Is There a Simpler Approach to a Personal Productivity System?

This is the first in a series of posts about my search for a simple, lightweight approach to personal productivity.

You've probably tried at least a few (or more) apps and approaches designed to help you manage your important projects and tasks. And based on my experience as a coach working with some highly-productive people, you're likely to be open or very open to changing your personal productivity system at any given time.

There's always bound to be a better way. Right?

It's very tempting to consider new tools and methods for personal productivity given how many options are available. There's Getting Things Done (aka GTD), time blocking, bullet journaling, and kanban boards. And there's no shortage of tools to choose from, whether it's more basic options like Apple Reminders, Google Tasks, Microsoft To Do, and Things 3 or more capable apps like Asana, ClickUp, OmniFocus, Todoist, and Trello. And then there are AI-enabled newcomers like Motion and KosmoTime that make managing your workload seem like pure fun. Except for bullet journaling and Motion, I've tried all of them at one time or another. And I'm not sure how long I can hold out before I give Motion a test run.

Should I be proud of that? Probably not. 

When a personal productivity system falls short

I think a lucky few find a productivity system — however that might be defined — that works for them over the long term. More often than not, the people I come into contact with run headlong into one or more of the following problems:

Problem 1: Their jobs and lives outgrow their productivity systems, and things start falling through the cracks.

Problem 2: Their productivity systems grow in size and complexity until the time and effort required to maintain them become unmanageable.

Problem 3: The ever-increasing bells and whistles of their productivity systems become confusing, and, over time, they forget how to use some of them, leading to errors and inconsistencies.

I've experienced all three of the problems I just mentioned on more than a few occasions. Maybe you have, too.

Has your work or life ever changed or evolved to the point where the systems you've traditionally relied on to stay organized are no longer supporting you and your work? Has your project or task management system ever gotten so weighed down with dozens of 'projects' and an endlessly scrolling list of tasks that the thought of even looking at it is more than you can bear? Or perhaps your once ingenious system of folders, projects, flags, and labels now ends up confusing you more than it clarifies. And forgetting to apply the right flag or label to the right task risks having it submerge into a bubbling cauldron of to-dos, never to be seen again.

If any of these scenarios sounds familiar and you're feeling overwhelmed by your list of projects and to-dos, or worse, you're missing deadlines and not achieving goals, then maybe it's time to find a new way.

Can personal productivity be easier?

My own personal productivity system has been pretty high functioning for a while now. It's highly customized and does everything I need it to do. It even helps me forecast my workload, so I don't end up overcommitting to people and missing deadlines (a cardinal sin for a coach).

So what's the problem?

My highly-customized system is becoming too much work to maintain. Every improvement I've made has seemed to add a benefit. A new way to filter and view projects and tasks. Or a new and more refined way to predict my workload. Or a new and more accurate way to track the progress of a project or a client.

Maintaining a personal productivity system should be energizing, empowering, and calming. Too often... it can be a draining, discouraging, and anxiety-ridden experience.

But each of those improvements has increased the overhead of my system and the time required to maintain it. As a result, it has become less enjoyable to use, and the incremental benefit of each additional refinement now seems negative. I've run headlong into Problem #2 that I outlined above. And I started to dread using the system that was meant to keep me organized and make my work, and life, easier.

I recognize that you might not be as dedicated a productivity geek as I am, but you still may have a system that's become overly complex. Or perhaps you get lost in your system because you've never really defined it or mapped it out, which is a disordered version of complexity. Either way, you may have a productivity system that gets in the way of you achieving your goals rather than supporting you in pursuit of them.

Ideally, what I want (and what I bet you probably want, too) is a relatively simple productivity system that takes, at most, 15 minutes a day to maintain and, at most, an hour a week to review. I'm a big believer in both a daily and a weekly review, and I don't think I'm going to be changing my mind about that anytime soon. But I don't want my productivity system to lock me into reviewing dozens of projects every week, each with its own seemingly endless list of tasks.

I remember once hearing David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, being asked in an interview how long a weekly review should take. There was an uncomfortable pause, and then he hedged. "As long as it takes," he said. He sounded a little annoyed.

That's always bothered me. Your job and my job are not to manage a productivity system. I might enjoy doing it a little more than most, but still. There are limits.

Maintaining a personal productivity system should be energizing, empowering, and calming. Too often, especially when your system has naturally grown in size and complexity, it can be a draining, discouraging, and anxiety-ridden experience.

And it can take an awfully long time. I think that's what David Allen was trying to tell us.

A personal productivity system goal

I want a simple, lightweight approach to personal productivity for myself and to recommend to my clients and readers. It should be basic and universal enough that should my business and life evolve, as I'm sure they will, my system can evolve with them. Without too much fuss or the need to abandon tools I've used for years. And the time required to maintain the system should be reasonable. Granted, reasonable is a relative term. But I've already drawn a line in the sand at 15 minutes a day and 1 hour a week for reviews.

Switching approaches and productivity tools can be a costly endeavor. There's a learning curve, which slows you down, and you may have to invest some cash in new tech or tools. And invariably, data gets lost along the way. While I'm always willing  (more than the average person) to try new approaches and tools for productivity, it's not just a personal interest.

Clients often ask me for my recommendation regarding personal productivity and the tools that can provide some of the structure for an efficient and easy-to-maintain system. Having personally tried multiple approaches and tools is helpful. I know from my own experience the pros and cons of many of the options out there. I also have a better sense of which approach and tool might work for a client given what I've learned about their job, life, personality, and general approach to work.

What to expect in this series

So that's my goal: To find and adopt a simple, easier-to-maintain personal productivity system. For me, for my clients, and potentially for you. That's what I'll be covering in what I'm anticipating will be an occasional series of posts over the coming months.

I'll share more detail about how I knew it was time for a change in my approach to personal productivity. And I'll share what I try (or have tried) and how it works out.

And ultimately, I'll make a recommendation for a system that could potentially work for you, too, along with a set of tools that you might use to support it. That part about the tools will likely be just one solution in an array of potential solutions. Productivity tools are a tricky thing to pin down. Given differences in operating systems, company restrictions, and personal preferences, not every tool will work for every person. Instead, I'll plan to offer guidelines for what you might look for in productivity tools with a recommended set that I've found that works for me.

In the meantime, if you have any thoughts to share about your own struggle with personal productivity, email me. I'd love to hear about it. And if it's not your productivity system but your career direction and strategy that need a little work, consider some coaching time. It will be more energizing and inspiring than a multi-hour, weekly productivity system review. I promise.

Check out the other posts in this series:

When a GTD-Style Weekly Review of Your Projects and Tasks Takes Too Long

When (and How) Your Email Can Be a To-Do List

How to Use Due Dates Effectively for Project and Task Management