Figure out if the productivity system you're using is actually working
Maintaining a system and the system actually producing results are different things, and maintenance is easier to notice.
- Use it for
- Anyone who's been using a task or productivity system for a while and wants an honest check on whether it's still earning its keep.
A productivity system — a task manager, a specific method, a particular app — can be maintained faithfully, every task logged and every review done, without actually producing better outcomes than no system at all, because faithful use and real effectiveness get conflated. Keeping the ritual going feels like progress even when the actual results — things getting done, less stuff falling through cracks — haven't meaningfully improved. This prompt checks the real outcomes, not just adherence to the system.
When not to use this
If you're still early in adopting a new system, this check is premature — give it enough time to actually show whether it changes outcomes.
Did this work?
You know specifically whether the system is producing real outcomes or just being faithfully maintained, and if it's the latter, what specifically to change.
Tested on claude-opus-5. Evidence status is draft; it moves to battle-tested only on recorded runs, never by hand.