$8 jar trick actually fixed my productivity anxiety (stolen idea but it works)

okay so this isn't my idea but I saw someone post about it and honestly? I tried it and it actually works

So apparently someone bought a cheap glass jar from Target for like 8 bucks and started throwing pieces of paper in it every time they finished literally anything. And I mean ANYTHING like answered one email? Paper goes in. Finally called the dentist after avoiding it forever? Things like that.

I was kinda skeptical but I grabbed a jar and gave it a shot and ngl it's been helping me a lot.

Here's the part that clicked for me


the original person said their real problem wasn't that they sucked at getting stuff done. It was that their brain would just... forget about everything they actually finished? Like they'd be freaking out about the million things left to do and completely ignore the stuff they already crushed that day.

And yeah that's exactly what happens to me too. So now when I'm spiraling and feeling useless, I can actually SEE this jar getting fuller and it genuinely helps me calm down.


The weirdly satisfying part:

Dropping the paper in feels way better than just tapping a screen. There's something about that little physical action that actually makes your brain go "yeah okay I did that thing."

I had tried productivity stuff like (fancy planners, app subscriptions, all that) but this jar has been working better than everything else I've tried lmao

When it gets full you're supposed to dump it all out and read through everything. I haven't gotten there yet but I'm looking forward to it.

Why I'm sharing this:

Most productivity advice is just here's how to plan better"but this is more like hey remember you're not actually as useless as you think. For anyone who does a ton of stuff but still feels like you got nothing done? This might actually help.

Anyone else tried something like this or have other weird tricks that work?