When Productivity Becomes An Habit

February 27th 2008 Productivity 4 comments

I’ve been reading, practicing and blogging about productivity, GTD and various related topics for around two years now. I wish I could remember more clearly what set me on this road, there was certainly no major epiphany or one big moment. I probably came across an interesting article on lifehacking and GTD through Digg or some similar site. It sounded intriguing and useful so I continued to read into it more. I do remember buying Getting Things Done at the airport as reading material for the flight and holiday ahead though though :)

I’ve tried numerous systems, experimented with different ideas and gone through various stages of complexity throughout this time, some of which I have chronicled in my evolving GTD series. What do I use now? A notepad… when I need to (the details of how I use it and how I got to this stage I will detail in a later post). What has become increasingly apparent over the last few months is how the tools I typically use are becoming increasingly redundant. Even my own templates aren’t as effective anymore! How have things ended up like this?

David Allen says that the tools you use must be super quick otherwise you simply won’t use them. What’s quicker than a pen and paper combination though? Your head. I’ve been focusing on productivity for so many months now that it is arguably becoming an habit. When I have some work to do I immediately look for the next action, prioritization is a natural process and I know when it’s ok to procrastinate. Writing it all down can actually slow the process down. Allen has always stated that you should get stuff out of your head into a system you can trust. However, has he underestimated the brain?

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James, are you sure you can actually do all next actions, the moment you’ve determined and prioritized them, for all of your 75+ projects? If so, teach me, please!!! ;-)

IIRC, David Allen recommends the reliable system as a set of external markers, next actions being something like bookmarks. For tasks you can complete within 2 minutes do them immediately. That way they don’t even enter the system. The rest does, for sure. But the reliable system isn’t just about remembering. It also records the knowledge you’ve added beyond the information, while you were processing and organizing stuff.

Rolf, I predicted a comment similar to yours. It occured to me after writing the post that I had wrongly given the impression that I now exclusively use my head to remember and process everything that comes in. This is not my intention and I will adjust the article to address this. However my fundamental point still applies:

  • Productivity can certainly become an habit, which can result in a lot of systems and tools becoming redundent. For instance, I don’t track my clutter/cleaning program for my home anymore simply because it’s all in my head and I can pick out what needs doing without a sheet to tell me. I think it’s no coincidence that a lot of “old-school” managers and bosses hardly ever write down what they need to do next.
  • Your head isn’t as unreliable as GTD may imply. I still use a notepad based system when necessary and I admit much of my viewpoint is based on the fact I don’t (currently) have a particularly hectic schedule. It’s nieve to expect to be able to remember and get your head around 75+ projects without some system in place. However, I don’t believe that you should assume that your head can’t handle anything at all.

I am glad you clarified because although I do believe productivity can become a habit and an automatic process, I was wondering how you were going to remember it all if you had a lot to do. I also like to use a notebook, but I love having a pad of post-it notes that I can jot stuff on and stick onto my monitor or some other surface near my computer.

Agreed. I am fortunate in that I don’t have 75+ projects in my work life to constantly worry about. However, if I ever need to clarify stuff or regain focus I immediately jump into my notepad and start noting my projects and next actions down.

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