There’s a quote attributed to Jean-Paul Sartre that stopped me in my tracks recently:
“The coward loves systems that excuse him from responsibility.”
It’s an uncomfortable line. It’s meant to be. Sartre wasn’t critiquing productivity tools or workflows—he was diagnosing a human impulse: the desire to offload responsibility for our choices onto something external. A role. A rule. A structure. A system.
That impulse is alive and well today—especially in how we relate to time.
We live in an age overflowing with productivity systems. Some are thoughtful. Some are genuinely helpful. Many are marketed with the same quiet promise: follow this and you’ll be fine. Do the steps. Trust the framework. Stay inside the lines.
And when things don’t work? The system absorbs the blame. Or we assume we “didn’t implement it correctly.” Either way, responsibility slips sideways.
That’s the temptation Sartre was pointing at—not systems themselves, but what we do with them.
Systems Aren’t the Problem. Abdication Is.
A system can support responsibility—or it can replace it.
When a system becomes a substitute for judgment, it starts to hollow us out. It decides what matters, tells us what to prioritize, and offers certainty where discernment should live. At that point, the system stops being a tool and starts becoming an excuse.
This isn’t a call to abandon structure. It’s a reminder that structure is supposed to serve agency—not eliminate it.
The Difference Between Following and Choosing
Many productivity systems are built to be followed. That’s not inherently bad. But following is not the same thing as choosing. That’s because choosing requires presence. It asks:
- What matters right now?
- What deserves my best attention?
- What am I avoiding by staying busy?
- What does a good day actually mean to me?
No system—no matter how well designed—can answer those questions on your behalf. When we let one try, we trade responsibility for relief. And relief is often temporary.
Why Responsibility Feels Heavy
Responsibility gets a bad reputation because it’s often framed as burden. But what makes it heavy is avoidance, not ownership.
When responsibility is claimed—rather than outsourced—it becomes clarifying. It restores authorship. It keeps us in relationship with our time instead of hiding behind methods and metrics.
That kind of engagement is less comfortable than compliance. It doesn’t offer certainty. It doesn’t eliminate friction. And it doesn’t promise results if you just “stick with it.”
What it offers is honesty.
Systems as Support, Not Shelter
Used well, systems can create space, reduce noise, and support better decisions. Used poorly, they become shelters—places to hide from ambiguity, judgment, and choice.
The difference isn’t in the system itself. It’s in whether we’re using it to support responsibility or to escape it.
A Question Worth Sitting With
Sartre’s quote lingers because it doesn’t accuse—it reveals.
So the question isn’t whether you use productivity systems. It’s this: Are they helping you engage more deliberately with your time… or quietly letting you off the hook?
