[HN Gopher] My productivity system
___________________________________________________________________
My productivity system
Author : nunodonato
Score : 146 points
Date : 2022-09-18 10:37 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nunodonato.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nunodonato.com)
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I posted my own tracking/productivity system, a few days ago[0].
|
| TL;DR, I use a PostIt pad.
|
| [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32799964
| howmayiannoyyou wrote:
| I've been using whatboard.app to manage my tasks. I pin ongoing
| tasks, unpin to-do's, archive things I may have to tackle or
| recall later.
| Shank wrote:
| On macOS, Tot [0] is a great app that replaces the "working
| memory dot txt" format that Cal Newport likes. The upshot with
| Tot is that you get a fixed number of pages, and they're
| synchronized via iCloud. So, you can add to your "working memory
| text file" from anywhere you have an iOS or macOS device, and
| it's simple enough that it can't grow into a more complex system.
|
| [0]: https://tot.rocks/
| kstrauser wrote:
| I wanted to love Tot, but its iCloud sync just isn't good. In
| my first week or so of ownership, sync between my devices
| stopped working a couple of times. I followed the instructions
| (https://support.iconfactory.com/kb/tot/icloud-sync-not-
| worki...), and that worked for a while, but then it un-synced
| again. I ended up getting a refund for it.
|
| In the end, I stuck with Drafts. It doesn't have the 7-item
| feature/gimmick, and it's not as pretty, but it's been 100%
| rock solid for me for years.
| rodolphoarruda wrote:
| I've used paper notebooks as working memories for almost 10
| years, until I learned about Evernote, which I had adopted ever
| since. I quickly became addicted to it. I was storing absolutely
| everything in it. It was around 1000 or 1300 notes when I began
| to lose track of things, meaning, information and documents.
| Search stopped being effective to me and I ended of with too many
| tags. I decided to adopt the model which uses only 2 notebooks:
| .Inbox and Archive. Everything else is organized via tagging.
| Today I have around 3500 notes which are mostly a personal
| archive. I simply gave up trying to be productive finding things
| in that ocean of information. So I'm using Google Keep for basic
| note taking and txt files with long descriptive names in project
| folders when I need to keep specific notes isolated from all the
| rest. Nautilus search works fine in finding those files as I type
| parts of their names.
| nojito wrote:
| The only productivity hack is to not be terminally online.
|
| Every year there are new apps/tools/"systems". There is an entire
| industry catered to making you "productive"
| nunodonato wrote:
| True that. For me it was not about not being online, but
| actually being online without getting distracted from useless
| websites (mostly social media or chat). I wrote about that in
| my previous blog post. Ever since I cut out all the noise I've
| found lots of time to read and write, which I love.
| ThomPete wrote:
| To be more productive. Be more selective.
| epolanski wrote:
| I like using Notion + PARA[1].
|
| I have a journal where I write notes with daily todos or make
| notes about systems/code, etc. It's okay for everyday stuff.
|
| Then I have a separate PARA for larger ongoing stuff.
|
| [1] https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/
| conor_f wrote:
| Was really thrown by all the references to "GTD". It seems like a
| heavily commercialized productivity workflow?
|
| My entire productivity system revolves around Vikunja[1]. It's
| essentially just a todo list application, but it's super flexible
| (e.g. view as list, kanban, gantt, etc), supports having many
| lists (I keep one per different idea/topic), and so many other
| features. You can also self-host it for free, which has been a
| completely painless process for me personally, and gives you the
| standard peace of mind from being in control of your personal
| data.
|
| Highly suggest checking it out!
|
| [1] https://vikunja.io/
| alpaca128 wrote:
| Smooth UI and I can actually try it without an account, that
| looks promising. I guess I'll add Vikunja to my to-do list ;)
| maroonblazer wrote:
| Vikunja looks good, thanks for sharing. The biggest drawback
| seems to be that the mobile app isn't at parity with the
| desktop version.
|
| I've been using Remember The Milk for the last several years.
| At $40/year it's been rock solid.
|
| https://www.rememberthemilk.com/
| anonymousDan wrote:
| Is there any way to interact with vikunja through the command
| line? Or does it defeat the purpose?
| esperent wrote:
| Getting Things Done is a book that describes a system for...
| Well you get it. There doesn't have to be anything commercial
| about it, you can find synopses online for free and the system
| is simple so those are probably nearly as good as reading the
| book.
|
| I read it about ten years ago and still use some parts of it,
| it's a good system and probably becomes more and more useful
| the busier you are. I'm sure it could be used alongside the app
| you shared. Which looks nice btw, I've been looking for
| something self hosted to use for a small team. I'll check it
| out.
