Introduction: Things Killing Your Productivity
We were three hours behind schedule on Going Home, my short film about a homeless woman’s chance encounter. The most emotional scene of the entire shoot—the one our actress had been preparing for all day—was dead in the water.
There was a hum. A low, persistent buzz that appeared every time we called action. We checked the fridge. The HVAC. The lights. We even asked our sound recordist if his hearing aid was interfering. Nothing worked.
My actress’s emotional readiness was evaporating. The crew was exhausted. And I had no idea what was killing our productivity until, in a moment of pure frustration, I noticed the DP’s monitor was still on.
We turned it off. The hum vanished.
It was electromagnetic interference from our own equipment. We’d lost three hours because we assumed the problem was external, not something we were doing to ourselves.
That’s productivity in a nutshell, isn’t it? Most of the time, we’re the ones sabotaging ourselves without even realizing it.
Whether you’re shooting a 48-hour film festival project like Noelle’s Package or just trying to get through your inbox without losing your mind, productivity isn’t about working harder. It’s about recognizing the small, stupid things you’re doing that are quietly destroying your focus.
Here are ten of them. I’ve done every single one.
1. Not Getting Enough Sleep (The Jello Brain Problem)
On day three of a fourteen-hour shoot, my brain turned to mush. I was standing behind the Sony A7III, staring at the monitor, and I couldn’t remember if we’d already shot the master or if I’d just imagined it. Everything took twice as long because I was operating on four hours of sleep.
Sleep deprivation doesn’t just make you tired—it makes you stupid. Research shows that losing even one hour of sleep negatively affects memory, attention, and motor coordination. For filmmakers, that means missed focus marks, forgotten shot lists, and asking your DP the same question three times.
You can’t edit your way out of bad decisions made on an exhausted brain.
What actually works:
- Block out 30 minutes during prep to just sit in silence. Not scrolling. Not planning. Just breathing.
- Set a sleep schedule and defend it like a shooting day. If your body needs seven hours, find those seven hours.
- Leave your phone in another room at night. The blue light kills melatonin production, which controls your sleep cycle.
- Build a realistic schedule. If you think you can accomplish twenty tasks in a day but only finish ten, you’re not being ambitious—you’re setting yourself up to burn out.
I learned this the hard way: The shot you miss because you’re too tired to think straight costs more than the extra hour of sleep would have.
2. Multi-Tasking (Or Why Your Brain Is Not A Multi-Cam Setup)
I used to pride myself on multi-tasking. I’d be answering emails during lunch, texting the producer about call times, and reviewing footage on my laptop—all at once.
Then I’d send the wrong email to the wrong person, forget what I’d just watched, and have to start over.
Your brain isn’t wired to focus on multiple things at once. It’s constantly switching between tasks, and every time it switches, there’s a cost. Studies show that multi-tasking can reduce productivity by up to 40% because of the time lost in context-switching.
Think of it like a Blackmagic Cinema 6K trying to process five 6K RAW clips simultaneously. It grinds to a halt.
On the set of Married & Isolated, I stopped multi-tasking entirely. One thing at a time. When we were blocking, I was only blocking. When we were lighting, I was only lighting. The result? We finished ahead of schedule for the first time in my career.
What actually works:
- Do one thing until it’s done. Then move to the next.
- If something urgent comes up, finish your current task first (unless it’s literally on fire).
- Batch similar tasks together—all emails at once, all shot list reviews at once.
Focus is a finite resource. Stop splitting it into useless fragments.
3. Not Staying Hydrated (The Silent Brain Killer)
This sounds absurd, but dehydration is one of the easiest ways to destroy your focus without realizing it. Research shows that as little as 1% dehydration negatively affects mood, attention, memory, and coordination.
On film sets, you’re moving fast, under hot lights, wearing noise-canceling headphones that make you forget the world exists. It’s easy to go six hours without drinking water.
Then you wonder why you can’t remember if you shot the close-up or why you’re suddenly irritable with your DP.
What actually works:
- Keep a water bottle within arm’s reach. I’m not selling you a smart bottle—just drink water.
- Set reminders on your phone if you have to.
- If you’re peeing dark yellow, you’re already behind.
