I feel like there are a lot of folks here who must have a good handle on personal organisation and productivity, so thought I’d ask for advice about it!
I’m about to see a big increase in my personal workload (in 1-2 months) and I really want to get ahead of it in terms of my organisational skills and productivity management… which haven’t been great to date (I’ve found it easy to blag it by working my ass off the last 5-10% of the time I’ve had).
I bought an iPad Pro last year for AUM and iOS music making apps, and haven’t really took to it… so I’ve decided I want to work paperless and make the iPad my goto (along with my phone and laptop, etc).
I’ve been a big note taker for years, and I often end up with important notes scattered randomly across 8+ pads with no system/order… so, I’ve bought an Apple Pencil to go with the iPad and I’ve just started using GoodNotes (which I’m REALLY liking already… I wish I’d have done this a while back).
GoodNotes is in then.
But, after this, there is a world of options out there that are quite overwhelming.
For to-do’s and task management, I’m looking at Todoist, that seems straight forward enough, but I might be duplicating what it does in other apps I already have (Asana springs to mind).
I need task management and project management capability.
I’m currently looking at;
Miro (I have some experience with it, but could dive a lot deeper… and I like it, it looks how I visualise projects mentally)
Asana (experience with this too, but mainly limited it to a ‘to-do’ app… I like it but it doesn’t look how I visualise projects)
Notion (no experience)
Trello (minimal experience, but know what it is)
ClickUp (no experience)
Does have any advice on this? Anyone been on a similar journey and come out with increased productivity?
I made a GoodNotes diagram that summarises the above… don’t mind me and my graphic eye…
I really like Obsidian for note taking and storage/retrieval/organisation. That and similar tools where you can tag and link stuff via markdown are great for doing research or just storing random stuff you find or think of.
First tips: Inbox Zero. No apps, just a method to keep your mailbox tidy - but most importantly, get you on top of things. Can highly recommend.
• If an email takes two minutes or less to act on, do it
• If an email requires work, move it to the ”@Action” folder
• If an email is already handled or needs no work, archive it (move to Archive folder, there is often a built-in mail client key combo)
• If an email is trash, throw it away
• Optional, if an email can be interesting for the future but not important, move to folder ”@Someday maybe”
The above will mean that your inbox is empty at least once per day. No need to care about the ”unreads”, that means nothing. And no other folders to care about - search is your friend.
This is great… I was about to reply to your post saying that it’s my intention to spend way less time in emails moving forward, which I do, but this is still a great approach and reminder of how to handle an inbox.
My company uses trello with great effect, it gives good overview over tasks, and you can see the load on people.
I used it privatly when i build my house, to organize the project, was pretty fine, and i can take notes on the phone, or have sessions in my office where i make calls, i track everything, researcj., contact, calls,manufacturing i have to complete etc…
I say try trello, also allows multiple projects to be run with ease.
Writing down tasks is good, getting them done is better. Markdown, i.e. the mini language we’re using here to write our posts, in good old plain text files is your friend. Quick, simple, portable, durable. Anything else presents the risk of overdoing the not-doing.
Notion is worth checking out. I really only use it for managing multiple to do lists and random thoughts, but it does have lot of project management focused features. Don’t ask me what as I just use it as a glorified notebook and don’t read the feature update emails.
My favourite feature is the toggle lists that let you hide a novel in a bullet point. I’m sure this feature isn’t unique to Notion.
It’s also platform agnostic. I used to use the same account across iPad, Android and Windows.
Todoist is nice, I’ve used it for an year or so. However, the best tasks app I’ve found so far is Microsoft To Do. Really straightforward yet has everything that matters.
I tend to run my inbox in a pretty similar way to what @ThomasJ mentioned, and generally trained all of my employees that way for years with a lot of success. Moving things out of your inbox triggers that ‘sense of accomplishment’ dopamine hit, and less clutter leads to better productivity, and it all cycles around.
I’ll just throw out a reminder of the power of email and it’s calendar sync’ing capabilities. Turning emails into calendar events is a pretty easy way to set deadlines, milestones, task/activity blocks, and identify conflicts. I’m a spaz, a total mess if left to my own, so being engaged in my calendar is a habit that pays. Calendar keeps me on track and out of trouble, brain focuses on the work.
As someone who previously could relate to the bad habits of getting things done in that last 5-10%
Apps haven’t helped, despite an earlier and similar attempt.
Honestly the thing that worked best and was easiest, was to start things early, and finish early when possible. It really is as easy as it sounds.
I do have to remind myself that it’s easier, but that’s because it’s not a natural habit for me unless it’s something I truly enjoy.
But even those things you enjoy can become work too, so better to just get it done.
Another thing that helps, but I’m still working on is quickly meditating. For years I didn’t understand how to do this, so if it feels foreign, that’s natural.
I only take a couple minutes to clear my mind and it make it easier to finish things I don’t enjoy,
I can compare the quick meditation feeling to when people drink beer after working. I always liked that feeling but I actually don’t like beer… and don’t care to drink in general (but I like the social aspect of it).
Meditating is easier, cheaper and work appropriate.
I don’t care about the zero inbox. If it matters to you, then have fun making that a responsibility. I often need to reference old emails and organizing it would take as much time responding. It’s not a hinderance to everyone and my own opinion of it is that if you have time to do that, then maybe you’re not that busy, but if that slows you down, there’s a good place to focus.
If you’re juggling multiple things on a regular basis, learn how to triage responsibilities. Focus on what’s important for accomplishing things that need to be done today. Understanding when and when not to multitask is an important thing to know. Learning how to delegate where possible and know how to be flexible is very big.
GTD method I’ve found pretty good in the past. Can be done with almost any software. Even just learning the core concepts helps I found, e.g if it takes less than 2 mins do it now, focus on just the next task rather than the whole of a project etc.
There are loads of guides on it, this one lays it out nicely:
One tip: don’t be forever changing up your apps and methods. I write for a living, one or more articles every day, and I used the same text editor (Ulysses) for years until I moved to Obsidian for superior organisation.
It’s more important to have something reliable and consistent, than to be always chasing a better, “more perfect” method or app. Most of us could apply this to our music gear
At work we use Trello, so I use it to save future article ideas. I have a shortcut on my Mac and iPad that grabs my assigned stories from Trello and makes a text file in Obsidian.
For any non-work reminders, I just use Siri to add a reminder with a date and time.
I also practice inbox zero, more or less. I get a lot of PR pitches, and years ago I stopped feeling guilty about deleting them without replying.
I suspect there is no universal systems that works for everyone. But in case it helps, I have a work setup and home setup. They used to be combined but I have to use windows at work and I didn’t want to shift my personal stuff to windows.
For work, I use outlook, teams and MS office with some specialist apps for specific client needs including mural which is a Miro alternative.
So for my home setup I use:
Apple notes: really underrated in my view
Gmail/Google tasks: I run these in one tab in a browser. Dragging an email to Tasks I really helps for someday/maybe stuff
Google calendar
Google drive for scanned documents
Notion as a structured “library”/wiki for recipes, reference materials
Trello for projects. Eg a house renovation
Linea sketch for diagrams
Xmind for mind mapping
Because I am a little old school, I find being able to use an Apple Pencil for notes means I process stuff much better than when I type things. But I hear the kids these days can type or even dictate stuff and get the same neuro effect.
I would add that the single most important thing is to set aside an hour once a week ( and once a day for work stuff) to do a review and reprioritise if necessary.