| tengwar2 wrote:
| There are commercial training courses, which most people don't
| take. The recommended techniques are based on pen and paper -
| so no real potential for commercialisation there. Of course
| most people born after 1960 will use some form of computer
| assistance, but that's not the GTD people selling product.
| bbkane wrote:
| Vikunja looks really nice!! I might actually be able to replace
| MS TODO!
| dasil003 wrote:
| I dabbled with GTD in the late 00s/early 10s. This coincided with
| growing the team at my startup and generally needing to keep more
| balls in the air from a management perspective. I even used
| OmniFocus for a while. But as I moved into larger companies where
| efficient collaboration is the limiting function, I realized that
| my personal productivity system is not where the value is.
|
| Essentially as a leader in a larger engineering org, the
| productivity systems that generate more value are the ones that
| are shared. Even though I can't control them directly I can
| create more value by A) getting onboard with the way that
| collaborating teams want to work and B) influencing people and
| nudging these systems in the direction that makes sense based on
| my expertise. This often feels like herding cats, but it's a core
| job of a manager. In addition, all software workers, whether
| manager or IC, need space for deep freeform thinking. It's
| imperative that whatever systems we use not come in the way of
| this.
|
| With this in mind, my personal system has to be lightweight and
| flexible so that it minimizes overhead and doesn't impose any
| constraints on how I am working with others. To that end, I've
| largely reduced to using Workflowy for all tasks / notes / plans.
| I do this in a reverse chronological style w/ regular chunked
| archiving. I also star every "important" email thread and
| bookmark every relevant doc or page that comes across my desk. In
| this manner I can go back and search history comprehensively as
| needed, but my working space for any given project or domain is
| always small and generally fits above the fold in the Workflowy
| context. There are a few little tactical hacks I use (eg. #action
| hashtag for todos), but those are ephemeral and I will discard or
| change them whenever it suits me. The key thing overall is that
| the system requires less than an hour a week of maintenance and
| is a single source of truth for my personal focus.
| mawadev wrote:
| My productivity system: I turn off the internet
| [deleted]
| ChildOfChaos wrote:
| I adore Trello.
|
| It's the only productivity/todo list type app that I have ever
| stuck too.
|
| I think it's mostly because of the flexibility it overs. I put
| everything into it.
|
| I have a whole board called 'Spark File' which is just lists of
| stuff, so whenever I need an idea for something it's there. Want
| to watch a movie? I've made a note of every trailer I saw that
| looked intreasting, every movie i've had recommended etc, I can
| find something on there to watch,
|
| Want to get someone a gift? I've noted down anything they have
| said or I have seen that is relevant, so i've got a list of stuff
| to consider to go.
|
| Black Friday? I've already got a list of things I am looking to
| get sometime, so i can simply check if anything is on offer, etc
| etc.
|
| My main todo list has Inbox, todo, Doing, done. I capture
| everything to the 'inbox' and then when i sought through it, it
| either becomes an entry in the relevant list in the 'spark file'
| or I figure out an action i can take on the idea and it becomes a
| todo.
| omarhaneef wrote:
| There are three insights that David Allen had with GTD that I
| appreciate:
|
| - one inbox to absorb tasks you distribute later
|
| - lists go into working contexts so you do them while in that
| context
|
| - short term and long term are different
|
| The issue I have is that we also have different "recording"
| contexts. These days I can use an app on my phone, a note in my
| computer or a notepad in a meeting. I have multiple inboxes that
| have to be routed.
|
| In addition I think the relationship between project and tasks
| needs to be fleshed out.
|
| However I think those 3 insights persist across all good
| productivity systems.
| galoisscobi wrote:
| I was reading every tool is a hammer by Adam Savage and he also
| has a variant of short term and long term task lists. He
| essentially keeps a mega checklist for each project which can
| have infinite resolution and be as fine-grained as he needs it
| to be. Then for his daily lists, he pulls in tasks from various
| mega-lists. I thought it was a neat approach and it's been fun
| to adopt it.
| somehnguy wrote:
| That's a really interesting way to solve the problem, and I
| would like to try it. Do you happen to know if he mentioned
| any software that operates in that way? I'm imagining many
| lists, with a nearly frictionless way to say 'do this today',
| and the task moves accordingly.
|
| I've tried a handful of note taking apps with checklists, and
| actual checklist apps over the years. The one thing they've
| all had in common is that they're too cumbersome to really
| integrate into my daily habits. I need something that lets me
| add and adjust super quick to accelerate the actual task
| getting done.
| galoisscobi wrote:
| Adam mentions in the book that his solution is fully
| analog. He has notebooks with project lists and daily lists
| and he manually re-writes tasks when he wants to copy them
| over.
|
| For myself, I think that's too cumbersome so I use vimwiki.
| A sibling comment mentioned org mode and I think that would
| be an excellent tool to implement this and imo, work better
| than vimwiki.
