The Productivity Journey
It all started when my company made us read ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,’ By Steven Covey. That was in the late ’90s and I have been on a quest for great productivity ever since.
From reading the book, I sat down and wrote out 100 life goals, I slipped it into the 7 Habits book and got on with life.
I was promoted in 2003 to Vice President and sent to Florida. As we were unpacking, that slip of paper fell out, I had not seen in at least three years. I was astonished with how many things on that paper I had accomplished. That is when I really understood the power of writing it down.
I tried a Palm Pilot, when they hit the market, but I remember it being cumbersome as hell, so I got the Covey Planner and just kept writing it down.
Ah, the allure of phones getting smarter. You find yourself walking around with this new iPhone and you want to make good use of it, along with all the cool things on your Outlook Calendar.
So, around 2012, I went on a drive to go all digital. It took a few years to get there, but I got there thanks to the company issuing me an iPad. I was taking notes in Evernote and did all my planning right on the device.
This was cool, but I found myself in a never ending trial of calendars and to do list apps. It felt like much of my time was spent chasing after the elusive and coolest thing. I never felt like I was in a groove with digital. Not quite as easy to take notes in a meeting, either.
Regardless, I was on the digital train and finding it as hard to wean from it as I had from the Covey Planner. Then in 2018 I read a couple of books by Michael Hyatt, sketched out my Life Plan and subscribed to his Planner. We can get into all the psychology of it, but there is just something about writing it down.
But we are caught in a digital world and you can’t turn your back on it, always having a phone, stuck in front of a PC or scrolling on a tablet, you have to incorporate the digital, it’s just too convenient.
That journey that started with scratching 100 life goals, has taken me to a full fledeged hybrid productivity person, melding the both of best worlds. Taking in some of David Allen’s GTD, I capture digitally, store my routines and projects in MS To Do, all planning and notes go into my Hyatt Planner and I journal every day in his journal…power of writing!
The other feature is mapping out your ideal week and scrolling down your morning, work start-up, shut-down and evening rituals. I scratch out my quarters and months, and if they placed in Outlook, they are set.
I’m sure there will be tweaks and I do take a look at the latest stuff coming out (I schedule that), but unless it really looks game-changing, I stay with my system and have been with it for the past 2 years.
The productivity journey is worthwhile to a degree, but not if it becomes a slog and is devolves into a Q4 time waster (check Covey for the meaning of that).
To each his own, if you are all digital or all analog and it works, more power to you. Same if you are bullet journaling (which to me seems like more work than is necessary), but if you dig it and it gets the job done…great, stay with it!
I’ve found that productivity methods are like fingerprints, different for everyone, as long as you are knocking out the goals, projects and never-ending tasks, stay with it and limit those little glances to the next shiny object.
I’m not soliciting for any of the following, but sharing the folks and methods that have really helped shape my destination, Carl Pullein on You Tube, David Allen, Michael Hyatt and the legendary Steven Covey, I’ve blended their teachings and found the end of the journey, good luck on your quest!
