Creating my productivity system
Funny to write about improving my productivity after the most recent posts shitting on it. But writing about something helps me think it through.
(A warning: this post is not polished, and is mostly a mind dump.)
My current challenges
I have a lot of different roles - Business owner, writer, stylist, on top of other roles I aspire to have such as artist.
I work mostly alone - I currently can’t delegate a lot of things.
My criteria for a system to get things done
It should be simple
It should be accessible on the go
It shouldn’t require a lot of special tech or tools
The process I’m going to be using
I’ve stolen bits and pieces of from GTD, Cal Newport’s Trello concepts, and Khe’s $10k work.
Sketch of me trying to workout my system
Summary of the system
Main components:
Capture inboxes - You should always have a place to capture tasks, notes, recommendations, appointments, etc so you don’t have to rely on your memory.
Sort & Clear - Set aside a recurring time to sort what’s in your inboxes into the appropriate App (Trello, Pinboard, Notion) The goal is to clear the inboxes at the end of each day or week. This is where you can decide if something is even worth doing.
Assign & Do - Now you can go through each app is assign the tasks to a date to complete.
My pinned Inbox note. A mix of random thoughts, quotes, client tasks to do, post ideas, etc
My capture inboxes
Most recommend having 1 digital and 1 analog “inbox” to capture things (e.g. an App and a notebook you carry around.)
I mainly use a pinned note in my Notes app titled “📬 INBOX.”
If I ever do jot something down on paper, I usually almost immediately add it to the inbox note.
In the rare occasion I write something down on paper because my phone is dead/not with me, I’ll put it in my inbox note the first moment I get.
As you can see in the screenshot of my inbox note above, what I capture is all over the place.
Sorting & The Apps
I found that things I write into my inbox fall into 3 categories.
Things I need to do (e.g. client requests, doctors appointment, reach out to landlord)
Recommendations (e.g. a good keyboard, bar rec, book to read)
Information/ideas (e.g. idea for a blog post, doc I need to write for freelancers, etc)
I narrowed down 3 apps to organize these:
Within Trello
I have boards for each of my main roles:
Personal - For anything related to my personal life. Important dates for my wife, doctor appointments, stuff I need to do around the house
Personal stylist - For client work
The Essential Man - Admin biz things, freelancer work, writing, digital courses/products
I’ll create boards for temporary projects - For example, I’m currently planning a book. So I created a board for that.
Within each board, I use a version of Cal Newport’s column categories
Queue - My version of Cal Newport’s “Backburner” column. Basically tasks for that role that haven’t been assigned yet.
Figure out - Tasks where I can’t move forward without something specific
Waiting to hear back - A task where I’m waiting for someone to complete something before I can move forward (e.g. waiting for a client to schedule a call)
This week - Tasks that MUST be done this week
Today - Tasks that must be done today
Done - Tasks that I’ve completed
Sunday review of coming week’s tasks - Spend 30 mins Sunday morning and move tasks to “This week.”
Do the task - I do the tasks in the appropriate time blocks in my calendar
Pinboard
Pinboard & Notion
For Pinboard items - I’ll add anything from the Inbox and tag it. I’ll assign a task in Trello to review certain things. (E.g. I might add a Trello task to book a reservation for our anniversary with a note to review pinboard restaurant recs.)
For Notion - I’ll assign a task in Trello to create a Notion entry in the appropriate Role board in Trello.
Time blocking calendar
I find I work best with time blocks. I found I need a good amount of time to get into work mode, and I need long stretches of mostly uninterrupted time to work on something.
Current schedule and blocks:
~6-7am: Wake & Breakfast
~7-10am: Deep writing block: Daily journaling and personal blog
10am-3pm: TEM block - either client or writing time
~3:00-4:00: Admin (Emails, etc)
~4-4:30pm: Trello processing
4:30-6:00pm: Gym
I’ll update on how this is working for me over the next few months.