| nequo wrote:
| > I'm imagining many lists, with a nearly frictionless way
| to say 'do this today', and the task moves accordingly.
|
| I think org-mode does this. You can schedule tasks and get
| org-mode to compile an agenda for you.
| koheripbal wrote:
| The issue with this is that you have to pre-schedule
| tasks across all lists, which means you need to go
| through all the lists to schedule every item - often each
| day.
|
| The better way to do it is to set priorities on TODO
| header items in org-mode. This is far from perfect
| through because you're still manually setting priorities
| across all projects - which is very flawed.
| ellyagg wrote:
| For a long time this was a stuck for me. I use Workflowy to
| manage my projects.
|
| Normally, I can trivially capture every note on either mobile
| or laptop into the root of Workflowy and distribute later as
| needed. This is already a pretty decent single inbox.
|
| The one leak was capturing thoughts in contexts where typing is
| not feasible. Ultimately, I landed on using Siri and just
| jotting notes into Reminders on iPhone/Watch/Mac. When I'm out,
| I capture notes this way, then at home run a script to transfer
| the notes into Workflowy.
|
| Here's a hype piece with the script[1]. The page also doubles
| as an experimental art study of contrasting zero HTML styling
| with exaggerated ad copy. Hopefully it's pretty dissonant.
|
| 1. https://drivingwithworkflowy.com/
| bitexploder wrote:
| The biggest thing for me from GTD is building a system I can
| trust. It goes in and I can forget about it until the right
| time. Mind like water.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| For me, GTD told me that if a task takes under two minutes,
| just do it now.
| jqgatsby wrote:
| and that great acronym: OHIO
| ghaff wrote:
| I was pretty much the opposite. Going back to Day Timers, I
| basically don't do systems. But I found quite a few little
| insights. Break big tasks into actionable steps, if you're
| sure something will really just take 5 minutes don't put it
| on a list do it, don't fill up your calendar with todos that
| mostly won't be completed, etc.
| bitexploder wrote:
| It is more than just tasks for me. Ideas. Somedays. Etc.
| not losing things is important with adult ADHD. There are
| still only a few important tasks per day, but not losing
| track of things like "call someone this evening" reduces
| cognitive load for me.
| ghaff wrote:
| Oh. Definitely having lists even if it's for a project I
| shouldn't forget about though it will hopefully solve
| itself if I drag it out long enough. Essentially everyone
| forgets about things that are some months hence if
| they're not captured somehow.
| ilteris wrote:
| That's exactly my problem. After using all these apps I am
| having hard time routing these into one app and my lists are
| scattered across different apps. I wish there was a painless
| and easy way to jolt and knowing it would end up in my master
| Todo list. But instead I have to think which app list i should
| be using...
| galoisscobi wrote:
| I've stuck with vimwiki + fuzzy finding for years and it's
| worked without any issues. If you're into vim based tools,
| and haven't tried it, I recommend checking it out.
| anonymousDan wrote:
| What about on mobile? I've been trying to switch to
| obsidian because of that.
| ajmurmann wrote:
| I've been using Omnifocus for to track Todo items and Apple
| Notes for taking notes. Both sync across all my devices. This
| has been working really great. Before the pandemic I used
| physical notebooks to take notes during meetings because it
| made it obvious to others that I was paying attention to them
| and valuing what they are saying rather than slacking with
| someone else. That led to the integration problems you
| describe and I needed to spend 15 minutes every day syncing
| things. Arguably that also was a valuable review time that
| sometimes led to new insights.
| tunesmith wrote:
| It's interesting to me that GTD has so many adherents - clearly
| there is a wide cross-section of people for whom it works well.
| I tried really hard for a while but ended up concluding I must
| be a different category of person. I experienced the following
| pain points:
|
| - I got overwhelmed by what I was capturing
|
| - Contexts weren't useful at all and only complicated the
| system
|
| - I had far too many tasks on my list that made me feel guilty
| for never starting, no matter "when" I would schedule them
|
| The sort of system that ended up helping me was an exhaustive
| exercise that helped me determine my lifelong values, and how
| they related to my priorities in terms of actions. Then I could
| identify my tasks - not as "oh gosh, I should do that too"
| impulses, but as actions that were actual logical implications
| driven from my values. I discovered that the large majority of
| my "guilt-driven" tasks were tasks that actually weren't
| connected to my values, or could be replaced by other tasks
| that were a better fit. And I almost never "capture" - I will
| review my values, and reason from there.
|
| Overall, that worked better for me because then I had a system
| that gave me a built-in way to say no. From what I learned
| about GTD at the time, GTD doesn't have that.
