Here is another post on productivity. I decided to start a newsletter which will allow me to write shorter posts (all about productivity), so please subscribe if you are interested in the topics I write about (fee email newsletter).
We all struggle sometimes with getting on top of all the things we have to take care of at work and at home. We often forget birthdays, we forget to get the car cleaned before a trip, we even forget to reply to that important email. Some of you might think that it is impossible to remember everything without constantly being worried and constantly reviewing all areas of your life. Well, there might be a better way.
People have been talking about different productivity techniques, with the GTD (Getting Things Done) being the most famous one. These techniuques promise to help you get your life under control. From my experience, they work. But still, you need to make sure that you don’t get lost in these techniques and that you adopt only the parts that are needed for your life. And then, even though you know what you have to do, sometimes it is equally important to know how to do it.
I believe that the most important step is to put together a productivity system (notice the difference between system and technique), that will allow you to focus on the tasks and not to worry about missing anything. Let’s first explain the difference between systems and techniques. Techniques include a set of steps that one should take to make increase their productivity and never forget a task. Systems include tools (digital or analog) that allow you to efficiently apply the beforementioned techniques.
I am a big believer in digital tools. There are multiple reasons for that. First, in the world that we live in there is a much higher probability that you will have your phone with you compared to having a pen and paper. Second, you can access your digital assets from anywhere (assuming they are stored in the cloud), whereas your paper notes are always left behind (at work, at home, in the car). Third, and probably the most important reason is the integration and correlation between you notes, tasks, projects and events. If you have multiple tools that don’t work together very well (or even worse if everything is on paper), you will end up double booking events, having multiple overlapping deadlines and overcommitting when you really shouldn’t.
Here is a list of tools that you need for an effective productivity system:
- Calendar app
- Communications app (email, slack, teams)
- Task management app
- Note taking app
- Cloud storage (file management system)
In the next few posts we will talk in more detail about how to choose and configure every tool from the list to make sure that you are getting the most out of it. We will also talk about how to implement different productivity techniques in this digital system that we will build together, so that you stop worrying about what you have to do and focus your energy on doing the most important tasks.