Hydration isn’t glamorous, but neither is realizing you’ve been shooting out of focus for an hour because your brain was running on fumes.
4. Not Operating In The Right Conditions (The Construction Neighbor Problem)
I have a home office. It’s quiet, organized, and perfect for writing—until my neighbor decides to renovate his entire house at 8 a.m.
The minute the jackhammer starts, my productivity evaporates. I can’t focus. I can’t think. I end up staring at a blank page for two hours.
Your environment dictates your output. If you’re trying to edit a emotional scene in a loud coffee shop, you’re fighting a losing battle.
On Going Home, we shot the final scene in a small, quiet apartment specifically because we needed the actors to access vulnerable, raw emotion. If we’d been in a noisy location with traffic bleeding through the walls, the performances would have suffered.
What actually works:
- Identify what environment you need to do your best work. Silence? Background noise? Music?
- Protect that environment. If you need quiet, use noise-canceling headphones. If you need energy, work in a space with people.
- Don’t force yourself to work in conditions that don’t match the task.
You wouldn’t shoot a thriller in broad daylight. Don’t try to write a serious script in a chaotic environment.
5. Having A Disorganized Workspace (The Chaos Tax)
On the set of Noelle’s Package, we had 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit an entire short film. There was no time for chaos.
Every lens was labeled. Every cable was coiled. Every light had a designated spot. When we needed something, we knew exactly where it was.
That’s the only reason we finished on time.
Organization isn’t about being neat—it’s about eliminating the time you waste searching for things. Every minute spent looking for a lens cap is a minute you’re not shooting.
The same applies to your workspace. If your desk is covered in random cables, old scripts, and coffee cups from three days ago, you’re paying a chaos tax every time you sit down to work.
What actually works:
- Organize your workspace once, properly. Cable management, labeled folders, designated spots for gear.
- On set, follow the “radio silence” protocol: all non-essential electronics off during takes. (This would have saved me three hours on Going Home.)
- Create a pre-shoot checklist so you’re not scrambling to find things at 6 a.m.
Chaos creates friction. Friction kills momentum.
6. Not Prioritizing Email (The Inbox Black Hole)
Check your inbox right now. How many unread emails do you have? Ten? Fifty? Two hundred?
Email is a productivity black hole if you don’t have a system. You can spend your entire day responding to messages and accomplish nothing that actually moves your projects forward.
I used to check email whenever a notification popped up. It destroyed my focus. I’d be deep into editing a scene, see an email, check it, respond, and then realize I’d completely lost the emotional thread of what I was cutting.
What actually works:
- Schedule three blocks of time per day to deal with email. Morning, after lunch, and late afternoon.
- Unsubscribe from anything you don’t actively read.
- Use folders. If it’s billing, create a folder. If it’s from your producer, create a folder. Organization makes retrieval faster.
- Turn off email notifications entirely. They’re not urgent. They just feel urgent.
Email is a tool, not a task. Treat it like one.
7. Having Too Many Notifications (The Dopamine Trap)
I used to have notifications turned on for everything. Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. Every app I’d ever downloaded.
My phone would buzz, I’d check it, and suddenly twenty minutes had disappeared into a scroll hole.
The problem isn’t that notifications are distracting—it’s that our brains are wired to treat them as urgent. A notification feels like something important, even when it’s just someone liking a photo of your lunch.
On set, I keep my phone on airplane mode except for texts and calls from the crew. That’s it. No social media. No news alerts. Nothing.
What actually works:
- Turn off every notification except texts and calls.
- If you need to check social media, schedule it. Ten minutes in the morning, ten at lunch. That’s it.
- Remove apps you don’t actually need from your phone.
Your attention is finite. Stop giving it away to things that don’t deserve it.
8. Not Setting Boundaries (The 24/7 Trap)
If you’re thinking about work 24/7, you’re not being productive—you’re being counterproductive.
I used to answer emails at midnight. I’d take calls during weekends. I thought it made me professional.
It didn’t. It made me exhausted, resentful, and less creative when it actually mattered.
On the set of Married & Isolated, we shot a tense argument scene between a couple trapped in their apartment during COVID. The script had them pacing around, but it felt forced. In frustration, I had them sit on opposite ends of the couch and deliver the entire argument without moving.
The stillness was electric. The constraint forced authenticity.
