What better way to sum up something than to turn it into a formula? If someone can do it for procrastination, then why can’t I do it for productivity? This is no serious formula, you won’t be able to put in any sums and get a sensible result to determine how productive you are (feel free to try though). However it will hopefully emphasise some key points about being productive.

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Well, I may have finally succumbed to the lure of the Moleskine. Maybe. I’ve never bought one before as I just couldn’t justify spending so much money. I like my system to have some scope for scribbling and doodling thoughts and ideas down when necessary, and given how expensive a Moleskine is I just couldn’t feel comfortable using it for anything but neat work.

That was until somebody bought me one. So now I have my very own Moleskine and there are so many ideas on how it can be used. I’ve got a lot of research to do so I am going to start by doing a comprehensive list of all the hacks and approaches I’ve found on the subject. If you know of any others then please leave a link in the comment and I will add it to the list.

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Last week I finally visited my local library and took some books out, one of which was Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler. My prime motivation for picking it up was because I considered some sections of it could be nicely worked into GTD. One such feature was the cycle of productivity. However, the book doesn’t go into much actionable detail on it so I’ve decided to take the basic principles and expand them to make it more productivity related. The diagram on the left demonstrates the cycle and is broken down into four sections - plan, do, complete, reward - which are detailed below.

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Seeing as both ScienceDaily, CNet News and the place I got the original story from (Slashdot) have more than enough procrastination jokes I will just get straight to the point. A University of Calgary academic has done ten years (no comment…) of research into procrastination and its causes. They have discovered that…

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