| nunodonato wrote:
| One inbox is not a hard rule. You need capture tools in many
| different places (home/office/car are a few examples). You can
| even use voice recorder (memos) or similar tools. Its important
| to note that many updates have been made to recommendations as
| we move forward in time and tech is more present in our day to
| day, compared to when it was when the first edition of GTD came
| about.
|
| Contexts, yes, I just found out that I currently was not
| benefiting from it. For me, nowadays, its more like "work mode"
| and "not-work mode". And simple and short lists are working
| efficiently enough. I don't know, maybe my life just got
| simpler ;)
| xiwenc wrote:
| The apple reminder app(s) work surprisingly well for many
| cases:
|
| * macbook: at a desk or whenever/wherever it is accessible
|
| * iphone: quick note pretty much anywhere like train ride
|
| * apple watch: running, in the pool, during sauna session or
| in the gym weightlifting
|
| * siri: while driving car or riding bike
|
| These all end into a single inbox.
|
| Unfortunately this requires full buy-in into the apple eco-
| system.
| tomjen3 wrote:
| GTD suggested as few inboxes as possible, and have them
| reviewed regularly, not keep it to one inbox.
| flakeoil wrote:
| In the below article [1] is suggested to use your regular
| calendar app on the phone and then later write it clean into
| your desktop system, whatever you use.
|
| I like to use one text file per big project and keep all
| related notes and todo items in there. I also have one text
| file specifically for meeting notes and its todo items. I also
| keep random daily things in that file (one headline per day).
| In case todo items from meetings belong to a specific project I
| can move them to the project file, if not, I leave them in the
| one big meeting/journal text file.
|
| [1]: https://easyorgmode.com/blog/working-with-org-mode-on-
| deskto...
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| The biggest improvement to my personal todo systems I've
| experimented with was to quit working for a boss's vision / to
| quit taking wage labor where the reward for getting things done
| is more things to do toward ends that don't benefit me. Getting
| value directly from the product of my labor and deciding for
| myself who I want to work with and how is a great foundation
| for any todo framework
| marcosdumay wrote:
| > The issue I have is that we also have different "recording"
| contexts. These days I can use an app on my phone, a note in my
| computer or a notepad in a meeting. I have multiple inboxes
| that have to be routed.
|
| That's the other large point of GTD that apparently you didn't
| internalize. It's "don't do this". Centralize those contexts
| into the same storage, if any of them are on paper, store the
| papers around the computer where you sort things, if all are
| digital, synchronize the files.
|
| Unifying the inbox adds a lot of value.
| nonoesp wrote:
| I used Dropbox Paper heavily but ended up migrating all of my
| documents to Notion.
| tanin wrote:
| My working memory file is just a giant txt file that is synced
| using git to github. It's free and fast (because a text file
| editor like Sublime is fast and can handle a very large text
| file). You can also use it offline. The conflict is handled by
| git, which is familiar to a programmer.
|
| It also feels more permanent. I used to use other note taking
| apps where the notes were thrown away after migrating to a new
| app because it wasn't that convenient to transfer between apps.
| Plain text can't go wrong in this matter.
|
| I used Dropbox Paper and Google Docs before. Once you reach
| certain size, it is very very slow.
|
| The caveat with the text file is the lack of fuzzy searching
| capability... but it's tolerable so far.
|
| PS. I've built my own git sync: https://github.com/tanin47/git-
| notes -- it is written in Go.
| nunodonato wrote:
| I think that if your memory file is too big, you are implement
| the idea wrong. It is supposed to be a daily thing, not a
| permanent memory.
| tanin wrote:
| I used to have multiple files, but that didn't work well
| either. It's nicer to have everything in a single file where
| you can scroll through quickly. But as mentioned the fuzzy
| search isn't there though.
| tnolet wrote:
| I'm always fascinated by people obsessed by productivity and its
| range of tools.
|
| I consider myself pretty highly productive. Typical week had 8+
| meetings, calls, follow ups, research, thinking time and
| sometimes coding. Typical CTO and CPO stuff. I tend to get 90% of
| important things done. If not more.
|
| I'm fairly busy, but just use my inbox with search, Apple notes
| and Apple reminders. Works fine for me.
|
| Am I just missing out on something?
| Delmania wrote:
| No, it sounds like you have worked out a good process as
| opposed to obsessing over tools.
|
| To expand, when I teach people productivity, I keep it simple.
| I am familiar with both GTD for tasks and BASB/PARA for
| knowledge. Both approaches boil down in to having a central
| location to put stuff, organizing stuff around based on how
| immediate it is, and then having a regular review process to
| trim excess.
|
| It's very similar to scrum. Dump everything into the backlog,
| organize it around what's going to be the most actionable, and
| then periodically trim/refine it.
| pydry wrote:
| For the people who get a little bit too into it I think it's a
| kind of a displaced attempt to bring some measure of control
| over a life that feels out of control. It sates anxiety.
