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belabee · 5 years

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Productivity Master Post

So, I realized recently that I’ve tried a lot of different things to try to manage my executive dysfunction. Not all of them have worked for me and some of them I’ve tried and love but can’t find a way to make it actually fit into my general life schedule, or tried and didn’t really like at all.

I figured I’d share them. The ones that worked, the ones that didn’t, and the ones that I love but don’t know how to yet implement. Since everyone’s different and what works/doesn’t work for me, might work for others.

This will get updated as I remember things/try new things/etc. Each of the things will have links so you can take a look into them yourselves :)

Right now I’m just listing them out - I’ll probably edit this and do some pros and cons as well.

I’m gonna put it under the cut though cuz it’ll probably get loooong

I’ll start off with some Productivity Methods

Getting Things Done

Book by David Allen

Process:

1) Collect tasks

2) Process

3) Organize

4) Plan

5) Do

What started me on trying to figure out a productivity system for myself. In my experience, each person’s system looks different. It’s all just based on what works for you.

The two main concepts that I got out of GTD are

Being specific with my tasks with what needs to be done and when and by whom

Reflecting and Strategic Reviews: Looking at my system and seeing where my bottlenecks are, coming up with solutions, and being specific about it

Pomodoro Technique

Time management technique developed by Francesco Cirillo

This one I will swear by forever. Basically it helps me focus on my tasks. The typical Pomodoro technique looks like: 25 mins of Focused Work time (1 pomodoro “pomo”), 5 minute break, and then after 4 pomodoros - one long break.

Can be used to help you focus with anything - writing, cleaning, homework, anything that might end up taking a long time.

I use Complice and the Captains log to help me with this one.

Captain’s Log

A self-reflection method that I learned from the founder of Complice (linked above)

Basically if I’m doing a pomo, and I find myself getting distracted, or I said I’d do a thing and I find that I’m not doing it - I’ll whip out my captain’s log and note down what distracted me or what’s getting in my way of doing the thing.

I tend to use this when I’m doing my weekly/ review to help troubleshoot what I should try in the upcoming week or if there’s other areas that I need to work on first before doing the thing.

Eisenhower Decision Matrix (aka the Urgent-Important matrix)

This one helped me out a lot at school. Basically it’s a 4-quadrant decision making system that helps organize and prioritize tasks. The 4 quadrants are:

Urgent-Important

Less urgent-Important

Urgent - Less important

Less urgent - Less important

Eat That Frog

an Anti-procrastination method

Concept of doing the least pleasant very important thing first, or if there are multiple unpleasant important things - do the biggest one first.

So far, I’ve found it works best if I add some social accountability to it - like, letting someone know that this is a Frog for me, and I will do it today.

Things that work for me/I’m currently using:

Complice.co

https://complice.co/?r=ael4x5dmam (gonna plug my referral link :P )

This one I use to sort out my projects and goals. I currently have 8 goals - 2 of them are work related, and the rest are personal goals. When I was in school, I had a different goal for each course I was taking

Basically you list out what you want to get done on your goals that day - your “Intentions” - and at the end of each day you check off what you got done - your “Outcomes”

Complice has ready made spaces for weekly and monthly and yearly reflections, as well as integrated Pomodoro options and coworking rooms.

They also have a Goal-Crafting Intensive Workshop that they do at the beginning of the year which I found super useful and highly recommend.

Passion Planner / Bullet Journaling

I only recently discovered bullet journaling, but I’m finding that I like the method because it can be as simplistic or as all-encompassing as you want/need. It appeals to the wouldbe-crafter in me, and I love stylizing my monthly/weekly layouts.

Passion Planner I’ve been using since I was in school. I find that that it works well with Complice, and provides me with an easy portable hard copy of my Tasks and Goals and Reflections. I used to be very online about my GTD system and relied heavily on my smartphone to manage my system. Over the years I’ve discovered that I get distracted way too easily using my phone for it to really be my main productivity management item

A con to bullet journaling:

Super easy to get lost on pinterest, instagram, etc., looking for inspiration for your layouts. I’ve wasted many a day doing this :P

Habitica

Gamifying your tasks and habits. Basically - you’re a character in an RPG, you gain points and gold for completing your ToDos, Daily Habits, and

I find that it helps with providing a certain level of social accountability (Guilds, Challenges, and Parties)

Workflowy

https://workflowy.com/invite/ff47f75.lnx (another referral link plug :P)

Started using this one when I started bullet journaling, it helps that it integrates well with Complice.

