A letter from Aza
Why I built Listval
I’ve completed thousands of tasks in my life. Thousands of checkmarks, streak milestones, productivity wins. And I still felt like something was missing.
I was optimizing
for completion,
not alignment.
I would crush my task list on Monday, but if half those tasks didn’t reflect what I cared about, what was the point? Deep down, I knew the difference between being busy and being productive.
That’s when something shifted.
I started writing down what mattered to me, my core values rather than surface-level goals. The things that are hard and tiring and paradoxically give me more fuel and energy. Purpose. People I love. Growth. Creativity.
Then I made a simple choice: I would only commit to tasks that fed one of those values.
The results
They weren’t dramatic at first. But they were real.
A week later
I noticed I had called people I care about more.
Two weeks in
I had started a project I had abandoned months ago.
A month later
I realized I had more energy, more clarity, and less guilt.
My workload stayed the same, but every task mattered.
Values aren’t
set-it-and-forget-it.
They need consistency. They need you to show up. And when you neglect them, you feel it.
That tension is an alarm bell. That’s the signal that says: “This is who you want to be, and right now, you’re not working towards that.”
And now, productivity feels like honesty rather than willpower. It feels like becoming who you want to be.
I built Listval around this idea because I believe productivity should be personal, not performative. It’s about who you want to be.
Thanks,
Aza
Listval on iPhone and iPad