|
| E.g. you cant control how your boss treats you but you can
| control how you organize your tasks.
| davidivadavid wrote:
| Here's the productivity blackpill -- most "productivity"
| improvement are dwarfed by immediate skill improvements. Want
| to be a better _insert relevant profession_? Get good at
| _skills relevant to profession_ , don't try to improve some
| abstract "productivity" that's 10 steps removed from the actual
| craft.
|
| You're probably not missing out on much. You've hit the 80/20
| long ago.
| hobo_mark wrote:
| I would be willing to take productivity porn seriously, if the
| people obsessing over it were provably exceptionally productive
| (like, I don't know, "here's how I learned multiple languages
| and musical instruments while finishing a physics PhD as a
| single parent" or whatever).
|
| For example, even the creator of SuperMemo seems a fairly
| average person and not the polymath/hyperpolyglot one might
| have expected him to be (or at least I could not find any
| indication of that).
|
| Likewise, what has David Allen actually done beyond writing the
| same book half a dozen times?
|
| As far as I can see this stuff mostly exists to fill a need for
| structure, but it does NOT make one exceptionally productive
| (also accounting for the time that needs to be invested in the
| tools and techniques themselves).
| dpkirchner wrote:
| I'm partly the opposite. A lot of life advise I see comes
| from people at the top, meaning they have all the resources
| they need and are looking for a way to maximize their time.
| Their methods may not be applicable to randos like me, so I
| tend to dismiss it.
|
| Stories by people that were once at the middle rungs and made
| it to the top through better organization would be a lot more
| interesting and relatable.
| jogjayr wrote:
| "One researcher famous for his extensive use of
| [Zettelkasten] was the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann
| (1927-1998). Starting in 1952-1953, Luhmann built up a
| Zettelkasten of some 90,000 index cards for his research, and
| credited it for enabling his extraordinarily prolific writing
| (including over 70 books and 400 scholarly articles)"
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten
| hobo_mark wrote:
| Then, we have had decades to observe whether this approach
| (that I assume to be familiar to at least many in his field
| by now) actually made sociologists more productive (at
| whatever it is that sociologists do), or not.
| kstrauser wrote:
| I tried Zettelkasten, but I think it's a good solution to a
| problem I don't have. I take notes to remember and find
| information, not to publish it. ZK is more geared toward
| sharing with others.
| chke wrote:
| Re SuperMemo: Well, there is his huge wiki[1] in which he
| writes pretty long articles about a wide range of topics. So
| I'd say he is very productive.
|
| [1] https://supermemopedia.com/wiki/Main_Page
| hobo_mark wrote:
| I tried, I just wasted a few minutes clicking "Random Page"
| and ALL results are about the supermemo software itself,
| most are support emails republished as wiki pages.
| stjohnswarts wrote:
| like the other guy said "wide range of topics". If you
| click random you just go to short article after short
| article about the app?
| bachmeier wrote:
| > I'm fairly busy, but just use my inbox with search, Apple
| notes and Apple reminders. Works fine for me.
|
| That's the key. It works fine for you. It wouldn't come close
| to working for me though. I've had to dedicate many hours
| building a system that works for me.
|
| That said, I've never been into productivity porn. I've spent
| my time figuring out what wasn't working and how to fix it.
| Reading about 'productivity' is an unproductive use of my time.
| koonsolo wrote:
| I have a job, a side business I'm trying to get profitable,
| house, garden, 4 kids and wife. Stuff keeps pulling on me
| constantly. Things need to get done in every aspect, and events
| planned and done.
|
| Without productivity tools, my life would be a stressful chaos.
| mrelectric wrote:
| Congratulations, you don't have ADD
| Bakary wrote:
| Sounds like a specialized productivity tool would be of
| little help there, since no tasklist can withstand the
| problem of just not being able to get started on a task. And
| something like GTD is only going to be another burdensome and
| anxiety-inducing task for someone with executive dysfunction.
|
| A simple but constant reminder system (perhaps with a
| smartwatch or phone) can be of more use.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| That is incorrect. Organizing information about commitments
| and plans is an enormous help.
| deepnet wrote:
| Breaking task down into small single actions can be very
| helpful for those with executive function disorders.
|
| This is part of GTD.
| ParetoOptimal wrote:
| And then if you use a system malleable enough to reduce
| starting effort to 0 across anything (project or task)
| you do... you just about solve that problem
| Apocryphon wrote:
| How can a productivity system reduce the starting effort
| of any task to zero? There's such a thing as activation
| energy.
|
| Sure, you can try breaking a task down to its smallest
| component, but not all problems can chunk like that. And
| even the smallest component will take non-zero work.
|
| I would be curious to learn about a system that could
| actually accomplish that.
