Counterbalance your worst tendencies

A system shapes your existing motivations. It cannot give you motivation.

Many failures of productivity are a deeper problem of meaning and mission in life. People that tend to succeed with productivity systems already have meaning.

Any system is designed using a particular set of assumptions about your work. The assumptions need to fit your situation.

For instance, the weekly/daily goals system works well when you have a number of concrete tasks to complete. But if your tasks are open-ended or contain only one ta...

The idea of a productivity system is to organize the stuff you need to do.

There are many systems out there. But you may have no idea which system to pick. You may start well, but the system you've chosen may begin to choke you because it doesn't fit quite right. Eventuall...

A good productivity system should be productive, not just feel productive. A good productivity system that is working effectively should not feel like anything. It should just be holding up your routine.

• Feelings are not an absolute measurement. Relying on feeling pr...

When you're evaluating a productivity system, the right measurement to make is to find out if you're getting more done than you did last week/month/year.

Don't compare yourself against a theoretical possibility. Instead, compare yourself against your own past results.

Every system will create situations where it no longer makes sense to follow its guidelines. Then one should find a way of handling the exceptions without losing track of the original system.

• Ask if the exception to the basic rules helps you to buffer against an unproductive tenden...