The same applies to boundaries. When you limit your availability, you force yourself to work smarter, not longer.
What actually works:
- Set specific hours when you’re available for work communication. Outside those hours, you’re off.
- Communicate those boundaries to clients, collaborators, and crew. If they don’t respect them, they’re not worth working with.
- Schedule time for things you actually enjoy. Your brain needs rest to recharge.
Boundaries aren’t about being unavailable. They’re about protecting the time when you do your best work.
9. Working On Projects You Hate (The Eternity Problem)
Have you ever sat through a two-hour movie that felt like it lasted ten minutes? Or a 90-minute film that felt like an eternity?
When you enjoy something, time disappears. When you hate it, every second drags.
The same applies to work. If you’re grinding through projects you despise, your productivity will suffer—not because you’re lazy, but because your brain is screaming at you to stop.
I’ve worked on commercial projects I didn’t care about. They took twice as long as passion projects because I was constantly procrastinating, second-guessing, and resenting every minute.
When I’m working on something I love—like Going Home, a story I genuinely believed in—the work doesn’t feel like work. I’m faster, sharper, and more creative.
What actually works:
- Make a list of things that make you happy and things that make you miserable.
- Figure out which ones are realistic and attainable.
- Every day, do one thing that moves you toward work you actually care about.
You won’t change overnight. But in five years, look back and see what you’ve built. Make yourself proud.
10. Not Having A Plan (The Bottleneck Problem)
The biggest productivity killer isn’t lack of effort—it’s lack of direction.
On Noelle’s Package, we had a massive constraint: 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit a complete film. Our success came from one decision made in the first five minutes.
We had to shoot an office holiday party in my producer’s cramped apartment. There was no time to make it look like an office. Instead of fighting it, we wrote the limitation into the script: “Wow, Jerry, your apartment makes a sadder office than our actual office.”
That line got the biggest laugh in the film. And it saved us three hours of futile set decoration.
The lesson? A constraint with a plan is better than unlimited resources without one.
Most bottlenecks happen because you’re trying to figure out the plan while executing it. You spin your wheels, waste time, and accomplish nothing.
What actually works:
- Before starting any task, write down the plan. Even if it’s just three bullet points.
- Identify potential bottlenecks before they happen. What could go wrong? Plan for it.
- Embrace constraints. They force creative solutions faster than unlimited options ever will.
You can spend hours thinking about how to do something. Or you can spend five minutes planning, then execute.
The Real Problem With Productivity
Here’s the thing about productivity: It’s not about doing more. It’s about doing less—but better.
On Going Home, I lost three hours because I assumed the problem was external. It wasn’t. It was our own gear causing interference.
On Noelle’s Package, we succeeded because we leaned into our limitations instead of fighting them.
On Married & Isolated, the most powerful scene came from doing less—two actors, one couch, no movement.
Productivity isn’t about grinding harder. It’s about recognizing the small, stupid things you’re doing that waste your time, drain your focus, and kill your momentum.
Sleep enough. Focus on one thing at a time. Organize your space. Set boundaries. Work on things you actually care about.
And for the love of film, turn off your notifications.
Your future self—three hours into a shoot, exhausted, and wondering why nothing is working—will thank you.
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About the Author:
Trent Peek is a filmmaker specializing in directing, producing, and acting. He works with high-end cinema cameras from RED and ARRI and also values the versatility of cameras like the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema.
His recent short film “Going Home” was selected for the 2024 Soho International Film Festival, highlighting his skill in crafting compelling narratives. Learn more about his work on [IMDB], [YouTube], [Vimeo], and [Stage 32].
In his downtime, he likes to travel (sometimes he even manages to pack the right shoes), curl up with a book (and usually fall asleep after two pages), and brainstorm film ideas (most of which will never see the light of day). It’s a good way to keep himself occupied, even if he’s a bit of a mess at it all.
P.S. It’s really weird to talk in the third person
Tune In: He recently appeared on the Pushin Podcast, sharing insights into the director’s role in independent productions.
For more behind-the-scenes content and project updates, visit his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@trentalor.
For business inquiries, please get in touch with him at trentalor@peekatthis.com. You can also find Trent on Instagram @trentalor and Facebook @peekatthis.