| deepnet wrote:
| Bit by bit add all the links, phone numbers and
| information to do the task to the todo, once it is all
| right there then it becomes much more possible.
|
| You are correct that many tasks cannot be made that
| small, if they cannot be achieved then the task becomes
| locate and ask for assistance.
| ParetoOptimal wrote:
| > How can a productivity system reduce the starting
| effort of any task to zero? There's such a thing as
| activation energy.
|
| For my side projects and explorations I use org-roam,
| Nix, and direnv.
|
| So activation energy is:
|
| - org-roam-find-file, type, "so me proj string", enter
|
| - C-c C-n to go to heading
|
| - C-c C-a f to open project directory attached to heading
|
| - envrc-mode sets buffer local PATH values according to
| flake.nix 100% reproducible environment
|
| So tying this to my productivity system with org-mode and
| org-agenda is either org links that can execute arbitrary
| elisp like: elisp:(org-roam-find-file
| "so me proj string")
|
| Or more often these days emacs bookmarks which can be set
| with C-x r m by default.
|
| These combine to rule out the biggest factors preventing
| from moving side projects forward:
|
| - build issues or the chance of them that inevitably
| arise with anything less than 100% reproducibility
|
| - a way to talk about and organize each project and
| ascribe meaning to groups of projects because each is an
| org-roam node
|
| - a radical assault on anything monotonous I feel the
| computer should be doing for me or anything that annoys
| me at all
|
| - the freedom to wander aimlessly and make progress, yet
| never lose a given starting place
| joshuacc wrote:
| This depends on exactly which executive functions are
| impaired, which are not always the same even for those with
| an ADHD diagnosis.
| nunodonato wrote:
| Depends :) Maybe you are awesome in managing all that in your
| head (which would be an exception to the norm). Or maybe you
| think you are handling at pretty well, not knowing how much
| better you could handle it. I noticed you only referred to
| work. GTD is a life-centric system, valuing personal stuff as
| much as work stuff. Some people use all their brain powers to
| manage all of that, and then have very little less to keep up
| with the responsabilities/expectations that are part of a
| healthy personal and family life. That, for me, its what always
| made GTD stand apart from other systems.
| tnolet wrote:
| This is fair. I do use the same system for family and
| personal stuff. Separate inbox and separate Apple Reminders
| list.
| [deleted]
| antris wrote:
| > Am I just missing out on something?
|
| Complex GTD systems are useful in unorganized workplaces where
| things are left to individuals to solve.. It's a way of
| juggling constantly changing priorities. So if you don't need
| them, it's likely that your workplace organizes well.
| Tarq0n wrote:
| Or for people that simply don't have as good executive
| skills, a trait that seems to be more variable than is
| commonly accepted.
| yellow_lead wrote:
| No. How many successful people have credited their success to
| some productivity technique? It doesn't matter, and worst case
| it wastes time.
| Bakary wrote:
| It's not really about productivity. It's about creating a sense
| of control over your life. The reason there is an industry
| around this is because the need is never sated, and the
| productivity methods are switched around like fad diets because
| the underlying issue (anxiety and lack of satisfaction) is
| never corrected.
|
| This becomes obvious once it comes to your attention that the
| people who are supposed to be experts in this, apply their
| productivity towards selling more productivity. Which is
| delightfully perverse.
|
| In reality, if you are embarking in projects that are important
| to you, you rarely need that many reminders and get by with the
| simplest system (such as what you are describing) or none at
| all. All trivial other tasks can fit in a single list. And the
| things in your personal life that are actually meaningful, such
| as fulfilling relationships, are not something you can
| Zettlekasten your way into beyond setting a reminder for some
| birthdays.
| nunodonato wrote:
| You either read, or should read, "four thousand weeks" ;)
| jcpst wrote:
| 4000 Weeks was a game-changer for me. I found the takeaways
| liberating, and more in-line with my perspectives in
| general.
|
| My 'system' now is just focusing on one major goal outside
| of the regular work/family stuff.
|
| I use tools for quick capturing of ideas. I always keep a
| pocketmod and a pen on me. Notebooks at home. Voice Memos
| and Voiceliner for when ideas hit late at night.
|
| Jonny Decimal synchronized with Dropbox. Org-mode for
| digital notes. Organice for mobile access.
|
| Nothing rigid though, process should not get in the way of
| just living.
| nunodonato wrote:
| I'm 70% done with the book. Definitely a game-changer and
| already one of my all-time favs. One of those books that
| I need to buy and own a physical copy (I usually just
| read ebooks)
| jcpst wrote:
| I gave it to a friend of mine, who also found it
| profound, and now they have given it to someone else. I
| probably will buy another copy.
| Entinel wrote:
| Being busy does not = being productive. That is not to say you
| aren't productive, I don't know you. But it is easy to be
| "busy" while not getting anything done at all.
