We all know those leaders who seem to always be maximizing their time and learning nonstop. There’s no new book they haven’t read or a trending article they haven’t already filed in their read-it-later queue. Name the acronym, and they’ll tell you its meaning—even if you just made it up. If this hits too close to home for you, you might be due for an intervention to cut back on your productivity porn habit. (By the way, I am using this term because it seems to be firmly embedded in today’s common jargon, and I couldn’t easily come up with a suitable alternative and so couldn’t ChatGPT. I hope no one finds this offensive.)

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We Just Want Some Control

Admittedly, I’d rather work with an executive that tends to read and learn more than those who are indifferent and seem to believe there’s nothing more for them to learn. There’s nothing wrong with the concept of continuous learning, per se. The problem arises when this turns into a mindless activity that, in turn, makes you feel like you’re doing better than you actually are.

For many leaders I worked with, this obsession seemed related to the need to feel in control. Maybe it’s because you have impostor syndrome or are too afraid of letting any mistake happen. The result is that some people attempt to learn everything possible to get “certainty.” Unfortunately, there’s only so much progress one can make consuming material.

Aim for Actionability

The problem is that there’s a clear cap to how much one can effectively learn and implement. If your goal is to improve, you will gain a lot more from consuming less and spending that time doing things. For example, reading three business, leadership, and self-help books a month is probably a waste. You’d be much better off reading one while meticulously writing down action items and acting on them.

Ultimately, if you amass knowledge and never put it into practice, you gain a fake sense of your ability that is not rooted in the real world. It’s like no matter how many chess streamers I watch on YouTube, I don’t improve as much as I do when I actually play games and analyze them afterward.

So, if you want to become a better leader, start by dieting. Consume less productivity- and leadership-oriented material and aim to always have something actionable. And yes, I am saying that as someone with a weekly article, podcast, video, and another book out. Each of those tends to have an immediate action item. Can you tell the one from this article?