The modern workplace is saturated with productivity advice. From apps and planners to frameworks and performance systems, professionals are encouraged to optimize every minute of their day. Yet burnout continues to rise, especially among mid career professionals. This contradiction raises an uncomfortable question. What if productivity culture itself is the problem?

Michael Gardon addresses this directly in Just Leave Me Alone So I Can Work.

Rather than blaming individuals for poor time management, he argues that productivity culture focuses on output while ignoring the conditions required for meaningful work. Efficiency tools help people stay busy, but they rarely help them think.

In many organizations, productivity has become synonymous with responsiveness.

Fast replies, full calendars, and visible activity are rewarded, even when they produce little long term value. Knowledge work, however, depends on focus, reflection, and sustained attention. These qualities are incompatible with constant interruption.

Gardon’s insights come from lived experience.

While working across corporate and startup environments, he experimented with popular productivity systems and found that they increased activity without improving results. What changed outcomes was not doing more, but removing distractions and commitments that diluted attention.

This is where time sovereignty becomes critical.

Instead of optimizing tasks, Gardon suggests redesigning workdays around focus. This includes limiting meetings, setting expectations around response times, and protecting blocks of uninterrupted work. While these practices may appear countercultural, they align more closely with how high value work is actually created.

Productivity culture often frames exhaustion as a personal failure. Gardon reframes it as a systemic issue. When work environments demand constant availability, burnout is not a weakness. It is an inevitable outcome. Doing less is not laziness. In many cases, it is the most professional choice available.