| tnolet wrote:
| I certainly have those day / weeks as is normal in any
| startup or work environment. But they tend to not be super
| frequent.
| tmshkr wrote:
| You can do all of this in https://noteplan.co/
| lawgimenez wrote:
| I have been using GitHub's new project for my personal and family
| use and I enjoyed it so much. The filtering is very good and
| flexible. I used Things but it seems I prefer Kanban style.
| eran- wrote:
| What new project?
| goplayoutside wrote:
| GP may be referring to GitHub "Projects".
|
| * https://docs.github.com/en/issues/planning-and-tracking-
| with...
| account-5 wrote:
| Text files and a paper notebook (squared).
|
| Text files are organised in yearly folders with a file per month.
| Each file is basically an ini setup, each day a section with
| either free text or boxed tasks: [ ] or [x]. If I need associated
| files, dated folders.
|
| Paper notebook is pretty much a bullet journal without the
| flowery nonsense you see on Pinterest.
| chazeon wrote:
| The name "working memory" is neat. I have been trying to settle
| on a specific working memory, right now i am on Craft. The woking
| memory things can change from time to time, I just make sure
| everything can eventually go to an online note, a Markdown based
| online "notebook".
| sumanthvepa wrote:
| I think the term comes from Computer Architecture/Operating
| System Design. Working memory in that context is defined as the
| set of code and data pages that need to be in main memory for
| the program to function without incurring page faults. As long
| as the working memory of a program fits within available memory
| the performance will be constrained for the most part by CPU
| performance. If working memory set exceeds the size of
| available memory the program will 'thrash', i.e. excessing disk
| access that effectively stalls program execution.
| chazeon wrote:
| I found being able to start up quickly, compress link, are the
| important features of the working memory.
| galfarragem wrote:
| The system I've been polishing[0] along the years is similar to
| the one from this article. I believe that there is an ultimate
| solution from where is hard to deviate.
|
| [0] https://github.com/slowernews/hamster-system
| muldoc wrote:
| Ah, Cal Newport. Another BS self-help sales person.
| emptyparadise wrote:
| never trust anyone who writes notes on taking notes
| ParetoOptimal wrote:
| I agree that without use in practice outside of "notes on
| notes" you are almost certainly improving the wrong things.
|
| However without reflection that may include notes on notes,
| you are doomed to the suboptimal or even counter-productive.
| nunodonato wrote:
| Curious about that opinion. I find your comment rather negative
| and, slightly, toxic, but I'll bite. Care to share why you have
| that opinion about him?
|
| I've read three of his books, and although not all are "great",
| there's always some interesting thoughts about what he shares.
| I also like that he really gets people to develop a sense to
| actually think and work deeply, and move away from shallow and
| unsatisfactory busyness.
|
| His newsletter and now his podcast are excellent ways for
| people to ask questions and get suggestions and help for free.
|
| He has a bit of a big ego, but I wouldn't use that to call him
| "another BS self-help sales person".
| Bakary wrote:
| Cal Newport is probably one of the "best" salesmen in the
| space because he has an actual non-meme job and seems to have
| more good faith than most others. But at the end of the day,
| his actionable material can be easily compressed into maybe
| three blog posts. Even if he had good intentions at the
| start, he still got caught up in the nonfiction sales logic.
|
| Teaching productivity is not like teaching mathematics or
| philosophy. There is a limited range of things to learn and
| apply, and the core ideas are concise but difficult to put in
| practice. A good teacher in that space would essentially be
| able to impart their wisdom in maybe two hours, at which
| point the success of the teaching would lie in the student
| actually following what they were told. An ongoing
| productivity podcast or book series flies in the face of
| this. The mere act of commercializing productivity dooms the
| entire edifice. If the student is still on episode #23, the
| sales has succeeded but the teaching has failed.
| nunodonato wrote:
| I'm pretty sure he would be able to impart all his "wisdom"
| in 2 hrs. But, like you said, it can be difficult to put in
| practice. That's why a question and answer format is
| helpful for many people. Sometimes its really hard to pick
| up a seemingly easy idea and apply it to your own life.
| Having help from someone who has seen it applied in many
| different ways, and dealt with the usual problems, is
| really helpful. That's what he does with his podcast. Not
| really selling anything there, besides occasionally
| mentioning his books where some concepts are expanded. I
| honestly don't get the hate.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| I will never forgive Cal Newport nor HN for the hype
| around _Deep Work_. What an ironically vacuous book
| stuffed with filler anecdotes about modern day
| blacksmiths and card deck memorization, completely in
| contradiction to the very ethos of focused deep work. It
| should've been a nice long blog article but he wanted to
| write a NYT bestseller so I wasted time and money reading
| it.