What I currently do - I use Workflowy to collect my tasks for the individual goals that I’ve laid out in Complice, and then I put what I need to get done Today into my day’s Intentions on Complice.

Beeminder

Accountability that stings.

Basically, I make a commitment, I lay my credit card on it, and if I don’t do the thing that I said I’d do - I get charged for it.

Provides pretty graphs to see your progress on doing the thing, is basically a free service if you do the things you said you’d do.

Super helpful for eating frogs - if I can’t motivate myself to eat the frog on my own - you can bet that I’m more likely to do the thing if it means that it’s gonna take it out of my credit card.

Super good if punishment motivates you more than reward does.

IFTTT - If This, Then That

Love this service. It syncs services to other services that might not have a good integration with your fave apps on their own.

Works well with Google Home devices

Google - Gmail, Calendar, Drive (Docs, etc.), Hangouts, Groups

Our overlord has so many things - tbf, it’s competing with Microsoft Office, so it’s kinda gotta.

Gmail can integrate with so many different apps and services, and can be used for a GTD management system as well.

Calendar - my favourite part is that it’s shareable. When I did shared living, I could easily know my household’s schedule without having to ask them every time. I’m also polyam, so when I had multiple partners and was living with half of them - it made scheduling time together easy.

Hangouts - super useful for staying in touch with peeps. It’s been phased out of my life a little with the introduction of Discord. and I hear that Google might be actually discontinuing it soon (just like they did with Inbox - I’m still mad about that)

Groups - I mostly use this in my inbox. But good as a forum option. I know of shared house dynamics who use this to stay up to date with each other - do house announcements (i.e. when the plumber will be here, etc.) This one has also been phased out with Discord for me

Discord

Great communication service for groups - I haven’t explored it’s integration options fully - but I definitely like it better than Slack

I currently use it for my house (in addition to various fandom groups) - to let my family know if we need to buy x grocery/house item, or let them know I’ll be going away for the weekend, or won’t be home on time for dinner etc., I also use it with my IRL friends - we use it to plan get-togethers, share memes, etc.

I think most peeps know about this already - but shoot me an ask if I need to elaborate more.

Things I’ve tried but haven’t been able to successfully implement

Asana

A teams/group project task manager - used it when I use to do group living (i.e. a bunch of roommates). I’ve found it less useful now that I live with my family - mostly because it’s doesn’t mesh well with my family dynamic - but I can see how other families could make it work.

Trello

good project board - but it’s definitely more of a teams thing - or a group project thing. I haven’t been able to make it work for my own personal projects and goals. But that might be because of how my brain visualizes tasks - so it might work for others.

RememberTheMilk

This integrates super well with David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

I’ve found that it was good when I was using my phone as my main productivity management item - but I’ve found it less useful now that I use my passion planner.

if you purchase the Pro subscription you can use the location tags to get reminded of tasks when you’re at a certain location (i.e. reminded to submit x paperwork when you get to your head office, reminded to buy x item when you’re at or near x store)

Works well with Google assistant as well so if you have a Google Home device, you can sync your reminders.

Slack

Communication service for teams, groups.

different channels etc.

Good integration with different services (see Beeminder in particular)

I don’t find it as intuitive as Discord though. But I know tons of groups find it helpful and useful for planning and organizing.

Microsoft Office365 (Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint)

A lot of businesses, organizations, etc., use these - but I find that unless you’re pretty tech savvy already, learning how to use it is pretty hard. It’s not the most userfriendly and it definitely doesn’t play well with others. If you don’t already have an Office365 account it won’t work well for you, and everyone on your team needs to have an Office365 account too. Not to mention you need to have the appropriate Office365 subscription to get access to all the best apps.

But if you do have the money and everyone on your team has an Office365 account, it’s super useful - Sharepoint is great for sharing info to the team, sharing and editing documents, integrates well with Teams which now has a Shifts app (which replaces the old StaffHub app). Teams is good for having the more informal chats with the team.

I find that if you know how to use all the apps and services, it makes it super easy to work at any location. I have multiple locations at my work - and I find it really easy to continue working even if I’m not at my main desk.

#productivity #executive dysfunction #tips and tricks

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