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things with less stress. And sometimes that means saying no to a lot of good opportunities to focus on the few great ones.