My productivity system
A lot of people ask how I keep on top of everything I do so I decided to sit down and document my system. It's nothing fancy, and I'm not here to pitch it – I'm just sharing what works for me in case it sparks something for you.
Task management
I use Google Tasks since I basically live in Google Workspace, but any tool that lets you organize tasks visually in columns (Kanban-style) will work.
My task inbox is divided in 4 columns. I try to add everything immediately, because my memory is not what it used to be. Here's how they are labeled:
- Discover: Stuff that I want or need to learn more about. Could be tutorial, documentation, an article I'm curious about or just a simple skill I need to acquire. Each one goes with a link for an easy access.
- Decide: This column holds anything that needs a decision or a judgement call – things I'd rather let ferment a little before acting on.
- Depend: If somebody depends on me or I depend on them I write a task in this column. This gives it the right sense of attention and I make sure to keep it clean so I'm not blocking anyone.
- Do: These are tasks that are clear to be worked on. Along with Discover this is usually my longest column. If there's related document I link it in the description so I can quickly get started.
Every task is written as short as possible, prefixed by a project and has to start with a verb – for example “Personal: Pickup dry cleaning”.
Weekly planning
I keep weekly prioritized tasks in two columns:
- Weekly Fill: Tasks that I cannot wait to do – fun, interesting and engaging, these most certainly will boost my motivation
- Weekly Drain: Tasks I have to do, but will probably drain my energy
Every Sunday evening I select the tasks I would like to complete the following week. This reduces my end of the weekend anxiety (hello Sunday blues) and ensures that on Monday morning I'm ready to roll.
First I go through my email and calendar and make sure I add relevant tasks to the inbox columns. Then I start prioritise the tasks and move them to the weekly backlog.
I try to select a good mix of items related to work, personal interests, volunteering, art and always make space for some reading or learning.
At the end of this process I star the 3 to 5 really important things I want to complete next week. The whole ritual takes about 15 minutes and feels great once I'm done.
Daily planning
Every morning right after I brush my teeth I sit down with the laptop and select the tasks for the day. Again I try to have a good mix of personal and work-related tasks to make sure I don't fall behind with any. I track the important starred tasks, sometimes I split something into smaller sub-tasks, then I order everything according to my calendar and my energy levels expected for the day.
For example: If I have a lot of meetings I select mostly shorter and energizing tasks. This way I can re-charge my batteries between all calendar events and complete the day with feeling of accomplishment.
As I complete tasks I uncheck them immediately and several times a day I re-arrange the list according to new information, schedule or remaining energy.
Task cleanup
At least once per month (usually on a weekend morning) I read all items in all columns and delete these that are no longer relevant or change them to a more appropriate column.
How do I find new things for the Discover column?
I have a Mailbrew account and every morning I set it up to receive the top 10 posts from HN and Lobsters. Every Saturday morning I get a longer newsletter with links to longer reading, interesting art and weekly recap of blogs I enjoy reading. I also started using RSS again (my client of choice is NetNewsWire). Since I practice inbox zero it's easy to add all the new stuff in the morning, right before I get started working.
That's it! I've been refining this system for the past couple of years and I'm pretty happy with it. I don't get to complete all my tasks every day, but most of the days I do and the feeling of seeing the Drain column get smaller is really great.