| muldoc wrote:
| Same. Bought his book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a
| Fck" and threw it away in disgust a few pages in. Good
| thing is, now immediately anybody is referencing him I
| know they are full of sht.
| cromulentarian wrote:
| Different author for that book: Mark Manson
| nunodonato wrote:
| That book is not by Cal Newport
| ChildOfChaos wrote:
| I'm not sure he gives a ....
| Bakary wrote:
| It makes more sense to see it as frustration about the
| space that is then applied to individual authors. Hating
| on Newport is rather pointless; it will not affect his
| life or yield useful ideas. What's happening is that
| people are growing tired of the whole
| hustle/newsletter/productivity fetish/repackaged stoicism
| atmosphere that permeates the internet, and are directing
| their frustration poorly. There is something deeply
| sterile about the throbbing mass of podcasts and blog
| posts that revolve around these topics, but there rarely
| is a precise target to focus on or even a useful way to
| voice the accompanying frustration.
| douglaswlance wrote:
| How could it be possible to encapsulate the perfect
| optimization of all possible processes in "a few blog
| posts" or "a couple hours" ?
| muldoc wrote:
| It's not that complicated. Have you ever read something
| from this guy or similar (eg James Clear, Ryan Holiday,
| Peterson etc). If you do, it will become obvious quickly,
| that all these people do is blow up every little bit of
| information into it's own little chapter, and 10 more
| chapters to sell it to you under a different name. Most
| of the stuff they tell you are platitudes or rehashing of
| what has been said before. Next thing, if they are really
| good salesman, you will find them on Ted or Tom Bilyeu,
| because they are so good at it, everybody wants to have a
| piece of the pie.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| It's like self-help: in principle it's supposed to help
| people and in practice if it does, that's great. But in
| practice, the content is inevitably over-stuffed with
| padding, which sorts of contradicts the very principle of
| getting stuff done and not wasting time.
|
| The productivity genre also never seems to provide
| empirical data to back up their recommendations. Like it
| would be great if these gurus actually conducted
| experiments into the best notes-taking systems. Evaluate
| them against each other with real results.
|
| Oh, you say that every person's best system is going to
| be different? Then maybe an innovation in this genre
| should be helping readers figure out which system should
| be best for the self, rather trying to prescribe one-size
| fits all systems and merchandising it with bullet
| journals and paid tools and the like.
| smitec wrote:
| To Cal's credit, he has somewhat done this. He has a
| playlist on YouTube [1] which covers 90% of the lessons and
| it's pretty short. There is a lot more material sure but
| it's mainly focused on smoothing out that last 10% and can
| easily be skipped.
|
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8xK8kBHHUX43VV
| xO3b7s...
| nojito wrote:
| He's one of the few self-help promoters who actually still has
| a real job and yet stays productive.
|
| Everybody else has turned hocking productivity advice into
| lucrative careers.
| JestUM wrote:
| I generally break down goals into tiny actions and try to combine
| tiny actions to goals to see if there is any confusion.
|
| Tasks -> Projects -> Streams -> Goals
|
| I think in this format.
| ryyr wrote:
| my productivity system: not having a productivity system
| cube2222 wrote:
| My productivity "hack" for 2022 was discovering Sunsama[0] a few
| weeks ago.
|
| I was usually using a single text file from which I was removing
| done items. The problem was that I then didn't remember all those
| small things I did that added up to big amounts of time. The
| feeling of time running away without remembering how is _really_
| demotivating.
|
| With this, I can see on a calendar view when I did what, it's
| very low ceremony, and I can easily plan for the week ahead. It
| also integrates with a ton of other tools.
|
| I switched off all the included rituals to start with, so no
| opinion about these.
|
| It's a bit on the expensive side at 20$/mo, but if it saves me
| just a little time every month, it's already paid for itself, so
| yeah.
|
| Overall, very recommended, happy user. And I'm definitely _not_
| one of those "maximize my daily productivity and optimize every
| waking hour around it" folks. I've also tried many other todo
| list / task board tools, but they don't really fit the "daily
| planner" bill.
|
| [0]: https://sunsama.com/
| flakeoil wrote:
| If you prefer continue using a text file for your todo/done
| items, then I recommend Easyorg [1]. There you can see the
| todos from the text file in a more organized agenda. There is
| also a calendar view where you can scroll week by week to see
| what you have done and see what's coming up. Kind of what you
| explain. No need to remove the done items from the text file.
|
| [1]: https://easyorgmode.com/
| joegahona wrote:
| There is almost no information about that product on the
| website.
| Archelaos wrote:
| > Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add,
| but when there is nothing else to take away.
|
| > Antoine St. Exupery (author of the little prince)
|
| "(author of the little prince)" could have been taken away.
| nunodonato wrote:
| :D
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