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Ultimate Personal Management Systems
Setting Up A Productivity System
Your system must mimic how your brain searches rather than setting up a new task that you must learn. This way, it will be easy to adopt, adapt and you will continue to use it in the long run.
You don’t want to spend time thinking about a system and setting it up only to stop using it. Or – even worse – make you do additional steps every time.
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Personal Management Systems
They are frameworks that ensure everything fulfills the tasks required.
For example: using a shopping list, so you won’t forget what to pick at the supermarket. Some use apps designed for that purpose, others go for pen and paper. Everyone is trying to get the same output - remembering what to buy at the supermarket.
Setting Up A Productivity System
Your system must mimic how your brain searches rather than setting up a new task that you must learn. This way, it will be easy to adopt, adapt and you will continue to use it in the long run.
You don’t want to spend time thinking about a system and setting it up only to stop using it. Or – even worse – make you do additional steps every time.
Golden Rules For A Great System
At its very core a productivity system must check 3 main points:
- Searchable: find anything in 5 seconds or less
- Easy to set up: the simpler the system the easier it will be to set it up; aim for less than one hour
- Easy to maintain: don’t add complexity as you go, instead try to remove layers.
Identifying The Problem
What pain are you trying to solve? It could be spending less money, making decisions faster or eliminating decisions at all. Whatever it is, make sure you know it: you will build your system around it.
The bigger the pain the more you will use your system.
Setting A System For The First Time
The easiest hack is to follow the 80/20 rule: Focus 20% of your efforts on 80% of the items so you clear the way to work on things that demand your attention. Those are the 20% of items which are the really important ones.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Idea
Adapting to context
Different types of information demand different styles of note-taking. There are lots of reasons to take notes: to retain information, to capture ideas, to problem solve or brainstorm, to visualiz...
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Key Ideas
The Outline/List
Is a linear method of taking notes that proceeds down the page, using indentation or bullets to denote major and minor points.
Pros: it records content relationship in a way tha...
The Sentence Method
The goal is to jot down your thoughts as quickly as possible. Format is kept to a minimum: every new thought is written on a new line.
Pros: Is like free writing for notes.
Cons: lack organization and notes can be hard to understand.
Works for: meetings or lectures that lack organization; when information is presented very quickly.
SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review)
- Skim the material for bolded text, images, summaries, to produce a list of headlines;
- Each headline is then written in the form of a question;
- Record your “answers” to the reading questions under each corresponding header;
- Once you’ve finished reading the text, write a summary of the material from memory—this is the “recite” part of the process.
- Finally, review your notes to make sure you’ve completely grasped the concepts.
Works for: dense written material.
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Key Ideas
By the hour
This works well for the chronic procrastinator: those who say they will do it later and then wonder why it never gets done.
Instead of getting overwhelmed, tackle your to-do l...
The Pomodoro Method
Rather than trying to work flat-out, break down your day into a series of work-sprints with a short rest period after each session.
Set a timer for 25 min and focus exclusively on your work for that time, take a 5 min break, and repeat.
Some people find that taking a 5 min break destroys their flow. But it does help to break long complex tasks into a series on manageable sprints.
The 2-minute rule
The 2-minute rule is a strategy for quickly assessing and taking action on small tasks so they don’t take up too much mental energy.
Ask yourself if a task is going to take you 2 minutes or less. If so, just do it.
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