ProdPod, a Productivity Podcast
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There was a time when I started first studying psychology and its relationship to my personal productivity when I thought my "productivity system" meant automation. Boy, was I sadly mistaken! It took me a long time (18 months to be exact) to figure out that my productivity system wasn't all about automating my life. It turns out that DOING was a huge part of my productivity system, and *I* had to do the DOING. What a shock to my system this was when I spent all that time setting up this amazing system and planning all day! Nothing got done! So, what is the purpose of your productivity system? I've come to define the purpose of a personal productivity system as a way to facilitate you DOING more consistently and better and KNOWING what you're not able to DO at any given time so you can relax and focus on what it is you can do.
Let me dive into this a little further so I explain this correctly.
The first part of that definition is that your personal productivity system is about doing more and better when you're able to. Doing more means, that by planning out the most efficient ways to get from A to B for any given task or project, you're able to get more done in a focused period of time. This isn't something you can do consistently without a system; believe me, for years, I tried! Next up is the adjective "better." What I mean is, that your productivity system should have a way for you to track what you've done and review what has been done to create as accurate a historical record as possible. Therefore you can match or increase your output sustainably from there. Again, no system equates to not only allowing in subjectivity about "better" but also about using potentially your fuzzy memory to recollect what you accomplished, or didn't. What does better look like for you?
Finally, one of the great, rarely spoken truths about personal productivity is the fact that you can't do more of anything without doing less of something right now. Your productivity system needs to be able to help you track when you can do things and when you cannot. Do you know what you can't do right now so you can start doing the one thing now that you can? If so, you likely have a system. If you don't, now you know why you need a system, and what a system really is.
How do you define "personal productivity system?" I'd love to hear from you in the comments or via email.
ProdPod: Episode 58 -- Paperless 2013
ProdPod: Episode 57 -- Banish New Year's Resolutions!
ProdPod: Episode 56 -- Software Overview: Remember The Milk
ProdPod: Episode 54 -- "Pull Method" for More Productive Relationships, Part Two
ProdPod: Episode 53 - "Pull Method" for More Productive Relationships, Part One
ProdPod: Episode 52 -- Overflowing Inbox: Try Some Email Overload Relief
ProdPod: Episode 51 -- Two-Minute Book Summary: The Four-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
ProdPod: Episode 50 -- Productivity Tips for Fitness with Noelle McKenzie of Fitness a Way of Life
ProdPod: Episode 49 -- Pareto Principle of Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 48 -- Author Interview: 25 Tips for Productivity with Augusto Pinaud
ProdPod: Episode 47 -- Conquering Negative Self-Speak for Greater Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 46 -- Talking Yourself Into Better Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 45 -- Productivity and Whole-Being Fitness
ProdPod: Episode 44 -- Human Potential Movement's Mark on Your Personal Productivity
ProdPod: Episode 43 -- How to Kick-Start Hardcore Decluttering: Psychic Clutter and Digital Clutter
ProdPod: Episode 42 -- How to Kick-Start Hardcore Decluttering: Knowing Where Your Clutter Is
ProdPod: Episode 41 -- Outsourcing Tasks for Greater Productivity...For Free, Part II
ProdPod: Episode 40 -- Outsourcing Tasks for Greater Productivity...For Free, Part I
ProdPod: Episode 39 -- Outsource Your Personal Tasks, Part II
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