I have been studying procrastination and productivity for years! I was brought back to the work by David Allen on Getting Things Done. So, I’m re-reading his book — which is now in its revised edition. For me, it boils down to two things:
1. You can only manage your actions, not your time or your priorities.
2. Identifying the next action step in your project helps you stay focused and not become overwhelmed with the whole project.
So the next time you are wondering what to do:
- Look at your projects
- Break them down into a series of tasks — next action steps
- Survey all of your next action steps for your projects
- Decide what is the best use of your time based on the time you have available and the next action steps from all of your projects
- Pay attention to deadlines when deciding what is the best use of your time, what you will do now
- Set a timer
- Get the task done
- Mark it off
- Feel the joy of accomplishment
- Proceed with the next action item you have identified
Don’t try to Remember it All! — Enter Your Second Brain
I am obsessed with lists. I write everything down…in multiple notebooks or digitally in electronic documents. Then, I don’t remember where I have written it down or which cloud it is stored in. In Tiago Forte’s, Building a Second Brain book, he suggests one area to keep all of your notes — and then review projects and notes on a regular basis. I have adopted this concept of keeping a repository of my notes in Notion. I also keep one notebook with my written notes and process that regularly, deciding what gets saved into my Notion repository. Check out Megan Sumrell’s How to Stay Organized with One Notebook and the One Notebook Challenge.
I found that I was really wasting a lot of time. I was re-creating notes I already have. Now, I have a very organized notebook and online repository that is searchable for finding my notes. It has been a real game-changer!