I take full responsibility for the role I played in equating personal productivity with a tidy todo list and an empty inbox. But those are not what makes someone productive.
Keeping a tidy todo list, calendar & inbox are practices that help some people (like me) get the stuff done they say they will when they say they will. That's about being reliable and meeting obligations.
But taken to an extreme, email Tetris and todo list cross-offs are a busywork distraction from what you should actually be doing with your life and time.